“The time-tested brewing traditions of the past join hands with the newest ideas in modern equipment in the Phoenix Brewery. After an absence of sixteen years, this well-known Buffalo brewing concern returns, operating on a full-time schedule in its new location, 300 Emslie Street, with completely up-to-date plant.” –Buffalo Courier-Express, March 4, 1934

The Phoenix Brewery Corp., 300 Emslie Street, was one of five breweries to open in Buffalo after the repeal of Prohibition, and the second brewery of the same name to have operated in the city. This Phoenix Brewery, pictured here in about 1940, opened as the Luippold Brewery in 1869, was rebranded as the East Buffalo Brewing Co. in 1887, closed during Prohibition, and reopened as the “new” Phoenix in 1934. Around the time of this photograph, the brewery made Phoenix Cream Ale, Phoenix Light Lager Beer, Governor’s Club Ale, Phoenix Premium Beer, Phoenix Bock Beer, Moffat’s Pale Ale, and Phoenix Three Star Special Beer. In 1957, stockholders voted to sell the Phoenix Brewery to International Breweries, Inc., of Detroit, which shut down the brewery in 1959 and demolished it in 1961. Before its closing, about 40 people worked at the 109,000-square-foot brewery, making about 70,000 barrels per year. Today, the site is occupied by the William-Emslie Family YMCA.

Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission.