Kamm & Schellinger — the brewery

1853 – 1951 (the end carried two ways)

Wagner's brewery: Mishawaka's brewing course opens with John Wagner, who built the first brewery structures in 1853 — the date the Indiana Historical Bureau's marker gives and the year the National Register nomination carries for the original Brewery Building at 100 Center Street. The period company account carried by the historic-structures record dates the establishment itself to 1850, Wagner's small primitive plant; the two datings stand as their carriers give them, the buildings of 1853 on the ground either way. The complex that grew there — the Brewery Building, a Stable Building of about 1855, and a Boiler House of about 1870 with a 262-foot brick chimney — was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 11 October 1979 (reference 79000042), and still stands.

Kamm, then Schellinger: In 1870 the brewery was purchased by Adolph Kamm and Clemens Dick, who came to it from Toledo, Ohio — the firm of Dick and Kamm — and enlarged and improved the plant. Dick disposed of his interest and Kamm took in his brother-in-law Nicholas Schellinger: 1880 in the company account, 1879 in the brewery-trade timeline, both printed. The firm of Kamm & Schellinger was incorporated in 1883 with a capital of $65,000 — Adolph Kamm president, Nicholas Schellinger treasurer, and the president's daughter Laura Kamm secretary, a woman in the corporate record of an Indiana brewery in 1883. The men were Württembergers: Adolph Kamm, born 13 June 1842 at Zöbingen and brought to America at eight; Nicholas Schellinger, born 4 November 1847 at Muehlheim, son of a wealthy miller, emigrated in 1870, settled in Mishawaka, and married Amelia Kamm in 1874. A third Kamm worked the kettles: Rudolph Kamm, foreman and brewmaster, "regarded as one of the best master brewers in the state" in the period account.

The Pilsner years: What the house sold was Pilsner — the celebrated "Pilsner" brand, famous, in the period account's words, throughout South Bend, Mishawaka, northern Indiana, and Michigan. The trade timeline's brand list for the pre-Prohibition house runs to Red Band Lager, K&S Standard, Premona, and Private Stock Export. Output stood at about 30,000 barrels a year in the period account of about 1901. The brewery was the second of the three South Bend–Mishawaka breweries born in the 1850s, in the National Register account of its South Bend peer — the Muessel brewery's record — and the only one of the three seated in Mishawaka; the others are South Bend's and stand in that city's build.

Prohibition's course here: Indiana's dry years are written in the brewery's own product record, as the Tavern Trove brewery database transcribes it. The beer brands run to 1918 — the year Indiana's statewide prohibition took hold ahead of the nation's — and from 1918 to 1933 the house at West 2nd Street made no beer at all: instead it sold cereal beverages (Arrow, K&S Special, the K&S Arrow Cereal Beverage, a K&S Bock Brew), root beer and root-beer syrup, K&S Grape, and a line of soft drinks and syrups — Emral Julepy mint drink, Emral Mint Syrup, Julade orange drink and Julade Syrup. That is the documented Prohibition course at Mishawaka: the kettles and the company survived the fifteen dry years on near beer and soda, where a brewery without a soft-drink line simply died.

Repeal, the last decades, and the end: In 1933, at North Center Street, the firm — now styled the Kamm & Schellinger Company — brewed again: Arrow Beer and Copper Beer, K&S Bock and Standard, Premona to 1940, and the Kamm's line that carried the family name forward — Kamm's Ale, Kamm's Bock, Kamm's Export, Kamm's Pilsener, Kamm's Skil-Bru, Kamm's Fine Gay 90 Beer, and Schuper Beer at the end of the 1940s. The plant's rated capacity stood at 150,000 barrels in both 1937 and 1939, in the trade timeline — five times the output of the Pilsner years' account. The end is carried two ways and printed whole: the state marker, the National Register line, and the trade timeline all close the brewery in 1951, while the South Bend Tribune's 1993 retrospective writes that the company "made beer in Mishawaka until 1952, when the brewery ceased operations." The buildings outlasted the beer. The complex became an entertainment center in 1968, cinema included, and was redeveloped in the 1970s as the 100 Center — 120,000 square feet of shops, restaurants, and residences — which by 2019 stood mostly vacant and, in the Chamber's redevelopment profile's words, a nuisance for the city. In 1993 a group of 100 Center investors and Kamm family members considered reviving the Kamm's Beer label, brewed elsewhere under family taste-test approval; the Tribune reported the consideration, and no revival followed in the record reached — it stands as announced, not accomplished. The present state is current: on 19 December 2024 the City of Mishawaka announced a $5.64 million READI grant toward a $41.5 million redevelopment of the 100 Center — 180,800 square feet, 104 residential units, 79,200 square feet of commercial space, and 20 short-term rentals — Wagner's brewery ground at work again, a hundred and seventy years on.

Sources:

1. Indiana Historical Bureau, marker 71.1995.1, "Kamm & Schellinger Brewery," and the National Register of Historic Places listing (ref. 79000042, 11 October 1979) — the first brewery structures built in 1853 by John Wagner at 100 Center Street; the Stable Building of about 1855 and Boiler House of about 1870 with its 262-foot chimney; the 1883 incorporation; beer production ended in 1951.
2. The period company account of Kamm & Schellinger, as carried at historic-structures.com — the establishment dated 1850 under John Wagner; the 1870 purchase by Adolph Kamm and Clemens Dick from Toledo; Dick's 1880 disposal of his interest and the association with Nicholas Schellinger; incorporation at $65,000 with Adolph Kamm president, Nicholas Schellinger treasurer, and Laura Kamm secretary; Rudolph Kamm the brewmaster; the celebrated Pilsner and output of about 30,000 barrels.
3. Tavern Trove, the Kamm & Schellinger Brewing Company brewery record — the timeline (1853 founded, John Wagner; 1870 F. Dick Sr. & Co.; 1879 Kamm & Schellinger; 1887 the Brewing Co.); the brand lists for 1887–1918; the Prohibition products of 1918–1933 (Arrow and K&S cereal beverages, root beer, grape, the Emral and Julade drink lines); the 1933 Kamm & Schellinger Company at North Center Street and its beer line to 1951; capacity of 150,000 barrels in 1937 and 1939; closed 1951; and the principals' birth records (Adolph Kamm, Zöbingen, 13 June 1842; Nicholas Schellinger, Muehlheim, 4 November 1847, emigrated 1870, married Amelia Kamm 1874).
4. South Bend Tribune (1993), the 100 Center retrospective — beer made in Mishawaka until 1952 in the paper's dating; and the group of investors and Kamm family members considering a Kamm's Beer revival in 1993, subject to family taste-test approval.
5. Chamber of Commerce redevelopment profile and City of Mishawaka announcements — the entertainment center of 1968; the 1970s redevelopment of the 120,000-square-foot complex as the 100 Center and its mostly vacant state by 2019; and the $5.64 million READI grant toward the $41.5 million redevelopment announced 19 December 2024 (180,800 square feet; 104 residential units; 79,200 square feet commercial; 20 short-term rentals).
6. National Register nomination, Muessel Brewing Company (South Bend) — Kamm & Schellinger as the second of the three South Bend–Mishawaka breweries, all founded in the 1850s.