The ground after brewing: no successor, the 100 Center, and the brand that would not come home

1951 — 2026

The successor test, answered as a finding: South Bend's brewery ground got a successor — Drewry's of Winnipeg took the Muessel plant in 1936 and brewed there thirty-six more years. Mishawaka's ground got none. No outside brewer bought the Center Street plant, no brand was brewed on under new ownership, and the Kamm & Schellinger Company ended with its brewing: the successor test for this ground returns a clean negative, printed as a finding because the contrast is the two cities' brewing history in one line — the older house died whole, the younger was absorbed. The brand's one attempt at a return came forty years later and is in the next paragraph.

The conversion: The buildings outlasted the beer by design of their fabric. The complex became an entertainment center in 1968, cinema included; then, in De Kever's account, local businessman and urban planner T. Brooks Brademas led a group of investors to remake the site as the 100 Center — an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants and a movie theater — retaining most of the historic brewery buildings but demolishing the Adolph Kamm House at the northeast corner of Center Street and Lincolnway West, and building apartments and condominiums on the site's west side, the largest the eight-story 100 Center Hi-Rise of 1978 with its 104 units for low-income elderly. The complex of the 1970s redevelopment ran to 120,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and residences. The register had already spoken for the fabric: the complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 11 October 1979 (reference 79000042) — Wagner's brewery building, the stable, and the boiler house with its stack protected in law while the use changed around them.

The brand that would not come home: In 1993 a group of 100 Center investors and Kamm family members considered reviving the Kamm's Beer label — the beer to be brewed elsewhere, perhaps in Chicago, under a label that would have to pass the taste test of Kamm family members. The Tribune reported the consideration; no revival followed in the record reached. It stands in this section as it stands in the record: announced, weighed by the family whose name it carried, and not accomplished — Mishawaka's version of the brand that would not come home, differing from South Bend's only in that the family, not a corporation, held the name and let it rest.

The long vacancy and the present: The 100 Center's later course — its slide to mostly vacant by 2019 in the Chamber's redevelopment profile, the city's fines and the owner's maintenance fight, the main building "vacant, practically abandoned, and deteriorating" in De Kever's account, and Indiana Landmarks' placing of the former brewery on its 10 Most Endangered Landmarks list in 2021 — is carried whole in the Businesses and Heritage sections. The turn is current: on 19 December 2024 the city announced a $5.64 million READI grant toward a $41.5 million redevelopment of the complex (180,800 square feet, 104 residential units, 79,200 square feet of commercial space, 20 short-term rentals), and the mayor's State of the City address of 30 April 2026 puts the present state in his own words — work continuing in 2026, the completion date unknown. The 100 Center's month-by-month state belongs to the Current & Today section; this section closes the ground's story where the making ends: no brewery operates at 100 Center in November 2026, and none has since 1951. The new owners whose 2019 vision for the complex included "a craft brewery" are printed in the Chamber profile as a vision, and a vision is all the record makes of it.

Sources:

1. Wikipedia and the National Register record (79000042), corroborating each other — the complex as the 100 Center; entertainment center from 1968 with a cinema; listed 11 October 1979.
2. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — T. Brooks Brademas's investor group and the 100 Center conversion; the Adolph Kamm House demolished; the Hi-Rise of 1978; the main building vacant and deteriorating, and Indiana Landmarks' 10 Most Endangered listing of 2021.
3. South Bend Tribune (1993) — the Kamm's Beer revival consideration by 100 Center investors and Kamm family members, the beer to be brewed elsewhere subject to family taste-test approval; no revival in the record reached.
4. South Bend Regional Chamber, 100 Center redevelopment profile — the 120,000-square-foot complex, mostly vacant and a nuisance by 2019, and the new owners' vision including a craft brewery, printed as a vision.
5. City of Mishawaka announcements and the mayor's State of the City address of 30 April 2026 (South Bend Tribune) — the $5.64 million READI grant toward the $41.5 million redevelopment announced 19 December 2024; work continuing in 2026, completion date unknown in the mayor's words.