KIPS BAY BREWING CO.

The Brewery in a 1913 calendar.

A look back at an old brewery that inexplicably still stands today at First Avenue and 38th Street. It was launched in 1894 by one Patrick Skelly, who originally made lager, porter and ale. At the time it opened, there were an estimated 150 breweries in town.

Serving tray, circa 1935.

Kips Bay Brewery had a small but loyal following at its onsite taproom, but the bulk of its profits were made supplying nearby restaurants and saloons, easily reached by horse-drawn delivery wagons. Then came Prohibition, which closed many of their rivals. Kips Bay Brewery ‒ despite being raided in 1928 ‒ managed to ride it out, and came back in 1934.

The Brewery in a photo made in 1939. Its roofline was never a thing of beauty.

It stopped being a brewery in 1947, and has been content to be a landlord ever since. Lately, part of the building has become home to the ever-expanding NYU Langone campus.

The building today.

One of the copper-clad, bowed mansard-style domes.