The Walker Brewery Circa 1895

A newly discovered image of the Walker brewery building postmarked in 1906 has surfaced. The postcard shows a birds eye view of Big Rapids looking Southeast from the top of the Clay Cliffs. Although the postcard was most likely printed in 1905-6, the year the photograph was taken was about the mid-1890's based on the buildings in the background; noteably the courthouse and the houses near the corner of Mill and Division streets.

The above image better shows the different aspects of the building and the property lines (based on the fencing). The ice house has the typical double doors and what appears to be an outlet to the left of the top door used for drawing up the slabs of ice. Similar in construction to these ice houses.

This doesn't compare too kindly with the Sanborn map from 1884 (see below). The map shows the building as a 40' x 60' structure when in fact it was closer to 20' x 60' with an attached 20' x 20' ice house. The stable was also on the wrong side. Corrected Sanborn map.