Climbing to the Top of Mt. Hudepohl
This building had served as the local Hudepohl Brewing Company's main headquarters from 1946 until 1987. Seicer and I had been here last January, but were only able to see the basement and cellars of the structure. This time we were going back with our resident climber a.k.a. RJ.
The building appears as if it is two buildings. It was actually, at one time, one large building. After being abandoned for quite some time, a company named Hudepohl Square L.L.C. purchased the property with the intent of renovating it. The remaining sections you see today were to be refurbished, but a large section of the middle of the building was demolished. For some reason or another construction was halted leaving the building as you see it in these photograhs. The building has actually been declared a public nuisance (according to the numerous papers stapled to it's outside) by the city. I assume the property owner doesn't want to invest anymore into it until plans for the new Brent Spence Bridge are finalized since a proposed new alignment would go straight through this property.
Ascending fences for someone like RJ is no problem at all. When you're a rower on a crew team your upper body strength is quite impressive, for the rest of us climbing can be a bit more of a challenge. While not as gracefully as RJ, I made it up over the chain link obstruction as Zach and Seicer followed. Crumbling and unsecured brick of the partially demolished brewery was the next challenge. An old wooden ladder, only God knows how old, helped us vanquish this second obstacle. Following the climbing, some of us were back in the Hudepohl Brewery once again, for others this was their first time.
The second floor had some sort of steel cage around one section of it along with shelving units and more trash. Easing our way towards the edge we could see out over the entire property. Uneasy about the height and the obvious drop off, I gripped onto a steel beam as I set up my camera. Reaching the top was the goal, not falling off.
After a photograph break we proceeded upward. There were two hallways of stairs. One lead through a network of catwalks up to a locked door, the other up to a sketchy set of stairs that can be seen in the above photograph. Since door number one was locked, we made our way up towards the "sketchy stairs." Here there were no doors, just a straight drop off down to the ground if you went straight or a climb up a set of stairs that seemed to have very little support to your left.
As we searched for another staircase to the top we slowly walked through the room seen in the above photograph. Two of the high powered flashlights began to die leaving us only with a mini maglite and cell phones to light the path. I managed to trip over something and after stumbling to keep my balance, turned around to find a vintage cash register. I'm not sure what it was used for at the brewery or if it was even used at the brewery. It may have just been stored here along with a lot of the other junk, but it was certainly an interesting find.
This time, we found no locked doors at the top of a staircase. In fact, there wasn't even a door. We walked straight out onto the roof, greeting RJ who had been up here snapping photographs for some time.
- This structure atop the roof was once used to support the neon "Hudepohl" sign that once adorned the top of the building. |
Other stories in the saga of the abandoned Hudepohl Brewery:
- The first trip inside and the brewing company's history.
- Another trip to the building, during the day.
- Trying to catch the Labor Day fireworks from the brewery's roof.
- Calls for demolition have increased after some students fell down an elevator shaft in 2015 (they lived).
- The building is slated for demolition later this Fall. The smokestack will not be preserved, despite efforts to save it.