![]() ![]() In 1938, after steel automobile bodies were introduced, the company filed for bankruptcy and was sold to the American Billiard and Bowling Company. By 1928, the firm was the second largest builder of wooden automobile bodies in the United States, producing 20 to 25 a week, and generating annual sales of $1 million ($14 million today).Ī lot of people who worked in this building for the cabinet company come back now that it is the Rusty Rail and they are blown away. During the 1920s, MBC employed 300 people and the company ran its own bus line to shuttle workers from the countryside. MBC doubled its manufacturing capacity and sales hit $315,000 ($3.75 million today) by 1920. (During the 1880s, carriage seats were manufactured in a separate building at the rear of the complex.) In 1917, MBGC - which made carriage bodies, gears and axles as well as automobile bodies - merged with the buggy company to form Mifflinburg Body Company (MBC). In 1911, with the emergence of the automobile, several prominent local businessmen formed the Mifflinburg Body and Gear Company and erected the building that houses the brewery today. While sipping a cold one that was brewed on-site, diners can check out two other things that were made in this storied space: a 1917 Ford Model TT “Huckster” and a 1923 Ford Model TT “Stake Body.” (The Rail offers a dinner/show package for music fans wanting to grab a bite before a concert.) Hard cider and various Pennsylvania wines - stored in a large bank safe - are available for non-suds-lovers. The voluminous food menu contains an array of appetizers, sandwiches and platters to pair with one of their four signature and eight rotating craft beers. He notes that Rusty Rail’s “craft beer idols” - Troegs Independent Brewing, Victory Brewing Company, Appalachian Brewing Company - are all thriving PA companies with anchor brewpubs. “Music was not meant to be a profit center, though we want to make money on it,” explains Schrader. Weekly concerts - which draw up to several hundred guests per show - feature Americana, blues, bluegrass, folk and rock music. The main dining area on the first floor provides a view of the 15-barrel brewing system, various hand-painted murals and the main stage where national acts such as Yarn, Dom Flemons and the Hackensaw Boys have showcased their talents. According to Schrader, 40 weddings are already booked for 2016. The Mural Lounge, a space featuring leather chairs and a leather couch, abuts the banquet hall, which is available for holiday parties, community functions and wedding receptions for up to 300 guests. The second floor Game Room offers two 1923 Brunswick pool tables, foosball, shuffleboard, darts, six large-screen TVs, four video-game tables and a full-service bar. The reconditioned red-brick building boasts a large wooden deck known as the Beer Garden, with Bavarian-style picnic tables and a rustic gas forage fireplace. Rich Schrader, Rusty Rail General Manager This is a destination in Mifflinburg that celebrates and pays tribute to the generations of hard-working men and women who built the community. Decorated liberally with antiques - including old bank safes that were used to safeguard bankrolls - the space is an homage to an earlier era of American industry. But they ‘get it’ when they experience and that is the story they share with their families and friends.”Ĭountless elements in the 37,500-square-foot building were repurposed, from the rail spikes that comprise the door handles, to the half-inch thick pine doors, to the assembly-line chains that support the staircase handrails. “We want to make it an experience that people won’t forget. “It’s all about the experience,” he continues. ![]() The business is operated by Paul and Eric John their entrepreneurial family also owns Ritz-Craft Corporation, a home construction company.Īccording to Rusty Rail General Manager Rich Schrader - who also served as the renovation’s project manager - the mission of the brewpub is to create “a destination in Mifflinburg that celebrates and pays tribute to the generations of hard-working men and women who built the community.” Some 166 years after buggy carriage seats were first made on Eighth Street in this Union County town, the Rusty Rail Brewing Company is continuing that proud manufacturing legacy. A labor of love by two brothers has turned a dilapidated industrial center into a modern-day brewpub, breathing new life into downtown Mifflinburg. ![]()
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