Bellefonte attorney and gunsmith Jacob Roop opened Spring Creek Brewery in 1826 on property he purchased the previous year along Spring Creek. It became Centre County’s first successful brewery, operating for 76 years until 1902.
The brewery’s history runs through the larger stories of the nearby village of Roopsburg and the borough of Bellefonte and includes prominent names, places, and events in county history. It fared far better than the county’s first brewery, which burned down shortly after its construction on Bald Eagle Creek in 1819.
The Spring Creek site was first settled in 1795 by Daniel Turner, who built a water-powered forge mill sawmill and gristmill. His businesses failed by 1801, and the property went through several owners until 1807. It was abandoned until Roop bought it, attracted by the creek’s clear water to use in his lager.
Roop put his brewery up for sale in 1833 and in 1844 sold it, a residence, and the land to Joshua and Michael Fishburn. By then, Roopsburg, just three miles up the creek, was a growing community. Within three years, the Fishburns were unable to continue paying their debt to Roop and the property was bought in a sheriff’s sale by Henry Brockerhoff in 1847.
With that, the brewery’s story began to grow. Brockerhoff had come to Bellefonte in 1825 where he found business success and social stature in the community. He built the Brockerhoff House and the Brockerhoff Mill.
In the early 1850s, the brewery’s name was changed to Roopsburg Brewery, further cementing its connection to the village. In 1857 Brockerhoff sold a half-interest to master brewer and Bavarian immigrant Lewis Haas. Soon after, Haas completed the planned vaults for storage and aging the lager. They were dug into a hillside near the house and lined with local limestone, with an arched entrance, two elevated floors and two rooms. The vaults still exist, and several county brewers have used them, continuing their history.
Haas later built a large house next to the vaults and facing Spring Creek. It became known as the Haas House of Roopsburg. The Georgian-style mansion showcased Haas’s prosperity. Now known as the Spring Creek House, it is one of Benner Township’s remaining grand homes from the 1800s.
As Haas’s beer sales grew across an expanding region, he was able to buy Brockerhoff’s interest in the business in 1872. He was its sole owner until his death in 1882. After his death, the brewery struggled, as family members lacked skill in the business. Hired management got the suds flowing again.
The Haas family put the property up for sale in 1894, describing in the Keystone Gazette three acres having a brewing and malt house “in which is a large brewing kettle of 20 barrels’ capacity,” the vaults, a barn, the mansion and a frame house. The frame house is still in use as a residence.
Roopsburg Brewery’s end came in 1902 when Robert Haas, Lewis’ son, was denied a brewer’s license. He sold the estate that year to Emil Joseph, Sigmund Joseph, and Herman Holz. For twelve years the mansion remained empty while the vaults were said to have been used to store liquor. The brewery building deteriorated and was razed at some point during those years; only traces of it remain.
The mansion came to life again – and the vaults put to a different use – when Emil Joseph sold the property to Mary Kane in 1914, a time when prohibition was sweeping the country, culminating in the 18th Amendment in 1920 banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Kane operated the house as a brothel and used the vaults to hide illegal liquor. Her clients were rumored to have come from far and wide, including politicians and police. She owned the house until her death in 1944.
Since then, the property, located on West Water Street off Buffalo Run Road, has had several owners. They continued to restore and renovate the mansion. In 2018, it was purchased by James and Denise Lanning, who operate the house and surrounding property acres as Camp Breac, a retreat mainly for veterans and their families to relax and to fly-fish the clear waters of Spring Creek — the same waters that long fed Centre County’s first successful brewery.
John Dillon
Sources:
“The Story of Roopsburg Brewery,” Diana Roberts Gruendler, in the book “Benner Township – 150 Years of Families, Forging, Farming, Fishing and Flying,” 2003.
Maris, Matt. “Local Historia: ‘Superior ale and lager’ brewed along Spring Creek,” Town & Gown, April 2022.
James Lanning Interview, June 6, 2024
First Published: August 31, 2024
Last Modified: October 30, 2024