By Joe Sixpack
Posted on June 29, 2007 on Joe Sixpack

THE OLDEST brewery building in America is up for sale on Craigslist. For just $159,900, you can own a place that began producing beer more than a century before Yuengling was established, a brewery that made beer for Benjamin Franklin.

Or maybe it's nothing more than an ugly pink stucco three-story house on the river in Burlington, N.J.

Either way, here's the story.

Fifteen years ago, it was owner Todd Kimmel's dream to take this ramshackle three-story house at High and Pearl streets and rehab it for his family. From the outside, it appears to be 100 years old or so, but Kimmel discovered hints that his house was older - much older - than he first guessed. In the central part of the house, he discovered handmade nails and accordion lath that placed the construction at least in the mid-1700s.

Intrigued, Kimmel headed to the Burlington County Historical Society for research. That's where he uncovered records showing his house is on the site of a full-scale brewing complex that was in operation by 1693.

The records show the land was acquired in 1677, the year Burlington was founded, by an early Quaker settler named Thomas Budd. Within a few years, Budd had constructed several buildings, including a brick house along with a granary, mill and brewhouse.

No one knows how long the brewery remained in operation, but there's evidence it was still putting out beer into the mid-1700s.

By then, Burlington was a bustling town. In 1760, a printer named Isaac Collins opened a shop around the corner on High Street that would publish New Jersey's first weekly newspaper. The print shop, which no longer stands, is famed as the site where Benjamin Franklin printed New Jersey's first Colonial currency.

"You know ol' Ben would've stopped in for a beer after a long day in the print shop," Kimmel exclaimed.

Kimmel believes the oldest part of his house - including an ancient fireplace and chimney - is the remains of the original brewhouse.

Todd Kimmel in front of his house. Photo by Curt Hudson for the Philadelphia Daily News.

The evidence is sketchy.

There is nothing in the house that shows any sign of beer-making. It's possible the brewery was razed completely and this old house was built in its place.

But Kimmel points to the location of the original main entrance, on the side of the house, as proof of its age. If it was a re-built house, he said, you'd expect the door to face toward the street and the scenic river. Instead it faces toward the location of what historians believe was the old malt house.

Could this really be America's oldest standing brewery?

"If it's true, it's certainly very exciting," said Dale Van Wieren, an area beer historian and author of "American Breweries II," a chronology of American breweries. Currently, he said, the title of oldest standing brewery goes to the Patrick Creagh house in Annapolis, Md., circa 1749.

Gregg Smith, an author who has written about American beer history, said it's possible Kimmel is on solid ground. "But then again," he said in an e-mail, "most substantial farms and settlements had one and could in one way or another make the same sort of claim."

Locals, meanwhile, are skeptical.

Jeff Macechak, educational director of the historical society, said, "I can't say it's true or not true. There's no smoking gun."

Bob Raines, a prominent town Realtor, scoffed and said, "This old town is full of rumors. Some of them are true, some of them aren't."

As for Kimmel, he spins a pretty good story. He's given up the idea of rehabbing the house and now he's hoping to sell it to someone who can appreciate its history, "someone who sees the heart of this home."

Someone, his online ad imagines, who would love to thump his chest and boast, "Hey, c'mon over for brats and beer in my house, the oldest freakin' brewery in America!"