Modernizing the old plant was its only hope for survival. In June 1981, plans were made to convert the old oil-burning boilers to natural gas and solve the hazard of leaking steam pipes. Such a change would save the brewery an estimated $5,000 per day. The brewery asked for a year-round, five-year guarantee of continuous service, a request that the Providence Gas Company refused to guarantee. Cranston's mayor and the governor stepped in hoping to mediate a settlement without success. The brewery's days were numbered.
The aging plant and equipment was only a part of the problem. Union workers went on strike for increased wages and improved health and life insurance benefits. Increased costs of production materials and utilities, declining stocks, taxes, and the high cost of workers compensation played a part in the demise of the brewery. Analysts cited another factor. Its customers were an older generation. Brewery advertising had overlooked the 18-35 age group. These factors sealed the fate of 350 workers who lost their jobs on July 31, 1981. Industry observers said that one of its major problems, one that faced all small breweries, is staying profitable in a market that has become increasing dominated by the national brewing companies.
The Narragansett brand didn't die was the passing of the brewery. Production of the brand shifted to the Falstaff plant at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in February 1982. The labels still read "Cranston, RI," but drinkers were not fooled. The water from Rhode Island's Scituate Reservoir was the best water in the country. The beer from Fort Wayne was not the same.
The closing at Cranston was only temporary. In a ploy to delay paying severance to 250 laid-off workers, Falstaff reopened the plant on January 13, 1983, to produce only keg beer. Six brewers and 19 contract workers, including pipe fitters and machinists, were recalled to began a 450 gallon brew. The following day a batch of 800-gallons was started. The beer never reached the market and three months after the brewery opened, it closed for the last time. The laid off workers each received $4,400 in severance pay in August.
Three years after the closing, the city of Cranston estimated the brewery property to be worth no less than $3.5 million. Annual taxes had dwindled to $90,668. Paul Kalmanovitz was holding on to some valuable real estate property across the nation; eight other closed breweries once operated by Falstaff and Pabst, including the large Cranston complex.
Paul Kalmanovitz died in January 1987. His obituary listed his worth at 250 million and said most of it would go to hospitals. He left behind his wife of 57 years, Lydia, and no children. The brewery properties are controlled by a holding company, the S&P Corporation of California.
The once giant brewery became a victim of vandalism and weather in the decade following the closing. In 1993, the state considered building a higher education biotechnology research center at the Narragansett complex. Officials approached the S&P Corporation, then a quasi-foundation with an endowment of almost $400 million to benefit education and medicine, about using the property. S&P was not interested. A year later, S&P Corporation agreed to lease the former brewery site, for non-profit use, at $1 a year for 20 years. The offer was not accepted.
In July 1995, 46 tons of brewery equipment was removed from the Cranston plant and shipped to China. S&P would not disclose the sale price. A year later, Forbes 500 lists S&P's worth at $550 million. The corporate address is at Mill Valley, California, but the recent CEO, Lutz Issieb, lived in San Antonio, Texas. Issieb resigned his position in January 1998.
Today, the 77 acres of property, adjacent to Route 10 and the Providence and Worcester Railroad, is minutes away from Interstate 95, 195, and 295. The property includes a seven-acre pond, 40 acres of undeveloped land, and 660,000 square feet for parking 1,000 cars. There was once a small airstrip used in the 1960s by businessmen flying light planes. The sad part is that twenty-nine asbestos-ridden, decaying buildings, and two smokestacks prevented other uses for this valuable real estate. The site suffered from fires, vandalism and vermin. City inspectors determined that the buildings were so badly deteriorated they should be condemned.
On October 27, 1998, Cranston said farewell to an old neighbor when a 100,000-pound excavator rammed its claw-like grapple into the side of the bottling plant. A group of eight other buildings were demolished in the following months. The entire demolition cost the S&P Corporation $2.9 million. Only the trolley barn was spared for redevelopment.
Looking Ahead
The city is offering property tax breaks to potential developers. Rhode Island's General Assembly has designated the land a state enterprise zone, making financial assistance and job training funds available. A recent issue of the Providence Journal reported that an investment group was eying the site as a future mega-mall. The old brewery passes with many unanswered questions. How much will S&P Corporation finally charge the state for the land? What kind of umbrella does S&P operate under? Where do you find their ticker symbol for the stock market? Where have all the breweries gone?
Acknowledgments - The demolition photographs came from the author and Edward J. Theberge, ABA #1120. Many of the breweriana photos are from the collection of Edward Theberge and his son, Greg. Alfred Wolski, ABA #7298 and Alfred Vierra, ABA #6183, kindly provided photos. The sidebar on "Pop" Archetto and his tavern came from his grandson, John Wolanski, ABA #7461. The authors are grateful for the cooperation of the Providence Public Library, the R. I. Historical Society Library, the State Archives, and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.