Harvey Street Brewery archaeological dig

With the whole, sifting through the dirt thing, I've been thinking about the old Harvey St. Brewery a lot lately. There is an entire little catacomb of history lying over there. What are the chances that the town could step in and put together some sort of low-key archaeological dig on the old Harvey Street Brewery while in turn properly compensating the property owners? The historical footpath along the canal bed is already there, complete with placards outlining the history of the layout. It would be perfect if Hackettstown started flexing some of its historical muscle again. I was just reading some of old man's fascinating comments from back in '11 on the forum here I think it would be an interesting and unifying town endeavor.

(Old Man) the underground stone vaults were from the Harvey Brewery they were used to store the beer..they were filled in once before...to keep the local children from playing in them...at one point the county expressed an interest in preserving the vaults... there were two vaults connected by a large iron door underground...it would be one thing if the vaults have been filled back in...i hope they have not been demolished

oldman
May '11

future future
Jan '13

The vaults are still there. They are on private property. The large Iron door was buried almost all the way to the top.You have to get permission from the property owners. I will not even speculate about digging in the vault that is accessible. I dug at that sight over the years and never found anything.I have heard many stories of artifacts being found at the site. What could be found behind the large Iron Door, at the very least another underground vault. Dont expect buried treasure.

oldman oldman
Jan '13

Re: Harvey Street Brewery archaeological dig

Here is a picture of two Harvey Brewery Bottles that I own..I have seen others. They are hard to find.

oldman oldman
Jan '13

Went by Harvey St. today. Was the brewery near the store by the canal?

jjmonth4 jjmonth4
Jan '13

The brewery was about a quarter mile west of the store ruins.The brewery was torn down many years ago.The vaults are the only part of the brewery that still exist.There are several other vaults on that property...I have been into one of them...enough said

oldman oldman
Jan '13

Hello. My name is Corey Tierney and I am the Director of Preservation for Warren County. I realize this discussion is a bit old, but I stumbled upon this site after reading about the Hackettstown Brewery and searching Google for more information. As you may know, the county acquired land containing the canal from Harvey Street west to Buck Hill. I recently visited the park, but was unable to find the brewery vaults located on county property and understand that these may be located on adjacent private property. If so, the county may still be interested in trying to acquire this site and/or fund an archeological investigation. If anyone happens to know the owner of this site, I would like to reach out to them. If you have any additional information, please feel free to contact me at (908) 453-3252 or ctierney@co.warren.nj.us. Thank you

C Tierney C Tierney
May '14

The Harvey Brewery underground vaults are 1/8 of a mile west from Vail street. Look for a house built very close to the canal. There will be a playground on that property right near the canal bed. The vaults are underneath the playground. Last I checked there was a small set of steps leading into one of the vaults.

HtownForum HtownForum
May '14

C Tierney Welcome to Hackettstown life It would be nice if the vaults could become a protected historical sight in warren county that people could visit and now that some one wants to bring a brewery to Hackettstown that would be so cool

Caged Animal Caged Animal
May '14

Very interesting!


That's cool. I used to live on Harvey St.

Metsman Metsman
Jun '14

Thank you everyone. I was out there over the weekend and saw the area which HTownForum was talking about. I think the brewery is a really interesting piece of local history that many people don't even know about and it relates nicely to the county's Morris Canal preservation efforts. And as Caged Animal suggested, maybe we can somehow tie this into the new brewery that's coming to town. I will reach out to the landowners and run this by the Board of Recreation and Morris Canal Committee to see what they think. Thanks again!

C Tierney C Tierney
Jun '14

The vaults lie UNDER the canal bed. Follow the directions given above, but look under the canal bed. They were once accessible from the town side (above west Baldwin St) of the canal. As kids about 50 years ago we climbed inside of them.

Jeff Saunders Jeff Saunders
Jun '14

Re: Harvey Street Brewery archaeological dig

Here is an old image of the Hackettstown brewery.

HtownForum HtownForum
Jun '14

I am a member of the Archeaological Society of NJ and live in Hackettstown. I live in the Bucks Hill area and I would be interested in seeing these sites to evaluate them. I can propose a project dig if they look promising.

David Rountree David Rountree
Jun '16

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