The two are at the head of navigation on opposite sides of the Penobscot River estuary and are connected by three bridges.

[7] The Victorian-style Daniel Sargent House (1847 and later) in South Brewer is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The city's most imposing architectural landmark is the shingle style First Congregational Church, which stands on a bluff above the river overlooking Bangor.

[9] It is said that most of the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods of Boston are built of Brewer brick.

Frank O. Farrington of Brewer patented a machine for edging and turning bricks in 1859.

Brewer's sawmills tended to be steam-powered, unlike those farther up the Penobscot River, which were powered by waterfalls.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city also had a significant ice industry, which survives today in the form of the Getchell Brothers company.

The Eastern Manufacturing Company opened a pulp and paper mill in South Brewer in 1889[11] that became the city's largest employer.

In 1899, Ayer patented a new method of sulfite digestion which subsequently became the basis for operations at the Eastern, as well as the Great Northern mill in Millinocket, Maine, thus circumventing an important patent owned by the competing International Paper Corporation.

In 1900, Dione Polliot, a 17-year-old French-Canadian girl, won $10 (over $200 today) for being the first person to climb to the top of the 173-foot chimney of the Eastern Manufacturing Company.

The company had a standing offer of $5 to the first boy who made it to the top, but all had turned back half-way.

The feat was reported in The New York Times, which called Polliot "not only the prettiest girl in South Brewer, but the pluckiest".

On hearing the news, a woman in nearby Old Town went into a trance and reportedly identified the location of the bodies with some accuracy, though they were recovered before her information arrived at the lake.

[15] In January 2019, a photographer conducting a First Amendment Audit was criminally trespassed from City Hall after video recording the public lobby.