Lion Brewery (New York City)

[2] Shortly after immigrating to the United States, Swiss-German August Schmid and Emanuel Bernheimer founded the Costanz Brewery at East 4th Street near Avenue B in 1850.

Five years later, Bernheimer became the partner of another German immigrant, James Speyers and founded the Lion Brewery in 1857 in Manhattan Valley.

At its peak, the Lion Brewery occupied about six square city blocks, from Central Park West to Amsterdam Avenue and from 107th to 109th Street.

[3][4] At the time Manhattan's Upper West Side was an open area with inexpensive land housing, many public institutions and an insane asylum.

Consequently, with the brewery and surrounding areas, the Upper West Side failed to increase its real estate value until the early twentieth century.