 posted Jun-27-2006 08:23 AM
  
For 75 Years, It Was a Sight to Steer By in Newark
By JONATHAN MILLER - NYTimesNEWARK, June 26 — For many who gathered here on Monday, the day marked the passing of yet one more piece of New Jersey lore, an urban monument for drivers on the Garden State Parkway. It had been the subject of a popular song and even had a role in a recent episode of "The Sopranos." It was the toast of a town whose bustling industrial past was awash in breweries, from Ballantine and Krueger to Hensler and Feigenspan. It was the 60-foot-tall Pabst beer bottle, which had loomed 185 feet above Newark for 75 years, serving as a guidepost for countless weary drivers. But on Monday, after a lengthy struggle, the rusted bottle — which was actually a 55,000-gallon water tank — came down piece by piece over seven hours. For now it is five enormous pieces of steel and copper plate three-eighths of an inch thick, and its fate is far from settled. Ted Fiore, whose company has been demolishing the 10-acre site of the former Pabst brewery for two years, said he planned to restore the bottle at his warehouse in Newark and then give it a new home. So far, Mr. Fiore said, "several alcoholic-beverage companies" have expressed interest. It might end up in Newark, he said, or perhaps along the Jersey Shore in Dover Township, where a nightclub could take it. The tank was built for Hoffman Pale Dry Ginger Ale in the early 1930's, and when Pabst bought the plant in 1945, it changed the label and painted the bottle blue. Later it turned reddish, either from paint or rust. When the plans to demolish the plant and bottle were announced in 2004, local preservation groups tried to have the bottle designated a landmark, but removing the bottle from its original site would have made it ineligible for landmark status, according to state law, and so they dropped their effort. "It's kind of a sad day," said Matthew Gosser, an adjunct professor of architecture at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, one of the many lilliputians who filmed and photographed the dismantling of the hulk during a grim, rain-splattered day. Mr. Gosser said he had grown so attached to the bottle that he had climbed halfway up the side last year before the police intervened. He had wandered among several of the abandoned buildings on the complex and salvaged remains for an art show, he said. A few weeks ago, when word got out that the bottle would finally be removed, he downed some sangria, headed for the vacant brewery on a chilly Friday night and camped on the roof. "I thought I would spend one last quiet moment with the bottle," Mr. Gosser said. "One night." For less sentimental residents, memories come cheap. "Nostalgia's one thing," said Earl Hardy, the owner of Papa Earl's Deli on nearby Avon Avenue and a man with graying temples. "Reality's another. You want nostalgia? Take pictures." That is exactly what he did, snapping photos with a disposable camera as he stood on South Orange Avenue. Some drivers fumbled with cameras as they passed by, and others pulled to the side to gawk. For those who had watched the neighborhood deteriorate even before the brewery was closed in 1986, Monday was a reason to celebrate. "Yay! Woo!" exclaimed Mamie Bridgeforth, the councilwoman for the West Ward, which includes the complex. "This is terrific," Ms. Bridgeforth said, sounding giddy. "I want to sit on that bottle and have my picture taken like Marilyn Monroe." With that, she strode up and posed beside the bottle with construction workers, and then she stood inside it, flashing a hearty thumbs-up. The old bottle had a hard time letting go, standing atop a four-story pile of concrete chunks and rebar wire that resembled the spilled guts of an industrial monster. Crews from the T. Fiore Demolition Company of Newark had expected to take the bottle down well before this; an attempt failed last year, as did another this month that was attended by Mayor Sharpe James. At 25 tons, the bottle was far too heavy for the cranes, so a few weeks ago the company ordered reinforcing cable, and the bottle was cut into sections with acetylene torches, placed on flatbed trucks and carted to the company's warehouse in the Ironbound district. The rest of the site is expected to be bulldozed by the end of the year, and then New West Developers of Newark says it will begin construction of a 130,000-square-foot shopping complex. The developers hope to have the first business in the building by 2007. Rashid Pharms, cochairman of the Neighborhood Square Block Association, said he was glad to see the rusted bottle go, since the defunct brewery had been attracting the homeless and criminals. And he had little patience for those who lamented its passing. "That's all wonderful when you drive past, 'Oh, it's a bottle!' " Mr. Pharms said. "But when you're down here at ground zero, we're the ones holding the front lines. This bottle had its place and time."
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Life is Short ... Make Fun of It. 400 Beers
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