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Sometimes, you just have to do things hafway - like at the Brewery in JP

Hof being lifted in in Jamaica Plain

A crane today lifted a metal frame with HAF on it to the top of what had been the FENREFFER smokestack at the Brewery complex for decades.

Local artist Robert Maloney had long been bothered by the missing three letters of the former brewery's owner, taken down - along with the portion of the smokestack they were on - 30 years ago as a safety measure.

Maloney eventually went to the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. with his idea for the frame with the missing letters so that JP would once again have the full HAFFENREFFER. And how could they say no to such a JP project - especially since they bought the old brewery and redeveloped it into the restaurant, performance and gym space it is today - along with being the headquarters of the Boston Beer Co.?

With funding from the George B. Henderson Foundation, Maloney's dream came true today. A formal dedication is set for February. In a statement, Maloney says:

Living 200 yards from the historic brewery for nearly 20 years, I wanted to create a solution to repair the signage as a way to honor the history of the building, while also transforming the structure, in a simple way, into the 21st century. A recurring theme in my work has been finding ways to represent the passage of time as it leaves its marks on the urban landscape. This project speaks to that intent, in my own neighborhood, just steps from my home.

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Comments

I don't live in JP, but have long worked there. I worked at the Brewery complex in the 80's-90's, and we drank Haffenreffer at UMass Amherst. So glad to see the name restored!

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any pictures of the completed sign?

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‘Haf Will Be Whole!’: Brewery Smokestack Topped Off

http://www.jamaicaplainnews.com/2016/12/28/haf-will-be-whole-brewery-smo...

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I grew up in Bridgeport, CT. As a late teen/early adult beer drinker in the late 70s and early 80s (the drinking age was 18 at the time!), Haffenreffer was our "go to" beer. Ahhhhh, a six pack of those green bottles brings me back!

It was always fun to solve the puzzles on the beer caps! I still have a friend on Facebook who occasionally posts the puzzles.

I had no idea then where it was brewed and was so surprised when I ended up in JP and Rossie 10 years ago that it was brewed here!

I'm happy to see the rest of the smokestack repaired. A nod to a more innocent time in my life.

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we called it the Green Monster. Shame as a legacy brew it's no longer made. It was the better of some other legacy brews still produced.

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Because the packie on Boylston/ Essex sold it to 13 year olds.

Glad you have fond memories. To this day the smell of Southern Comfort makes me nauseous (another story.) I'm sure a whiff of the "Green Death" would do the same.

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We called the malt liquor Green Death, for obvious reasons. (-;

Haffenreffer also made an ale and a beer, though you didn't see much of those in the later years. You saw it mostly in dive bars, and maybe GIQ's in packies. Most people just remember the malt liquor. It may not be a good memory, but a memory nonetheless.

It was last brewed in Cranston RI with all the other related Narragansett products.

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I had the good fortune a few years back to attend a lecture through Brookline Adult Education on the breweries of Jamaica Plain. The speaker was from the Jamaica Plain Historical Society.

I am born and raised in Jamaica Plain and a dedicated beer-drinker. This lecture put all the pieces together of the breweries' history, how they were affected by Prohibition (most of them closed), and what happened to the German immigrants who worked there. Many streets around this area, as most of you know, have German names (Germania St. is one that comes to mind). My mother said that, during the First and Second World Wars, the German neighborhoods and Bund Hauses (social clubs) were broken up to prevent subversive activity.

An extra treat during this lecture, was that Elizabeth Haffenreffer, probably the youngest of that family, and now an elderly lady, also attended the lecture and gave more insight into that era..

It was quite a treat. If Brookline Adult Ed ever offers that lecture again, I'd highly recommend it.

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The Deutsches Altenheim old-age home.

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The Boylston Schul-Verein (BSV) is the largest German-American club in the greater Boston area.

http://www.germanclub.org/about From JP , Auf Weidestein !

http://www.jphs.org/victorian/boylston-schul-verein-and-the-german-satur...

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