About Jefferson Street Brewery
To truly understand the significance of the present-day happenings at The Jefferson Street Brewery, you must first know the long Hill City history behind it. The Jefferson Street Brewery is located within Bluffwalk Center, which is comprised of the Craddock-Terry Hotel, Shoemakers and Waterstone restaurants and the Event Center. All of these distinct entities were built inside the historic Craddock-Terry Shoe Factory and William King Jr. tobacco warehouse buildings.
Craddock-Terry Shoe Factory’s story of success and ultimately, bankruptcy, is still as omnipresent in Lynchburg today as the James River. The cliff notes version goes like this:
In 1888, John W. Craddock, A.P. Craddock, T.M. Terry and two other local investors compiled $50,000 to start the Craddock-Terry Shoe Company. The company grew to become one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the South and was the largest employer in Lynchburg for years. The company was very profitable in its early years, bringing in $311,465 in sales in 1889, and $1 million in sales 10 years later. But during the Great Depression, the company fell upon hard financial times and was forced to get rid of its plants outside of Virginia, though the slump didn’t last forever.
When World War II broke out, business was once again good for Craddock-Terry, as it was commissioned to make boots for U.S. soldiers. This positive trend continued until the 1980s, when sales started to decline. Eventually, the company was sold and went bankrupt in the late ’80s. For more than two decades, the buildings that once housed the factory sat empty. But in 2007, after much labor and financial creativity from investors, the new and improved building – now Bluffwalk Center – opened to much fanfare.
As part of this Center, the Jefferson Street Brewery is the region’s only micro-brewery, producing finely crafted beers and ales that are served one floor down at Waterstone.
Beer tastings are also offered on a regular basis, which presents patrons with the unique opportunity to try excellent hops while getting an up-close look at the long and varied history of the building that now houses the brewery.