Construction crews in the Bronx last week came accross secret caves under a development site in the borough.
The man-made caves carved into a hill are located off of St. Ann’s Avenue on land that used to be owned by the Ebling’s Beer Company. According to records the brewery, which opened in the late 1800s, took up several city blocks.
The company advertised its beer was aged in natural rock caves and would keg the beer and then store it in the caves, taking advantage of constant temperature of about 58 degrees winter or summer.
In total, there were seven caves re-discovered, some even with electricity.
Although the company was started long before alcohol was banned by the government, old newspaper accounts report Ebling’s was busted in 1922 for making products that had too high of a level of alcohol.
Today, more than 600 units of affordable housing are going up at this historic site. In order to build the foundation for the buildings, the construction crews will likely have to break down the caves or fill them in.
