Brick by brick, old Fort Pitt Brewery begins to fall in West Jeannette

Mildred Warren is hoping to get a memento — a brick — from the old Fort Pitt Brewery site in her West Jeannette neighborhood.

Her father-in-law worked there in the 1970s when it housed Papercraft Corp., a gift wrap manufacturer. But she will otherwise be happy to put the crumbling complex into her memories.

“I’m glad to see it coming down,” she said Tuesday afternoon as the work down the street got started.

It appeared a few of her neighbors on South 11th Street felt the same as they sat outside hoping to get a glimpse of the demolition. But as it started, two excavators were clawing apart buildings just out of view.

It’s been years in the making. The complex was acquired by the Westmoreland County Land Bank in a judicial sale almost two years ago. The buildings have been a headache for city officials for many years prior, previously being targets for vandals and other troublemakers.

Excavators with GEMM Demolition of McKees Rocks got to work Tuesday afternoon, easily dismantling steel support beams and tossing aside cinder blocks. Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority senior project manager Hallie Chatfield said all of the buildings will be ripped apart piece by piece with heavy machinery. She’s making a list of people who are requesting bricks.

The masonry will stay on-site to be turned into fill material while others will go to a landfill. The steel will be recycled, she said.

The project has “been a long time coming for the community,” she said.

When work focuses on the tall brick building that once housed brewery equipment, Warren will be able to watch from her front porch.

“It’s nice to see progress,” she said, adding she hopes to see the site replaced by a shopping center with a grocery store and coin laundry service.

A second environmental assessment will be conducted after the demolition and help guide potential reuse of the property.

The project is being paid for through a $10.4 million pot of American Rescue Plan funding set aside by Westmoreland County for blight remediation in seven communities, including Jeannette. Demolition work is expected to take about six months.

Residents and businesses near the site should expect noise and vibrations, none of which are expected to be damaging.

Warren is among residents who reported experiencing a vermin infestation while others have noticed feral cats. The county hired an exterminator to assess the situation and was contacting a local rescue.

“I’m willing to go through what we got to go through, to an extent,” Warren said.

The West Jeannette site previously was home to Victor Brewing Co., which organized in 1907. Fort Pitt Brewing bought the property in 1941, according to news accounts. In the mid-1950s, Papercraft Corp. expanded its gift wrap manufacturing operations there before the plant went dormant in the mid-1970s.

It later was purchased by Laurel Mould, which produced plastic food containers. The property was sold at sheriff’s sale and later purchased by Rufus Corp.