Edward Frauenheim Establishes the Iron City Brewery in Pittsburgh

In 1861, German immigrant Edward Frauenheim and his partners established the brewery that became known as the Iron City Brewery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Operating initially as Frauenheim, Miller & Company from a small site on 17th Street, the business produced lager beer for a rapidly growing industrial city. The Iron City name connected the brewery and its flagship beer directly with Pittsburgh’s emerging identity as a center of iron, steel, manufacturing, and river commerce. The brewery expanded quickly and outgrew its original premises. In 1866, it moved to a new four-story brewery near Liberty Avenue and 34th Street in Lawrenceville, with further expansion following in 1869. Iron City developed into one of Pittsburgh’s largest and most enduring breweries. In 1899, it became the central component of the merger that created Pittsburgh Brewing Company, establishing a direct lineage between Frauenheim’s nineteenth-century brewery and the modern Iron City beer brand.