The Church Brew Works Opens in a Former Catholic Church

On August 1, 1996, The Church Brew Works opened in the former St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood. The parish had been founded in 1878, and the cornerstone of its large Northern Italian–style church on Liberty Avenue was laid in 1902. After declining membership, the Diocese of Pittsburgh suppressed the parish in August 1993, and the building remained unused until developer Sean Casey acquired it and began its conversion into a brewery and restaurant. The renovation preserved and repurposed much of the historic interior. Shortened church pews became restaurant seating, salvaged oak from the pews was used to build the bar, the original Douglas fir floors and hanging lanterns were restored, and one confessional remained inside the building. The brewery’s steel and copper vessels were installed in the apse where the altar had stood. By combining craft brewing with the sensitive reuse of a former religious building, The Church Brew Works became one of Pittsburgh’s most distinctive brewpubs and a prominent example of brewery-led historic preservation.