Spirits and Wine Wholesaler

Adolf Brand was the President of R. Brand and Company and nephew to Rudolph Brand, the company’s founder who came here with Peter Lenk and started Brand and Lenk, distillers of fine liquors in 1850. Located at 30 Monroe Street.

Guido Marx bought into the firm in 1860 by buying Lenk’s shares. Rudolph died in 1865 and Adolf stepped in to work with Guido. They built the nation’s first United States bonded warehouse and imported fine wines from Germany, France, Italy and Spain. In a short time, R. Brand & Co. became the largest wine wholesaler west of the Atlantic Coast, eclipsing even Chicago and Cincinnati.

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The business was eventually sold to its employees and went out of business in 1916 as much of Ohio went “Dry.”

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