Brewers Hill, Baltimore

Baltimore was once one of the great brewing cities of America, with more than one hundred breweries operating at its peak, most of them run by German immigrants who had brought their craft across the Atlantic. The neighborhood of Brewers Hill took its name from the industry that dominated it. The National Brewing Company arrived here in eighteen seventy-two at the corner of Conkling and O'Donnell Streets.

In eighteen eighty-five, National began brewing a flagship beer called National Bohemian, which became the best-selling beer in Maryland and earned the nickname Natty Boh. A one-eyed cartoon mascot coined in the nineteen thirties became a Baltimore icon. Production moved away in the nineteen seventies and National closed in nineteen seventy-eight.

Natty Boh is now brewed under contract in Georgia and Ohio, but the sign still overlooks the city.