Four weeks ago, I led a tour through the Navy Yard neighborhood, a tour in which I attempted to recreate what it looked like 200 years earlier, just before the British came through. One of the stops was the old brewery that had been built in an abandoned sugar refinery. I noticed at the time that the owner, one John Collet, had lived only a short while after the burning of Washington. And, as it turned out, I was not the only one to notice, and so, yesterday, a few of us gathered at Collet’s final resting place in Congressional Cemetery to pay our respects on the 200th anniversary of his death.
Collet had taken the brewery over from Cornelius Coningham in 1811, though he soon thereafter realized that this was not a good fit for him at his age. While he produced a number of English-style ales, he also spent much of the next three years attempting to sell the brewery. Whether he was not certain that the enterprise would thrive, or that he realized that he himself was no longer up to the rigors of running the brewery is not known.
After Collet’s death, the brewery sat idle for three years before the brothers Coote, Clement and Thomas, took it over. They operated it, with varying degrees of success, for about the next 20 years. When they sold, the new owner simply removed all the equipment to Georgetown, and from 1836 until 2013, there was no brewery in the Navy Yard neighborhood.
Our guide was Garrett Peck, who recently published a book on brewing in D.C. Here, he clears off Collet’s grave. He was looking – fruitlessly, as it turned out – for an indication as to who may have made the gravestone.(RSP)
The younger generation was also represented, though they were more interested in the fact that they could ride their bikes through the cemetery than the beer. Which was probably just as well. (RSP)
Collet’s gravestone. Like many other early markers, it is made of Acquia Creek sandstone, and has gained a deep patina over the last 200 years (RSP)
We raise a glass to John Collet – and all those who followed in his footsteps in the last 200 years (RSP)