Beer

WHO WERE THE MUEHLEBACHS AND WHY IS THEIR NAME EVERYWHERE? WHAT’S YOUR KCQ? INVESTIGATES A KANSAS CITY BREWING TRADITION

Who were the Muehlebachs and why is their name everwhere? KCQ investigates

In a recent article about the history of Municipal Stadium, we learned that the former home of the Kansas City Athletics and first home of the Royals and the Chiefs was originally called Muehlebach Field. We also learned that it was named after Blues owner, George Muehlebach Jr. A reader noticed the same name on a downtown hotel sign and asked What’s Your KCQ?, a collaboration between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star, to explain who the Muehlebachs were.

The family patriarch, George Muehlebach Sr., was born in Aargau, Switzerland, in 1833 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1854. Starting out in Lafayette, Indiana, he and three brothers — John, Peter, and Francis X. — eventually found their way to the bustling town of Westport, Missouri.

KCQ Taps into the History of an Early Kansas City Beer Garden

On the first weekend of October, thousands of Kansas Citians will raise a glass – or perhaps more fitting, a stein – to celebrate German heritage during KC Oktoberfest at Crown Center. It will be two days of Bavarian-style food, music, and, yes, bier. The latest installment of What’s Your KC Q?, a partnership between The Star and the Kansas City Public Library, tells the story of German immigrant named Martin Keck who operated a popular beer garden in the 1870s.

A century later, the property he developed would become the site of one of the city’s most iconic destinations: Crown Center. Reader Lori Moore put KCQ on Keck’s trail, asking: “What was originally on the site of the Westin Hotel at the corner of Main and Pershing Road?”