Heurich Happenings

From December 1-3, 2023, stroll through the museum’s festive holiday craft market with a Glühwein in hand and find the perfect holiday gifts for your loved ones. This year, Christmas Markt will feature 50+ local small-scale makers, a mini exhibit about our historic revival of the Chr. Heurich Brewing Co.’s Senate Beer, children’s ornament making, tour the historic home decorated for Christmas, and more.

On Saturday, October 21st from 12-4pm join the Heurich House Museum and DC’s Historic Preservation Office (DC HPO) for History in a Bottle: How Historic German Immigrants Used Beer to Claim Citizenship in Washington, DC.

On Friday, October 13th from 6-10pm, join the Heurich House Museum (and Michael) to explore the history of superstitions and learn about Spiritualism through stories of the Heurich family.

A new community gathering in the city: DC’s Emerging Humanities Professionals Meet-up Group!

I had the opportunity to tour Other Half Brewing Company’s brewing facility and taproom in Ivy City. A special thank you to Taproom Manager Matt Splain for showing me around the facility and teaching me the history of the location and Other Half as a whole. 

The Heurich House Museum presents it’s 2nd annual Art All Night: Dupont Circle “Mini Markt” on Saturday, September 30, 2023 from 7pm-midnight in the Museum’s biergarten, 1921. Meet and shop from 10 local artisans and makers while exploring turn-of-the-century DC brewing history in our HOME/BREWED exhibit and enjoying a specially curated menu of beers from DC Brewers’ Guild members.

Museums protect, preserve, and interpret their collections for their communities and future generations. In a house museum like ours, the house itself is part of the collection. On Friday, August 25th from 4:00 - 8:00 pm, join our Collections Manager, Kim Totten, and CEO, Kim Bender for an open house and explore our newest acquisitions. 

"Living in DC means ample opportunities to visit all sorts of museums. Working in the museum field gives me even more reasons to explore the city’s historic offerings. Part of my job over the past few months has been to tour various house museums with the goal of learning about education, visitor engagement, and interpretation at the Heurich House’s contemporaries."

Many people may not realize that a museum’s collections are always growing. Pieces of family history and breweriana are acquired as the Museum continues to research the people who lived and worked within the house, as well as the Heurich Brewery and its workers.

One of these new pieces of family history are two ledgers from Amelia L. Heurich, Christian Heurich’s third wife and the longest resident of the Heurich House. Amelia’s diaries are a key source of information for our research, so we were delighted to acquire her ledgers, where she tracked monthly spending, meal planning, and salaries of the house staff.

I joined the Heurich House Museum (HHM) team in January as a public programs consultant evaluating all programming from the past 10 years, determining what to keep and what had run its course. By the end of Spring 2023, I would deliver a program plan with clear outlined goals and launch two pilot programs. For me, joining HHM was an opportunity to engage within the DC community and really make an impact. I was excited for this challenge!

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to an opening preview of the Capital Jewish Museum. Because Stephany Fry, our Director of Public Programs, used to work there, she was able to bring me and Alex (Director of Small Business Development & External Relations) to see the new museum. 

Liberty Apple Cider is back and the new vintage of Liberty is DRY-HOPPED with Citra, Mosaic, and Nelson* hops for the 1st time in over a century, bringing the recreation that much closer to full historical hoppy accuracy. Celebrate with Heurich House and ANXO at the official release party in the museum’s biergarten on Saturday, June 24th from 5-8pm.

Since the 1970s, Dupont Circle has been one of DC's “gayborhoods." Today, it is home to the Capital Pride block party and parade. Celebrate all month long at 1921, a Biergarten  with Pride beers, rainbow crafts, history from Rainbow History Project, music, and games. Use us as a landing place for pre- and post-parade festivities.

KAMA DC and the Heurich House Museum present an “Immigrant-Owned Mini Markt” on Saturday, July 29th from 3-7 pm in the Museum's biergarten.

This summer, join the Heurich House Museum and our community partners for a monthly story and craft time in the Castle Garden.

This year’s theme is “Immigrant Stories.” Together we’ll explore the history of people who have migrated to our country, while discussing what immigration looks like today in our own city. The hour will start with a read aloud of a book exploring our theme and will conclude with a craft activity!

On March 16th, I had the opportunity to visit Valor Brewpub, which opened in 2018 on Barracks Row. During my visit, I was excited to speak with owner Gaynor Jablonksi and head brewer Jeff Hancock, co-founder and former head brewer of DC Brau, about the brewpub, the beers they have planned, and upcoming events.

"For professional development each month, I tour a historic house in the DMV and reflect on the institution’s strengths, weaknesses, and other takeaways that I can integrate into my own work at the Heurich House."

I started the research journey with some foundational goals: our work would be focused on people and their unique life journeys, it would be documented and cited to ensure accuracy, and the process would be ongoing - often including more questions than answers.