Old Brewery on the Rokey Place - 1941

ROKEY

Posted By: Pat Ryan White (email)
Date: 8/6/2022 at 12:06:17

There is an interesting old wine cellar or cave on the Ed Rokey place south of town.

Spring water passes through it all the time, and it stays at quite an even temperature the year around.

In the early days an old brewery stood on this site, and in fact, has only been completely torn down in recent years.

This cave is a very large room with an arched ceiling, the entire interior being of stone.

Its original use was for cooling beer and wine before the days of electric refrigeration, but the Rokeys use it for storage of apples and vegetables for year around use.

The door is left open ordinarily, but when the temperature in the winter goes down to zero, Mrs. Rokey says they close the door for fear it might freeze.

A few years ago, when the old house was razed to make room for the new one, a quart of wine was found hidden in the wall. It was in a glass bottle, with a glass stopper which was wrapped with cork, and the connoisseurs of good wine said it was in perfect condition. How long it had been there no one knew, but the old timers said that wine had not been made there for over forty years at that time.

["Mt. Pleasant News", April 25, 1941, page 3]