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The Grace brothers,
Frank and Joseph, had come to town from Oswego, New York, to operate a grocery
store at Fourth and A streets, expanding quickly into wholesale groceries and
produce, hauling Bodega Red potatoes for 45 cents a sack to distribute in town.
Frank also worked as a deputy sheriff and later became sheriff of Sonoma
County. In 1897 the brothers bought the Metzger Brewery at Second and Wilson
streets from William Metzger, a German immigrant.
Only a few months after the Graces purchased the wood
frame brewery, it was destroyed by fire. They rebuilt it as a four-story brick
building and invested beer profits in the purchase of Kroncke's Park on Fourth
Street, where Deputy Frank Grace had so often quelled disturbances among the
railroad excursionists, renaming it Grace Brothers Park. It became a popular
beer garden which endured well into the 20th century. |
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