Part of this property was originally owned by Mathew Newkirk (1794-1868 of Philadelphia). Newkirk was a railroad construction pioneer who devoted the 1830s to raising money for and then building a rail line from Philadelphia south to Wilmington and Baltimore. In 1838 he became President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad.

In planning for this line, Newkirk bought several properties in Havre de Grace adjacent to the railroad tracks that ran along St. Clair Street (now Pennington Avenue) that could potentially be turned into hotels. Another former owner was Henry W. Archer, a prominent Harford County lawyer and land owner who was also a member of the Maryland Legislature and also the 1867 Constitutional Convention. The third owner was James W. Chew, Clerk of the U.S. District Court in Baltimore for 57 years, spanning the turn of the 20th century. At the time they owned this property, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad had its ferry terminus at the river end of Pennington Avenue. Under the ownership of these men, this building once housed a turntable and repair shops for the locomotives that ran from Baltimore to Havre de Grace.

The R.W. Greenleaf Coal Company began operating in this corner location in 1900—it is shown on the 1930 Sanborn Insurance Map. It had been owned by Soloman T. Mitchell until 1917 when he sold it to Robert W. Greenleaf (a nephew of Stephen J. Seneca). It was the company’s coal yard for several decades before the current beer distribution warehouse was built. The warehouse is at the corner of Pennington Avenue and runs along St. John Street. It was the home of the Havre de Grace Distributing Company, a wholesale beer and wine distributor (notice the old Pabst Blue Ribbon sign in old photos).

The building used to have a beautiful mural, painted by Ray Jackson, along its length but was painted over when the mural began to deteriorate around 2008. The family-owned business was managed by Kathryn J. Asher and primarily distributed in Harford and Cecil Counties. They sold Old Reading Beer and Ale, Schmidt’s beer, Pabst beer, and advertised “Pale Reserve Juniors (8 oz.)—10¢ worth of premium beer.” Kathryn J. Asher was born to Arthur P.G. Asher and Ada May Keen Asher in 1918, was active in several community organizations, and died in 2005. Her late brother, Arthur Donald Asher, Jr., ran the Greenleaf Supply paint store on North Washington Street. This vacant property is still owned by members of the Asher family.

In 2021 this warehouse was cleared out and it’s been said that it is leased by VonMercier, Inc. to use as a showroom for their hovercraft products. The company says they have designed a new patented directional control system that makes hovercraft easier to drive so that moving from water to land and back is as easy as driving a car. And, of course, the warehouse is on the waterfront.

County Records
Built 1900, 25,835 sq ft, storage warehouse,0.98 acre lot.