Tivoli Brewing Company, the former brewery in front of you, has stood at this location since 1866 and survived every economic and legal disruption that has swept through Denver in the past century and a half. The brewery was established by German immigrants John Good and Moritz Sigi in 1866, part of the wave of German brewing expertise that transformed American beer culture in the second half of the nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century Tivoli was one of the largest breweries in the Mountain West.
Prohibition in 1916 — Colorado went dry four years before the national Volstead Act — shut the brewery down, but the buildings survived. The company re-opened after Prohibition ended in 1933 and operated until 1969, when competition from national brands closed it for good. The ornate brick building, with its Germanic tower and elaborate Victorian decorative details, sat deteriorating until the construction of the Auraria Campus created a new context.
The campus incorporated the Tivoli building as its student union, saving the structure and giving it new purpose, with the original brewery towers and facades intact.