Working to restore the Gem since 2005.

	The Jacob Betz Building is a two compartment masonry structure erected in the summer of 1901 by Jacob Betz, then Mayor of the city of Walla Walla, Washington and proprietor of the Jacob Betz Brewing and Malting Company located in the same city. Jacob Betz was born in Ludwigshafer, Germany in 1843. At the age of six he immigrated to New York. Shortly thereafter the family left for the gold fields of California. At the age of 14 he returned to Germany to apprentice in a brewery and ultimately became a Master Brewer. Returning to the U.S., he settled in Walla Walla in 1874 and purchased the Star Brewery. At it's height, his brewery located at the corner of Third and Alder included a saloon and bar, dance floor and a meeting hall. Betz changed the name of his company in 1901 and built saloons in Athena, Pendleton and Pilot Rock to dispense his beverage, which was also marketed throughout the western states. The Athena Betz Building is the lone architectural survivor of this pioneer brewing dynasty. Jacob Betz died in 1912 and his company closed on the eve of national prohibition in 1916. Source Material: Walla Walla County Directory for 1908, p. 23 Walla Walla County Directory for 1909-1910, p. 8 Book of Records, Umatilla County Courthouse, Pendleton Further Reading: Bennett, Robert A. Walla Walla: Portrait of a Western Town 1804-1899. Walla Walla, Washington: Pioneer Press Books, 1980 Bennett, Robert A. Walla Walla: A Town Built to be a City 1900-1919. Walla Walla, Washington: Pioneer Press Books, 1980.