No nineteenth-century city of any size could long survive without its breweries, but many have disappeared today. John J. Saltzmann founded his Palace Hill Brewery in Oil City in 1881. The original building burned in 1887 and was replaced by this design from the Detroit firm of Gustave A. Mueller (1874–1937) and Richard Mildner (1870–1934). The stylish three-story Saltzman [
sic] Brothers brick brewery on the west side of Oil Creek has oversized round-arched windows at the third story. Below that, on the south elevation, a broken pediment sits atop a three-part, multipaned window arrangement. The ground story has segmental arches at the openings. The cellar could store ten thousand barrels of beer and was insulated with corkboards from Armstrong Cork Company in Pittsburgh. A two-story brick stable lies to the south.