brewing company industry restaurant brewery founded april 10 1999 headquarters savannah georgia usa products beer website www.moonriverbrewing.com the moon river brewing company is a brew pub restaurant bar and brewing facility . contents 1 brewery 2 history of the building 3 references 4 external links brewery edit moon river brewing company opened to the public in 1999 on the site of the former oglethorpe brewing co. its current owners are gene beeco and john pinkerton . in 2010 the brewery won a gold medal for its rosemary india pale ale in the herb and spice or chocolate beer category 1 at the great american beer festival in denver colorado . in 2003 the brewery was voted 28 on the top 50 american brewpubs in the united states by beeradvocate.com . 2 history of the building edit moon river brewing company is located in the former city hotel . elazer early a native of charleston south carolina built the city hotel in 1821 . not only was it the first hotel in savannah but it was also home to the first branch of the united states post office in savannah as well as a branch of the bank of the united states . many notable people stayed at the city hotel including war of 1812 hero winfield scott the marquis de lafayette the first three commodores of the u.s. navy and naturalist james audubon . audubon stayed six months while attempting to sell books full of his wildlife sketches . in 1851 peter wiltberger bought the city hotel . he renovated it and put a live lion and lioness on display to draw attention to his business . city hotel s final guest checked out in 1864 just before the arrival of general tecumseh sherman during the civil war and the subsequent closing of the city hotel . at the turn of the century the building was used as a lumber and coal warehouse . as the use of coal slowly died off the building was used for general storage . in the 1960s the space was renovated as an office supply store complete with a large printing press . hurricane david forced this business to close in 1979 when it blew the roof off the structure . the building sat empty until 1995 when it was renovated into its current configuration as a brew pub . the building is alleged to be haunted is a feature of local guided tours 3 and claimed by staff members to be a site of hauntings and poltergeist activity . 4 in 2005 the brewery was featured in the ghost hunters halloween special and in 2009 on travel channel s paranormal television series ghost adventures . references edit gabf winners . great american beer festival . retrieved april 27 2013 . top 50 american brewpubs . beeradvocate.com . archived from the original on august 1 2003 . roberts nancy 2002 . mystery at the moon river moon river restaurant and brewery savannah georgia . ghosts from the coast . unc press . pp. 149 152 . isbn 978 0 8078 4991 0 . adams cate mafera october 9 2008 . moon river watch out for ghosts throwing bottles . savannah morning news . external links edit official website coordinates 32 4 52 n 81 5 28 w 32.08111 n 81.09111 w 32.08111 ; 81.09111 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title moon river brewing company & oldid 739168956 categories landmarks in savannah georgiareportedly haunted locations in georgia u.s. state restaurants in georgia u.s. state restaurants established in 1999hotel buildings completed in 1821hidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 september 2016 at 05 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view