Archive record · Brewery
James Hanley Brewing Company
Providence, Rhode Island, USA
- Founded
- 1891
- Closed
- 1957
- Archive ID
- TB-VACQJRTD
- Last checked
- Not yet checked
Who owns this brewery?
The archive is still digging. That is a gap in the research, not a finding of independence.
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From the record
Summary
Historic owner/operator relationship. Foundation; unresolved legal entity, ownership, licensing, and exact site lineage remain explicit backlog.
A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.
The People
Behind the beer
Began brewing career in 1876.
The Beer Library
Beers
Hanley's Pale
RetiredHistorical object/label evidence; exact formulation and dates beyond 1915-1919 remain UNKNOWN. (Historical / pre-Prohibition)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Porter
Year-RoundUpgrades Porter from B to A confidence using federal documentary evidence; surviving pre-Prohibition labels remain earlier chronology support. (Pre-Prohibition; explicitly listed again in 1945)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Peerless Ale
RetiredDirect period-advertisement reproduction strengthens product attribution; exact first/last production dates remain UNKNOWN. (Historical)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley Special Ale
Year-RoundDirect surviving can evidence. (1953-1957 era)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley Export Lager Beer
Year-RoundObject-catalog evidence; exact first/last production dates remain UNKNOWN. (1951)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley Extra Pale Ale
Year-RoundCatalog says Cranston on listing; brewery corporate/site relationship should be preserved separately from exact package-location wording. (1952)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Half Stock Ale
Year-RoundDirect archival-letter evidence reported by the Boston Globe; exact first/last production dates remain unresolved. (Pre-Prohibition / by early 1900s)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Lager Beer
Year-RoundCan-catalog object evidence. (Post-Repeal)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Extra Dry Lager Beer
Year-RoundCataloged can variant; exact production year remains UNKNOWN. (Post-Repeal)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Extra Pale Lager Beer
Year-RoundDistinct label wording from Extra Pale Ale; retained separately pending package-series chronology. (Post-Repeal)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Export Ale
Year-RoundDistinct from the later Hanley Export Lager Beer row; wording and style category differ. (By 1945)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley's Ale
Year-RoundGeneric branded Ale retained as exact can wording; relationship to Peerless/Special/Extra Pale lines remains separate. (Post-Repeal)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Hanley Beer
Year-RoundGeneric product wording preserved because a specific historical tap marker survives; exact style/formulation UNKNOWN. (Post-Repeal)
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Corrected by
- Boston Public Library, Special Collections (Pierre Battiste, Special Collections Reference Librarian), ticket #19082152 — 2 changes to artifacts[james-hanley-brewing-company::obj::james-hanley-half-stock-ale-houdini-challenge-letter].url and artifacts[james-hanley-brewing-company::obj::james-hanley-half-stock-ale-houdini-challenge-letter].repository, 2026-09-14
Corrections from outside the archive are logged permanently and credited here. Every one of them replaced something this archive had wrong.
Surviving objects
8 objects catalogued here so far, held by Private collection reproduced in Breweriana Collector and TavernTrove auction archive and Tavern Trove breweriana archive and Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscript Department and NABA Breweriana Collector. That is what the archive has recorded, not the extent of what the holder keeps — follow each link for the institution's own finding aid or catalogue. The archive links to each record rather than reproducing its photograph; the images belong to the holding institution and are licensed object by object.
Breweriana / advertising
Beer can
Beer can
Beer can / breweriana
Bottle cap / crown
Letter / archival ephemera
Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscript Department — Quincy Kilby / Houdini scrapbook; the letter is on page 46 of the digitized microfilm copy (Internet Archive)
- Hanley Bock figural tap markerPost-Repeal
Tap marker / breweriana
- Hanley Beer figural tap marker1934-1957 era
Tap marker / breweriana
Straight answers
Common questions about James Hanley Brewing Company
- Is James Hanley Brewing Company still open?
- No. James Hanley Brewing Company has closed (1957). Historic owner/operator relationship. Foundation; unresolved legal entity, ownership, licensing, and exact site lineage remain explicit backlog.
- When was James Hanley Brewing Company founded?
- James Hanley Brewing Company was founded in 1891 in Providence, USA.
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