Second Empire brick mansion built in 1870 by Bavarian-born brewer Peter Brehm; later home to the Moveable Feast restaurant and now offices — exterior viewing only from Liberty Street.
326 W Liberty St, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing only; this is a privately owned office building.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalk along Liberty Street
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1870 · One of Ann Arbor's best surviving Second Empire mansard-roofed brick residences · Tied to Peter Brehm and the early German lager-brewing industry in Ann Arbor · Long-running site of the Moveable Feast restaurant (1978-onward) · Located within the Old West Side Historic District
Peter Brehm arrived in Ann Arbor in 1861 from Bavaria and founded the Western Brewery on the city's south side that same year, becoming one of the early lager brewers in town. In 1868 he purchased the lot at 326 W Liberty Street, demolished the existing structure, and around 1870 completed the Second Empire brick mansion that still anchors the corner. The house features a steep mansard roof with flared corners that recall East Asian architecture and sits atop a more Italianate body of the building, with round-headed windows, hood moldings, overhanging eaves, and decorative brackets.
Brehm's fortunes turned sharply within two years of finishing the house. By 1872 he no longer owned the Western Brewery, and on a February day in 1873 he was reported to have wandered downtown coatless during a snowstorm before returning home. He died by suicide in an upstairs room of the house; period newspapers described him as having been "laboring under a sort of mania" and noted the Panic of 1873 and his loss of the brewery as contributing pressures.
After Peter's death, his son Gustav Brehm lived in the house and would later launch the Ann Arbor Brewing Company in 1894. In 1896 Gustav sold the property to jeweler and banker William Arnold, whose family occupied the home until the early 1930s. In 1952 the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) purchased it and converted it into a meeting hall. The Moveable Feast restaurant acquired the building in 1978 and operated there for many years, after which the building transitioned to office use, which continues today.
The property sits within the Old West Side Historic District and is recognized in the Ann Arbor District Library's building history archive as one of the city's finest surviving Second Empire residences.
Sources
Peter Brehm's death in an upstairs room of the house has secured the building a place in Ann Arbor's haunted-history discussions, including the Haunted Mitten podcast's Ann Arbor episode, which references the home as a tragic site in the city's 19th-century landscape. The story typically retold is that Brehm, despondent after losing the Western Brewery and during the financial panic of 1873, wandered downtown in the snow without a coat before returning home and ending his life in an upper room of the house.
Despite that vivid backstory, the surveyed sources for this listing do not document any specific paranormal claims, named ghosts, or witnessed apparitions at 326 W Liberty St. No persistent phenomena (footsteps, sightings, cold spots) are recorded in the Ann Arbor District Library's history materials, the Ann Arbor Observer, or local press coverage. The building's reputation is essentially atmospheric and tied to its tragic origin story rather than to a documented modern haunting.
Because the lore traces to a single weak strand of reporting and no independent witness accounts surfaced after multiple searches, this entry is flagged for human review.
This venue is privately owned (now offices) and not open to the public — appreciate from the public sidewalk on Liberty Street only.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk past the mansard-roofed brick Second Empire facade on Liberty Street and take in the steep, flared roofline that has marked this corner of the Old West Side since 1870. Best paired with a self-guided stroll through the surrounding Old West Side Historic District.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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