HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1892 Houston Ice & Brewing Company building, Prohibition-era Magnolia Brewery, and the lingering presence of William — a worker killed by falling barrels in the 1920s
717 Franklin St, Houston, TX 77002
Research updated June 2026
Age
21+
Cost
$
Bar pricing; no cover charge for entry.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic building with ground-floor bar space; accessibility may vary in older sections.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1892 · 1892 Houston Ice & Brewing Company facility · Operated as Magnolia Brewery during Prohibition · Worker William killed by falling barrels in the 1920s · One of downtown Houston's surviving 19th-century commercial brewing structures
The Houston Ice & Brewing Company was incorporated in the 1890s as Houston's beer industry began to scale up alongside the city's broader commercial growth. The 717 Franklin Street facility, built in 1892, served as one of the company's core production facilities. By the early 20th century the brewery was producing beer under multiple labels for the Houston market.
Prohibition created a legal and commercial problem that the company navigated by transitioning to near-beer and other legal products under the Magnolia Brewery name. The Franklin Street building stayed in continuous use through those years as a production facility, which is where the death documented in the bar's own history occurred. At some point in the 1920s, a worker named William was killed when a large stack of beer barrels toppled and fell on him. The precise date and circumstances appear in the venue's own account of the haunting but have not been independently corroborated in newspaper archives reviewed for this build.
After Prohibition, the building went through a series of commercial uses before becoming the Brewery Tap, an operating bar and restaurant that preserves the industrial character of the original structure. The venue acknowledged its haunted reputation explicitly — the bar's own website maintained a haunted page documenting William's story and describing electromagnetic anomalies and apparition accounts — making it an unusual case of a commercial venue actively promoting its paranormal history.
Sources
William's story as the Brewery Tap tells it is simple: he was a worker at the Magnolia Brewery who died in the building when a large stack of beer barrels fell on him at some point in the 1920s. The venue has maintained a dedicated haunted page on its website documenting the aftermath — owners reporting that William placed phantom orders at the bar, communicating through electromagnetic fluctuations and appearing in photographs alongside patrons who did not notice anything unusual at the time.
Houston Press included the Brewery Tap on its list of the city's most haunted bars, corroborating the William lore and noting the bar's own active documentation of the phenomena. Visit Houston Texas has also listed the venue among the city's haunted sites, identifying William as a spirit that communicates with the owners.
The precise year of William's death and his full name have not been located in newspaper archives, which limits the claim to the venue's own account plus the secondary confirmation from Houston Press and the tourism board. The venue's willingness to document the phenomena on its own website — rather than through a third-party ghost-tour operator — gives the account a degree of institutional specificity uncommon in bar-haunting claims.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Drink in the original 1892 Houston Ice & Brewing Company structure. The bar occupies the ground floor of the historic building where William, a worker, was killed by falling beer barrels in the 1920s. Staff have reported interactions with William over the years.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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