Theodore Hamm emigrated from Herbolzheim, Germany in 1854, and purchased the Excelsior Brewery on Phalen Creek in 1864. Hamm’s Brewery grew from producing five hundred barrels of beer in its first year to eventually becoming one of the country’s top beers advertising, “From the Land of Sky Blue Waters.”

Theodore and his wife, Louise lived in a mansion given to them as a surprise gift by their eldest son, William. The red brick Queen Anne Revival style home stood atop a hill overlooking their brewery. Close by on the same street lived Theodore and Louise’s son, William and his wife, Marie, as well as their daughter Marie and her husband, Otto. At the end of Greenbrier Street was the home of Peter Classen and his wife, Emma. After the Classens moved, the house was also home to George Benz and Josephine Hamm-Benz, and then to John Flanagan and Emma Hamm.

Not far from Greenbrier Street are three other Hamm landmarks – Hamm Park on the corner of Greenbrier and East 7th Street, Peter and Louisa John home on 373 Maple Street, and Albert and Wilhemina Koehler home on 170 Maria in the Mounds Park area.