was a boxing arena and the basement was a training facility. Anneke believed the gym would be a benefit to the community and also good publicity for Fitger's. Many popular boxers visited the gym, making the facility well known, among them the German boxing legend Max Schmeling during his first tour of the U.S. in 1928. When Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, the demand for strong Fitger's beer grew. From 1933 to 1936, Fitger's experienced tremendous growth and record sales. Much of the success was due to the company's continual creation of new products and innovative ways to market them. One of the most successful revolutions in the business was the invention of canned beer. Fitger's became one of the first U.S. companies and the first in the Midwest to offer canned beer. World War II and after With the onset of World War II, Fitger's once again had to fight to stay open. It became extremely difficult to get supplies to keep the brewery going. Many resources were reused because of the lack of materials. Still, Fitger's came out with new beers known as "War Beer", watered down because ingredients were scarce and labor was shorthanded. Also since workers were limited because of the draft, women were brought in to work in the factory. Before Prohibition, there were more than 70 breweries in Minnesota and now only 23, with Fitger's being one of them. In 1944, the Beerhalter family bought the brewery. After the war, regular beer returned with ingredients and labor. Fitger's also managed to purchase brand-new equipment, and it was said that Fitger's beer was now "more pure". In 1972, Fitger's received a letter from the State of Minnesota about two problems. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ordered the installation of expensive pollution abatement equipment and the Minnesota Department of Transportation planned to purchase some of Fitger's property for the possible expansion of Interstate 35. Fitger's was unable to afford the equipment, and on September 30, 1972, it closed its doors, ending 115 years of brewing on the shores of Lake Superior. Adaptive reuse The Fitger's complex was eventually purchased by a group of prominent Duluth business owners, and reopened in December 1984. Two years later, the construction of Interstate 35 hurt business. In 1994, Fitger's-on-the-Lake LLC became the new owners of the complex. Today Fitger's houses a brewpub, a variety of retail stores and four