Andrew Eitle established Peoria's first brewery about 1836-37 on Lot 1, Block 49, Bigelow and Underhill's addition, at what is now the southwest corner of Water and Franklin Streets. The brewery operated under several names until the Gipps Brewing Co. purchased it in 1881 after the company was incorporated, with John M. Gipps, Willis H. Ballance, Sr., and Leslie Robison each holding a one-third interest. Combining the operations of both breweries, the company built a new plant on the earlier site in 1885, and by 1910 Ballance had become sole proprietor. During Prohibition from 1920 to 1933, the business produced small appliances, soft drinks, industrial chemicals, and gases, then resumed brewing after repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, eventually reaching an annual output of 100,000 barrels as Peoria became a leader in brewing and distilling among cities of comparable size. The company closed in 1956. Completed in 1888 for Willis H. Ballance, Sr., and his wife, the Ballance-Herschel House is a Queen Anne residence with Richardsonian Romanesque influence, featuring a rusticated stone foundation and detailing around the first-floor arched window, and was designed by Warren H. Milner. Ballance, son of Colonel Charles Ballance, a pioneer Peoria lawyer, lived there with his family until his death in 1913, after which Paul E. Herschel, vice-president and general manager of the R. Herschel Manufacturing Company, bought the property; it remained in the Herschel family until 1979, when the Junior League of Peoria, Inc., purchased it for its headquarters and as an expression of commitment to historic preservation.