A last look as final remnants of fabled North Shore brewery, nightclub are swept away

The last remnants of what used to be the historic Demyan’s Hofbrau in Stapleton were recently bulldozed to make way for housing.

It brings the curtain down on a Staten Island story that started 172 years ago.

The Hofbrau, near the corner of Van Duzer and Broad streets, at one time was a favorite bar and restaurant for local judges, politicians and artists.

But before that, the site originally housed a brewery founded in 1853 by a German immigrant named John Bechtel.

This was at a time when beer barons ruled Staten Island.

The cool caves carved by nature into the serpentine hillside behind the brewery were used to store bottles of beer.

The Bechtel Brewery operated for 78 years and was the largest in the borough until about 1890. The site was eventually sold to Jack Demyan, who operat