Adventure: 051, Site 016 – Fresno's Warehouse Row

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 051, Site 016 – Fresno's Warehouse Row

National Registry ID: 1978000666

Local Registry ID: 3

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 16, 2012

Location:

Latitude: 36°44′10″N

Longitude: 119°46′40″W

Address: 722, 744, and 764 P St., Fresno, CA

Description:

Date Built: 1903 -1909

Architect: Eugene H. Mathewson

Fresno's Warehouse Row is being reconstructed. Parts of it are torn down, while parts have been turned into restaurants and offices. Consequently, certain historical aspects are no longer available, including the registry plaque.

• Western Meat Company. The Western Meat Company packing plant was built in 1910. In 1932 the company was sold to Swift and Co., and concentrated primarily on poultry production. In 1945, the plant was converted completely to turkey production. A hatchery was constructed at 745 P Street, directly across the street from the Swift plant. During the next decade the Swift Company became an integral part of the turkey industry in the San Joaquin Valley. Swift's own hatchery increased poultry production by 1.35 million birds per year. The company would buy the eggs, hatch them, and then sell them to valley farmers to raise to maturity. Swift then bought the turkey back and processed them at their plant. Until 1960, when the Swift Company relocated, the processing plant was a focal point for the turkey industry in Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley.
  
• Wormser Furniture Company. The Wormser Furniture Company was begun by Sigmund Wormser, a noted Fresno business leader who arrived in Fresno in 1889. Established in 1903, the company was an immediate success. It eventually became one of the largest businesses of its kind in California.
  
• Fresno Consumers Ice Company. The Fresno Consumers Ice Company was begun in 1903 under the name San Joaquin Ice Company. It was advertised at that time as the largest such facility on the Pacific Coast. The company changed its name to Fresno Consumers Ice Company in 1904. It concentrated solely on the manufacturing of ice, the first plant in Fresno to do so. It also was the first ice company in Fresno to make home deliveries. Horse-drawn wagons were used until 1924, when the company made the transition to trucks. At its peak, the Fresno Consumers Ice Company had a production capacity of thirty tons a day. Its work force grew from 250 in 1903 to 2000 employees during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1946, the company made the transition from ice production to cold storage, but by then it already had made its mark in the commercial development of Fresno. In August 2008 the brick portions of the Consumers Ice Company were declared a public safety hazard and demolished. The only section of this building that remains is the 1928 three-story concrete structure.
  

References:

• Guide to Historic Fresno
  

Overall Landmark References:

• David Schmitt's California State Historical Landmark (Schmitt)
  
• Wikipedia: California's National Landmarks (WCNL)
  
• State of California's California Historical Landmarks (CHL)
  
• Wikipedia: California State Landmarks (WCSL)
  
• State of California Historical Resources (CHR)
  
• National Registry of Historical Places (NRHP)