California Packing Corporation

Summary

Business	Cannery
Main Location	San Francisco
Aliases	Del Monte
Predecessors	Griffin and Skelley, Central California Canneries, J. K. Armsby, California Fruit Canners Association, Alaska Packers Association

Founded in 1916 as the merger of five major canners: Griffin and Skelley, Central California Canneries, J.K. Armsby, California Fruit Canners Association, and Alaska Packers Association. They canned fish from Alaska, pineapple from Hawaii, fruit from California.

Locations

Location	Plant Number	Years	Address	Details
Alameda		1925, 1941	Buena Vista at Sherman	Former Alaska Packing Corporation salmon cannery. aka Encinal Terminal.
Alameda		1968	???	Warehouse for consolidating output from different canneries for eastern shipment.
Atwater		1922-1939		December 1922 Western Canner and Packer notes city helping buy lot along SP tracks for California Packing Corporation to expand the present cannery. "The cannery closed November 27 after packing 160,000 cases of peaches and 7,400 cases of sweet potatoes. Arcadia Publishing's Atwater book says Del Monte left in 1939. The plant had started as the Atwater Cannery, a cooperative, in 1905.
Berkeley		1941	2424 Fourth Street	From Oakland City Directory, 1941. Former Sunlit Fruit Company.
Chico	Plant #64	1919		Packing prunes and apricots in 1919.
Emeryville	Plant #35	1926-1989	1200 Park Avenue	Former Western Canning. Now Pixar.
Emeryville	Plant #7	1916-1941	40th and Halleck	Packing peaches and pears in 1919.
Fairfield (Suisun)	Plant #60	1919, 1926	???	Dried fruit. Packing pears and apricots in 1919.
Fresno	Plant #15	1916-		Packing peaches in 1919.
Fresno	Plant #66	1919		Packing apricots and peaches in 1919. (Dried?)
Fresno	Plant #67	1919		Packing apricots and peaches in 1919. (Dried?)
Fruitvale		1941	3000 East 9th Street	Now mall. Former H.G. Prince? Photo pg 394, Southern Pacific Freight Cars: Box Cars.
Hanford	Plant #18	1916, 1922		Packing peaches and grapes in 1919.
Healdsburg	Plant #56	1919		Packing prunes and pears in 1919.
Honolulu, Hawaii	Plant #29	1919		Packing pineapple in 1919.
Kahului HI		1926-1934	120 Kane Street	See HAER Survey
Kingsburg		1922-2012	1101 Marian Avenue	Newspaper articles at time of closure said it had been open for 90 years.
Lewiston, Idaho	Plant #28	1919		Packing tomatoes in 1919.
Los Angeles	Plant #19	1916, 1921		Packing tomatoes, beets, and peaches in 1919.
Marysville		1921
Milpitas	Plant #21	1930's
Modesto		1969 - ~2000	4000 Yosemite Blvd	"Catsup, tomato sauce, tomato juice"
Monterey		1926-1962		Sardine cannery.
Mt. Eden		1931		Mentioned in 1931 Hayward Directory.
Oakland	Plant #6	1921, 1941	First and Myrtle	Still exists. according to signs on photo by James Bunger and 1941 Oakland City Directory. Packing peaches and pears in 1919.
Oakland		1941	First and Filbert Street	Former Oakland Preserving Company
Oakland		1941	742 Saunders
Oakland		1941	85th Ave	Foot of 85th Ave
Oakland		1941	(1941) 1100 29th Ave
Planada		1922	Highway 120	Mentioned as Merced.
Rio Vista		1921,1922,1953		. Was Rio Vista Canning and Packing Company.
Roseberry		1921
Sacramento			3rd and X Street
Sacramento			19th and R Street
Sacramento	Plant #12	1922, 1938	1600 2nd Street	(Front and P Street?).
Sacramento		1925	17th and C Street	Now Blue Diamond.
Sacramento	Plant #11	1916-	"G Street"	Packing peaches and pears in 1919.
Salem	Plant #26	1916-	???	Former Oregon Packing Company, merged into Del Monte in 1916. In SP warehouse until 1935 1922 Western Canner and Packers mentions canned prunes being shipped from this plant. Packing blackberries, string beans, and pears in 1919.
San Francisco	Plant #1	1907-1930's	North Point Ave.	Now the Cannery. In 1919, was packing pears, port and beans, and tomatoes. Plant either dates to before earthquake, built for M. J. Fontana and Company before the earthquake, or built on site of Selby smelter in 1907 for California Fruit Canners Association. Closed in 1930's.
San Francisco	Plant #2	1919		Listed in September 10, 1919 "Lug Box" newsletter as "Specialty", packing preserves, jelly, and catsup.
San Francisco		1920, 1921	101 California Street	Headquarters.
San Jose		1919	Cinnabar Street	Former Armsby plant.
San Jose	Plant #3	1919	849 Auzerais St.	Also listed as "West San Carlos Street" and "by the narrow gauge" in 1919 Former San Jose Fruit Packing plant.
San Jose	Plant #51	1923, 1936, 1940, 1945, 1949	725 W. San Fernando	Former Griffin and Skelley. Closed 1990, moved to Fresno) Grading and processing on 2nd floors along with bins, warehouse on first. Sulfur rooms in south end of building. (Where was plant #50?) (Also plant #54.
San Jose		1930	Montgomery Street at Cinnabar.	Former Richmond Chase plant.
San Jose		1931	Lincoln Ave.	Seen on 1931 siding list.
San Jose		1936, 1940	Auzerais and Meridian Road	(pit cracker)
San Jose	Plant #39	1919, 1936, 1940, 1945	7th and Jackson	Pickle Factory.
San Jose	Plant #153	1936, 1940, 1945	Sunol and Auzerais St.	By-products.
San Jose	Plant #4/34	1940, 1945, 1964	7th and Jackson	Vinegar works.
San Jose		1964	Monterey Road	Seed farm.
San Jose		1964	734 The Alameda	Sales office, fruit and vegetable purchasing office.
San Jose		1964	Hostetter Road	Pit cracking department.
San Leandro		1928	Thornton Avenue	Formerly H.G. Prince according to 1928 Sanborn map.
San Leandro	Plant #8	1931	752 Saunders	West of BART station, vacant as of 2005. 1899-1973. Cannery, dried fruit, agricultural research. Was a packing plant for dried fruit until moved to San Jose in...1960's?. Packing peaches in 1919.
San Lorenzo	Plant #9	1916-		Opposite SP station. December 1922 Western Canner and Packer notes that the cannery will reopen early in 1923 to can spinach from 250 acres. Leonard Perillo superintendent. Packing peaches, pears, and grapes in 1919.
Sanger		1922		May 22, 1919 San Jose Evening News
Santa Ana	Plant #20	1919, 1921		Packing chili peppers in 1919.
Santa Rosa	Plant #5	1921		: Source for blackberries. Packing peaches, blackberries, and pears in 1919.
Star Ray, Utah	Plant #34	1919		Packing tomatoes in 1919.
Stockton	Plant #10	1975	2716 East Minor	Filbert Street north of SP's Oakdale branch. . Lawsuit in 1977 said that Del Monte had warehouses for canned goods out there, and they needed the space to hold the production from the Emeryville and San Jose canneries in the 1970's - there wasn't enough space locally. December 1922 Western Canner and Packer notes it'll reopen on March 1. In 1922, canned 125,000 cases of spinach, 200,000 cases of cling peaches, and 110,000 cases of tomatoes.
Sunnyvale	Plant #184	1904-1926, 1930-?	185 Evelyn	photo]
The Dalles		1921
Tulare		1922	???	Did not operate in 1922.
Vancouver, WA	Plant #27	1919		Packing preserves, pears, prunes, blackberries, and string beans in 1919.
Visalia	Plant #17	-1922		Burned down in 1922
Visalia	Plant #16	1922	???	October 1922 Western Canner and Packer.
Visalia		1922
Wahiawa, Hawaii	Plant #30	1919		Packing pineapple in 1919. On Oahu.
Wasach, Utah	Plant #32	1919		Packing tomatoes and catsup in 1919.
West Weber, Utah	Plant #35	1919		Packing tomatoes in 1919.
Woodland		-2000
Yuba City	Plant #14	1916-1921		Packing peaches in 1919.

Photos

Del Monte Plant #21, Milpitas John C. Gordon Collection, San Jose State

CalPak (California Packing Corp. aka Del Monte) Plant 51 John C. Gordon Collection / San Jose Library

California Packing Corporation Plant No. 184 Sunnyvale Library

Del Monte Plant #3 Preservation San Jose

Details

Bought Emeryville cannery from Virden Packing in 1927.

History comments that earnings in 1930 fell from $6/share to 9c, 1932 were worst losses ever.

San Leandro: See Arcadia book. Martinez and Saunders Street (1921 Western Canner and Packer Sacramento: See article on cannery Stella Adoa Baptista oral history on life in the canneries. Comment on Sunnyvale historical document suggests that some dried fruit receiving houses closed in 1926 as receiving was centralized at Plant 51 in San Jose. In 1920, had 61 plants, 53 in California, 4 in Oregon, 3 in Washington, and 1 in Idaho. Many 1920 references cited in March 1920 Canning Age in mention of customers of Main Belting Company, Philadelphia May 1921 Canning Age magazine summarizes the CalPak annual report. January 1923 Western Canner and Packer notes that pimientos are shipped from San Pedro or Santa Ana.

1963 corporate summary at University of Pennsylvania Dried fruit was 5% of their business in 1963, with three packing plants handling the fruit.

Alameda: Current buildings date from 1925. Designer: Philip Bush designed many other Calpak buildings. (See Alameda Magazine article.) Buena Vista at Sherman. Plans Listed as Benton and Buena Vista / in 1941 Oakland City Directory.

Kahului: Built 1926, sold to Maui Pineapple Company / Alexander and Baldwin in 1934.

Monterey plant was Monterey Fishing and Canning Company, started in 1902 by Harry Malpas and Otsaburo Noda. Became Pacific Fish Co in August 1908.

Merced: Largest cannery in the world being built to handle 1924 pack from company's great peach and apricot orchard" "Western Canner and Packer 1922 December 1922 Western Canner and Packer notes Del Monte is starting work on big cannery to handle pack of Planada-Tuttle orchard in 1924 season. Feb 1923 WC&P says it'll be largest cannery in world.