Richmond-Chase

Summary

Business	Cannery
Main Location	San Jose
Brands	Edenvale (dried and canned), Heart's Delight, Everybody's Brand, Gold Belt
Predecessors	E.N. Richmond Company, Edenvale Packing Company
Successors	California Canners and Growers

Prune crate label from Richmond-Chase, intended for wholesale 30 pound boxes of dried prunes. The "70-80" notation indicates that 70-80 prunes would weigh a pound.

The Richmond-Chase Company was a San Jose-based dried fruit packer and canner run by Edmund Nutting Richmond and Elmer Chase. The company grew from a single plant to the largest independent dried and canned fruit companies in the U.S., and one of California's four largest canners. Richmond-Chase was formed in 1919 from one-year-old E. N. Richmond Company when Elmer Chase joined from Golden Gate Packing Company. Richmond was the son of a J. K. Armsby manager, and had been a buyer for Armsby himself. Chase had worked his way up in the canning business, spending his entire career up until that point at Golden Gate.

An announcement for the new company appeared early in February, commenting on Chase's departure from Golden Gate around a year after its purchase by Hunt Brothers Packing Company and on the intended continued operation of Richmond's dried fruit packing business. Edith Daley interviewed the two founders in 1919. The article also mentions that Chase still owned a share of Golden Gate's stock. Several family came to join Richmond and Chase, including Edmund Richmond's brother C. R. Richmond, Chase's son E. E. Chase, as well as "F. E. Whipple, A. W. Hutchins, George A Richmond, A. D. Curtner, and C. M. O'Brien." C. R. Richmond and F. E. Whipple had taken over for Richmond when he left J. K. Armsby in 1916.

Richmond-Chase was sold to California Canners and Growers in the late 1950's.

Richmond-Chase expanded through several plants, starting off with a dried fruit plant in Edenvale and San Jose and a cannery in San Jose. Richmond Chase's cannery on Stockton Ave. in San Jose was the flagship property through the company's life, closing only in 1982.

Richmond-Chase's Dried Fruit Business

Richmond-Chase's fruit business was derived from E.N. Richmond. Richmond had formerly worked for J. K. Armsby. When that company merged into the new California Packing Corporation in 1916, Richmond left to work for himself. He initially leased the Edenvale Packing Company plant in Edenvale. In 1918, E. N. Richmond also leased the large packing house of Castle Brothers at Cinnabar and Montgomery... capacity of 100 tons a day, 3 stories. Mr. Richmond has also taken over the old Scott plant near Meridian Corners which will serve a two-fold purpose of a receiving and grading station.

After the creation of Richmond-Chase, Richmond focused on the company's dried fruit business with plants in San Jose and Edenvale. The business was challenging in the 1920's; Chase declared the challenges of the dried fruit business in 1927:

"Richmond gave the part which the packer has played in the prune industry, showing how helpless he has been since the war, unable to control the situation and being forced to sell at the end of the seasons for less than the purchase price."

Richmond-Chase in San Jose

Richmond-Chase started in San Jose, and most of its production facilities were in the city. In 1944, plants #1, #2, and $4 were in existence. Plant #1, the dried fruit plant, was in Edenvale just south of San Jose. Plant #2, the main dried fruit plant, was on Cinnabar Street, half being the former Castle Brothers plant, and the other half built by Richmond-Chase. Plant #4, on Stockton Ave., was the cannery and frozen food plant. By 1947, the company had an office at 817 The Alameda.

Plant #2 was a new facility, built by Richmond-Chase soon after inception:

The Richmond-Chase Company of San Jose has broken ground for the erection of a new dried fruit packing plant alongside of the railroad right-of-way and just adjacent to the Castle Brothers plant in San Jose, which the Richmond-Chase Company is operating under lease. The company's new plant, which it is building, will be a modern and sizeable one and will add materially to its already large facilities in the Castle plant and in Mr. Richmond's plant at Edenvale.

Videos also exist of cannery operations in the 1940's.

Richmond-Chase in Edenvale

Richmond bought the former Edenvale Packing Company brick warehouse in Edenvale in 1918. The building burned in 1952.

Locations

Location	Plant #	Years	Address	Details
Edenvale	#1	1918, 1952	Saddleback Drive	Current Rancho Santa Teresa mobile home park.
Gilroy		1941
Healdsburg		1941
Hollister		1941
Mountain View	#9	1920, 1928, 1930, 1941		Wood frame building in 1920.
San Jose	#2	1918, 1930, 1936, 1950	525 Cinnabar Avenue near Autumn	East of Castle Brothers.
San Jose	#4	1919, 1936, 1947,	380 Stockton Avenue	(north half), Plant #1 (fruit processing and cold storage, south half).
San Jose		1927, 1941	64 West Santa Clara Street	Offices
San Jose		1942	Berryessa Road	Former National Axle.
San Jose		1945, 1950	361 North Fourth Street	Did they take it from Hunts, or just borrow?
San Jose		1941	64 West Santa Clara St.	Headquarters.
Stockton	#7	1922, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1941	Weber and A Street	Address from 1931 Stockton City Directory. Photo of plant.

Photos

Drawing: Proposed Additional Spur for Richmond-Chase

Richmond-Chase Plant #7, Stockton, from San Jose State University special collections.

Richmond-Chase Plant #9, Mountain View, 1920, from San Jose State University special collections.

Edenvale brand fruit label, canned apricots. From History San Jose.

Edenvale dried apricot crate.

Details

1941 advertisement shows dried fruit plants in San Jose and Edenvale, canning plants in San Jose and Stockton, warehouse and receiving facilities at Gilroy, Mountain View, Hollister, and Healdsburg. Brands are R-C specials, Hearts Delight, Pacific Gold, Richmond, Edenvale, Airmail, office downtown. Originators of fruit nectars. The cannery business attracted fruit from locations outside the Santa Clara Valley, with the 1941 pack receiving peaches from Brentwood, Yuba City, and Marysville.

Added frozen food in 1946.

1919 Western Canner and Packers state that they're building at Cinnabar Street:http://books.google.com/books?id=BxQdAQAAMAAJ&lpg=RA1-PA52&ots=ij4c7jpI7q&dq=%22%20san%20jose%20canning%20company%22&pg=RA1-PA53#v=onepage&q=%22%20san%20jose%20canning%20company%22&f=false

According to Western Canner and Packer in 1918, E. N. Richmond leased the large packing house of Castle Brothers at Cinnabar and Montgomery... capacity of 100 tons a day, 3 stories. Mr. Richmond has also taken over the old Scott plant near Meridian Corners which will serve a two-fold purpose of a receiving and grading station.

Mountain View references: (Reference , another reference in July 25, 1928 San Jose News The plant is obviously not the Clark Canning or California Supply since both are mentioned in the article.

Office Photo in Richmond-Chase company photograph album at San Jose Public Library digital collections Stockton Avenue was 27 acre plant, closed in 1982, disappeared between 1980 and 1987. Now PG&E lot. Picture pg 120 of "Prune County Railroading". Had cold storage warehouse. Cannery requested conveyor bridge across Cinnabar in 1940. Photo of Plant #4 at San Jose Digital Collections Cinnabar Street Former J.Z. Anderson,. 1950 Sanborn map shows Richmond-Chase owning the whole block; dried fruit was at the eastern edge in a reinforced concrete three story building with grading on the 3rd floor and bins on the first and second. Sulfur box on 2nd. Cannery on west side. Separate boiler house. California Fruit News of July 12, 1919 suggests that they were first leasing the Castle Brothers plant, and then broke ground on a new plant adjacent.

Mountain View plant was processing peaches, pears, and tomatoes in 1930 according to July 29, 1930 San Jose Evening News.

December 31, 1941 San Jose Evening News lists Mountain View, Edenvale, Gilroy, Hollister, and Healdsburg as receiving stations only, not canneries.

National Axle: Food packaging plant in old National Axle Company plant at Oakland Highway and Berryessa Road (NE corner, between freeway, oakland road, Berryessa) ( 1942 Stockton enlarged from 1m cases to 1.75 m cases in 1922 according to March 1922 Canning Age.