Bayside Canning Company
| Business |
Cannery |
|---|---|
| Main Location |
Alviso |
| Active |
1906 - 1936 |
| Brands |
Bohemian, Calfruit, Calico, Gondolier, Precita, Snow Peak |
| Predecessors |
Precita Canning Company |
| Successors |
Sutter Packing. |
Bayside Canning Company was a large cannery in Alviso, California, starting as a tomato cannery, but eventually specializing in asparagus. The company was founded by Thomas Foon Chew, who had taken over his father's San Francisco-based Precita Canning Company. (A separate story, mentioned in a history essay, claims that Thomas's father, Sai Yin Chew, rebuilt the cannery but that Thomas joined soon after and helped it expand[1].) Bayside hired exclusively Chinese and Chinese-American workers through the 1920's[2]
The company also had a cannery in Mayfield[3]. That cannery, founded in 1918, packed tomatoes. In 1921, the Mayfield cannery packed 50,000 cases of tomatoes - the largest tomato pack that year for the valley[4].
Thomas Foon was vice president and manager in 1920[5]; Walter M. Field & Company was the distributor for the company in 1922.
Thomas died in 1931 at the age of 42. The Mayfield cannery was sold to Sutter Packing in 1933[6]; the Alviso cannery closed in 1936.
Locations
| Location | Years | Address | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alviso | 1906-1936 | 1200 Hope Street at Elizabeth. | Canned tomatoes[7]. |
| Mayfield | 1918-1931 | Portage Ave. | Became Sutter Packing Canned peaches, pears, and other fruit[8]. |
Photos
Bayside Canning, recent photo of abandoned building
References
- ↑ Rosalinda Oneto, A. P. Giannini: The San Jose and Alviso Years and the Oneto Family
- ↑ Alviso History. Society of California Pioneers essay contest, June 2010.
- ↑ Bayside Canning: California Food Products directory. 1920, A. Marks, San Francisco.
- ↑ California Canneries. January 1922 Western Canner and Packer.
- ↑ Bayside Canning: California Food Products directory. 1920, A. Marks, San Francisco.
- ↑ The Story of Our Local Bayside: Sutter Cannery. In Summer 2010 Barron Park Association Newsletter.
- ↑ Gennady Sheyner, "History of Fry's Site Complicates city's redevelopment plans". In Wed July 31, 2019 Palo Alto Online. "Another proponent of preserving the legacy of Thomas Foon Chew is Gloria Hom, Chew's granddaughter. Hom, a Palo Alto resident, called the cannery an "important contribution to the area." The local cannery, she said, focused on peaches, pears and other fruit, while the Alviso plant canned primarily tomatoes."
- ↑ Gennady Sheyner, "History of Fry's Site Complicates city's redevelopment plans". In Wed July 31, 2019 Palo Alto Online.