That building looks so old, and the windows look broken and patched, and the tank looks so rusted. I wonder how it would fare in an earthquake. It's eerie looking.
We were wondering that too: big brick building with not a lot of evidence of maintenance. There are many broken windows, but maybe they have been left broken to provide natural ventilation against spontaneous explosions from the sugar cane processing - I don't know. I have heard that it is very hot working inside, maybe it is company provided air conditioning for the workers - they work faster when not suffering from heat prostration.
In most of the windows you can see warehousing going on inside, like right up against the windows it looked like. Some areas of the building you could see inside, and we could see XXX girders a little way inside which either shows original earthquake proofing, or evidence of a retrofit at some time. The company website says that C&H started supplying sugar in 1906 which was the year of the Great San Francisco Earthquake (April 18), so I am guessing that the building was built a little before that, along with it's docks and rail facilities, and all of the equipment shipped in - I'd think that would take longer than half a year, which means that the building survived that earthquake. I think that by 1906, most buildings were probably steel frame structures, the bricks being merely a skin. I suppose that the building may also have survived because it is pretty far from the San Andreas Fault, but it is not so far from the Hayward Fault which crosses N/S through the San Pablo Bay.
People have been saying that the Hayward Fault has been expected to go ever since I moved out here - 40 years ago. It's long overdue they say - the last two big quakes on the Hayward were in 1836, and 1868 - that's 143 years since the last biggie. C&H might not do so well whenever that dark day should arrive. I'm sure it's foundations right on the river bank are not as formidable as they should be, or up to the standards of today's engineering codes. I'd bet the work is pretty hard in that old place.
Building began in 1884 O_O by Abraham Starr as the Starr Flour Mill. C & H Sugar bought the factory around 1906. This refinery refines, packages and markets all of the output from Hawaii's sugar factories.
Wow. So it's even older than I thought. I must say: I believe it, looking at the general decrepitude. So, it must have survived the 1906, but it probably was not a steel skeleton building. And the XXX things I saw inside must have been a retrofit maybe in the last 20 or 30 years. The rooftop in the foreground here is the top of a small school. There is a parking lot this side of the school, and then a big church where we went for that spaghetti dinner. I'd guess this picture was taken from the church. I walked around the edge of the school by the trees hoping to get a better view, but the trees were in the way, so we left the parking and went around the fence and down a hill on the other side of the trees where we stood right at the tracks where the factory starts.
It's interesting how the factory is right there, in the town. Across the quiet two lane street is a park for kids. in the park clubhouse a wedding was going on. We walked a few blocks along the road bordering the factory. To the left, giant C and H, and on the right, small old houses and store fronts occupied by artists. It's a pretty cool little town.
Thanks for digging out the new information, and for the cool night shot. 1884... I bet that place will tumble down in a heap if there is a big earthquake. It's probably basically held together by gravity.
Oh yeah. The C and H sign cycles through a sequence of "events" and puts on a show sort of like a gambling casino sign in Vegas. It faces the approaching traffic on I-80, the freeway as it approaches the left turn onto the bridges crossing the Sacramento, so it is an interesting sight when coming back to Vallejo at night. We have been able to see the sign when coming back from Marin County around the north side of San Pablo Bay too, where we can see it from about 10 or 15 miles away. I'll have to drive over around there and get some night shots when the lights are on.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-05 10:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-05 11:25 pm (UTC)In most of the windows you can see warehousing going on inside, like right up against the windows it looked like. Some areas of the building you could see inside, and we could see XXX girders a little way inside which either shows original earthquake proofing, or evidence of a retrofit at some time. The company website says that C&H started supplying sugar in 1906 which was the year of the Great San Francisco Earthquake (April 18), so I am guessing that the building was built a little before that, along with it's docks and rail facilities, and all of the equipment shipped in - I'd think that would take longer than half a year, which means that the building survived that earthquake. I think that by 1906, most buildings were probably steel frame structures, the bricks being merely a skin. I suppose that the building may also have survived because it is pretty far from the San Andreas Fault, but it is not so far from the Hayward Fault which crosses N/S through the San Pablo Bay.
People have been saying that the Hayward Fault has been expected to go ever since I moved out here - 40 years ago. It's long overdue they say - the last two big quakes on the Hayward were in 1836, and 1868 - that's 143 years since the last biggie. C&H might not do so well whenever that dark day should arrive. I'm sure it's foundations right on the river bank are not as formidable as they should be, or up to the standards of today's engineering codes. I'd bet the work is pretty hard in that old place.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-06 02:28 am (UTC)C & H Sugar Factory, Crockett CA
Building began in 1884 O_O by Abraham Starr as the Starr Flour Mill. C & H Sugar bought the factory around 1906. This refinery refines, packages and markets all of the output from Hawaii's sugar factories.
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26342785@N02/2712375030/
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-06 04:33 am (UTC)It's interesting how the factory is right there, in the town. Across the quiet two lane street is a park for kids. in the park clubhouse a wedding was going on. We walked a few blocks along the road bordering the factory. To the left, giant C and H, and on the right, small old houses and store fronts occupied by artists. It's a pretty cool little town.
Thanks for digging out the new information, and for the cool night shot. 1884... I bet that place will tumble down in a heap if there is a big earthquake. It's probably basically held together by gravity.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-06 02:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-06 04:24 am (UTC)Look at these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdzfQi8ShPQ&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2L9sWeI7Es&feature=related