Question: Although readily visible, this piece of stone is most likely unnoticed by most passersby. Do you know its purpose or where it may be found? Do you know why this stone is sits in this particular location?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo was taken at the Baldwinsville Canning and Preserving Company, a locally owned food processing operation organized in 1898. The facility was located at the northwest corner of Canton and Water streets. The business was a marriage of Baldwinsville’s agricultural industry and new technology.
Commercial canning was a fledgling industry. Preserving food without spoilage had been a concern for centuries and new methods that would expand the “out of season” menu were always sought. From drying and smoking, methods had grown to include salting, curing, fermentation and freezing.
Decades before the science was established, canning — the process of heat-treating food and sealing it in airtight containers — was developed. The process was elevated to a science in the 1860s with Louis Pasteur’s work in bacteriology. The door to commercial canning and its many attendant concerns (from containers to cooking vessels and can openers) was opened.
Many Americans were leaving their farms and moving to large urban manufacturing centers where food was expensive and nutrition suffered. The days of self-sustained living off the land had been left behind.
Post-Civil War America was introduced to safe canned foods and an ever-growing technology that brought better methods and improved products. Campbell, Heinz and Borden were appearing on store shelves. Prices came down and canned food went from a luxury reserved for the wealthy to a practical nutritious food stuff for middle class Americans.
Surrounded by rich agricultural lands and populated by savvy investors and creative community leaders, Baldwinsville was ready to add food preservation and canning to its list of manufacturing enterprises. In March of 1898 a group of 50 farmers and entrepreneurs met at the Seneca House and organized the Baldwinsville Canning and Preserving Company. A $10,000 bond was secured to fund the project.
The Canton Street site was purchased and construction of a two story frame building with a broad loading platform began. By June the factory was completed and machinery was being installed. Investors had pledged to provide 75 acres of tomatoes for the opening season.
A workforce of some 80 women, men and boys had been hired and production of canned tomatoes began on the afternoon of July 14, 1898. In successive years additional varieties of produce were added. Employee numbers typically ran between 60 and 100; most of whom were women. The target audience was large operations, including hotels, restaurants and institutions. Most production was packed into size no. 3 cans (approximately 6 cups or 51 ounces).
The transition into the 20th century brought ever increasing technological advances. Larger and more sophisticated machinery was developed and installed in new commercial canneries located in larger agricultural areas. The Baldwinsville plant had maxed out of needed resources, including increasing amounts of raw product, funding for updated equipment and space for expansion. The new Barge Canal would soon be coming through and much of Water Street and lower Canton Street would be removed to make room.
Production dwindled. Once filled with the fragrance of fresh tomatoes and the humming of machinery, the wooden structure was totally consumed by fire in 1908. Baldwinsville’s commercial canning industry had run its course.
Today nearly 200 billion cans of food are produced in the world each year. In the United States 35,000 people are employed in the 200 food processing plants located in 38 states. In 2016 more than 20,000 new food and beverage products were introduced in this country alone. Technology, creativity and innovation continue to flourish.
Email your guess to [email protected] or leave a message at 315-434-8889 ext. 332 with your guess by noon Friday. If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s newspaper, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
