The former Del Monte Cannery building represents a keystone industry on North Point Street - both for the model railway and for the prototype State Belt. In an ironic turn, the complex did not reside on North Point Street itself, but on Beach Street one block north (towards the Bay). The Belt jogged over to Beach just east of the Cannery in order to reach both it and the Ghiradelli complex two blocks to the west. This was the far end of the North Point spur.
The two distinct but complementary brick structures, complex track arrangement, and high volume of traffic just begged to be modelled on my O scale version of the Belt, and create in itself a very identifiable and modellable Layout Design Element (or LDE) - a term coined by operations and design guru Tony Koester.
A brief history of the Cannery begins below, followed by my strategy for modelling it on my North Point Street layout.
Cannery and Warehouse in the 1930s. Note the interesting track arrangement. A third spur runs parallel but below the main track climbing to Hyde St. in front of the warehouse. You can see the spur clearly in this image at the centre-left of the photo, and there appears to be a house car (boxcar) spotted at the far west (left) end. Water towers with the Del Monte logo will make for a great identifier on the model.
The Cannery Warehouse (as it was commonly known) was a major customer for the State Belt from its construction following the 1906 earthquake and fire until the late 1950s or early 1960s. What's more, the building still stands today and is a major feature of San Francisco's "Fisherman's Wharf" tourist area. Because of this, there is a fairly good repository of information on this structure. I won't repeat it all here but will provide a brief synopsis as it applies to my modelling efforts.
The Cannery complex consists of two separate structures built on the block between Leavenworth and Hyde streets just across Jefferson Street from the waterfront and Fisherman's Wharf. The westernmost building was, as far as I can determine, constructed to be a warehouse for the canned goods produced by the cannery to the east. Two parallel State Belt tracks curved between the two large brick structures for loading and unloading. These tracks were built on a trestle, as the land sloped at least one full storey towards the waterfront in this area. The structures were served additionally by a spur track off of the Jefferson Street line which continued to Fort Mason and the Presidio, as well as a short spur off of Beach on the south side of the buildings. (See the Sanborn Map detail below).
There was a complex and interesting arrangement of track serving these buildings and carrying the North Point spur along Beach from Columbus Ave, and continuing past the south side of the Cannery complex on Beach to reach the also-infamous and still extant Ghiradelli complex.
The Cannery Years
As closely as I can determine at this time, the complex was constructed in 1906-1907 for the California Fruit Canners Association, which would merge with other packers to form the California Packing Company and propagate the know well-known Del Monte brand.
"Peaches, asparagus, peas, cherries, tomatoes and apricots were brought to San Francisco by riverboat and ferry" from California farms and canned at the plant until 1936 when operations were moved to more modern facilities closer to producers (Noehill, n.d.). While it is plausible that some of these canned goods were transported to market via ships, Sanborn maps also show that the western spur track was adjacent to what is labelled as a shipping dock and the warehouse portion of the complex. Noehill confirms that the western building was used as a warehouse by the California Packing Company, with goods from the Cannery moved there pending shipping. The eastern track adjacent to the Cannery itself is labelled as "receiving dock" in the same Sanborn map, suggesting that in addition to riverboat and ferry, produce may have been brought to the Cannery by rail for canning.
Warehouse Years
While canning operations ceased in 1936, the buildings continued to be used to warehouse the company's products for the next decade. Sometime around 1948, the buildings were sold to the Haslett Warehouse Company, a large local firm with several buildings in the area.
Records are somewhat unclear for the depression and WWII eras, with sources stating that the complex was used for a variety of warehousing, from Del Monte canned goods to a disassembled Italian monastery, to corpses awaiting overseas burial, to automobiles and imported goods.
The complex was purchased by the State of California in 1963, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and then came under the purview of the National Park Service in 1978. During this time it was intended to be used as a railroad museum, amongst other things. In more recent years the complex has been repurposed into a commercial and retail centre similar to neighbouring Ghiradelli square. Some of the buildings at Ghiradelli were apparently also designed by the Cannery's architect, William S. Mooser Jr.
Modelling the Cannery Warehouse
The Cannery is a key feature on North Point Street. The layout design includes an entire module devoted to the complex, and is emphasized by its perpendicular orientation to the rest of the layout (click here for the track plan).
The low, heavy, dark brick complex juxtaposes the tall, more modern white facades of Simmons Mattress (the other main consignee, spanning the backdrop of the other three sections of the layout). The unique and interesting track arrangement is also replicated faithfully, with the four diamond crossings and curving track leading down Beach Street and to the Cannery itself. Another, hypothetical, layout section beyond the Cannery could carry the main track further west, grinding uphill along Beach to the intersection with Hyde Street, and the parallel short spur tucked below alongside the south wall of the warehouse.
The planned section will slope prototypically from Beach towards the front edge, adding a storey to the height of the structure at the foot of the module. I am even contemplating modelling the north facade and spur on the Jefferson Street (Bay) side of the building just to suggest the scope and size of the complex and capture the interesting architecture.
Operationally I am left in a bit of a quandary as it is not entirely clear what was happening at the warehouse complex in 1946. One source claimed it was at least partially used to house "deceased Chinese bound for burial in their homeland" in the immediate post-war period (Noehill, n.d.). I hesitate to create an operating plan that includes that traffic, however.
More likely, we can suppose that California Packing was still using the facilities to store goods waiting for transport to market, perhaps allowing for both inbound and outbound loads as canned goods arrive from operational canneries to be warehoused, and then are shipped via rail and sea.
The Cannery presents an interesting challenge in replicating the recognizable brick facades while selectively compressing the complex to fit on a single ~24"x67" module. I am looking forward to using laser etching and 3D printing to recreate the architectural details. More on that to come...
References:
Online Archives of California. (n.d.). A guide to the Haslett Warehouse photographs, 1928, circa 1990-2000. Collection details.
San Francisco, a History. (May 2011). The Cannery.
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