H.J. Heinz Co. Factory
2900 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Susan Cerny
31 August 2002
Berkeley's most elegant industrial building (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005)
The former H.J. Heinz Co. factory is located on San Pablo Avenue just north of Ashby Avenue. Its Mediterranean-style façade is a prominent and distinctive feature on the streetscape of San Pablo Avenue. The building looks like an elegant school or office complex from the exterior, but behind the nicely detailed façade was once a real industrial/manufacturing building engaged in the production of 28 of the H. J. Heinz Company’s famous “57 Varieties.”
The Cleveland-based Austin Company, a construction firm founded in 1878 and which specialized in all phases of design and construction of industrial buildings, built the Heinz factory between 1927 and 1928 with architect Albert Kahn 1, 2, 3 (1869–1942). It was the largest such firm in the world.
Photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005What might have been a large and simply utilitarian industrial building was designed to be beautiful and to enhance its San Pablo Avenue location, which at the time was the main highway in the East Bay. Like Samuel Kress of the Kress Five & Dime stores, Howard C. Heinz (1877–1941), son of the founder Henry John Heinz (1844–1919), was an avid traveler and collector whose ivory and watch collections are now housed in the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh.
Photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005The one- to three-story building has beige concrete-stucco siding and a red tile roof and is richly decorated with Mediterranean motifs. The entire site is ten acres, and the building’s form is a wide U-shape facing west. Along San Pablo Avenue, the two-block long building is symmetrical, with a three-story central section containing a richly decorated arched entry with an open loggia above. Flanking the entry are two-story sections with courses of deeply recessed metal-sash windows separated by flat engaged columns with decorative capitals. The two-story sections are flanked by one-story sections divided by square bays with hipped roofs and arched windows. At the corners are square bays with arched windows.
One-story wing at the north end (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005)
Side door at the north end
(photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005)The Berkeley Daily Gazette commented in 1927 that “Architecturally it will be one of the most beautiful industrial establishments in the West [...] an inspiration to the workers and an example for others.”
The Heinz Company was founded in Pittsburgh in 1869, beginning with the production of horseradish. By 1896 it claimed to be producing the “57 Varieties” that the company used in its advertising. In 1947 the Heinz Company reported that the Berkeley plant was producing 28 of its 57 varieties, and employed seasonally between 200 and 1,000 workers. During tomato season, the smell of cooking tomatoes filled the air. The plant closed in 1956 and operations were moved to Tracy. The Berkeley building has been remodeled into a retail and office center.
This article was originally published in the Berkeley Daily Planet.
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The H.J. Heinz building was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark on 17 November 1986. It is listed in the California State Historic Resources Inventory.
Copyright © 2003–2006 Daniella Thompson. Text © 2002–2006 Susan Cerny. All rights reserved.
