The History of Cannery Development in Santa Clara County · Before Silicon Valley

Title: The History of Cannery Development in Santa Clara County
Description: Following early experimentation with horticulture, the canning industry was established in 1872. Aided by an expanded railroad system and access to broader markets, Santa Clara County became the capital for fruit processing/canning. In 1920, the county produced 90% of California’s canned fruits and vegetables, a share that continued into the 1950s. Increased mechanization and more efficient processes gradually replaced most of the hand labor in the canneries. The construction of new packing houses and canneries west of the Guadalupe River, north of Jackson, and south of Keyes Street drew migrant ethnic Mexican laborers into those areas of San José.

Early promoters called San José “The Garden City.” To take advantage of bumper crop years, keep their product fresh after the season, and utilize distant markets, orchard ranchers preserved their fruit through canning and drying. In 1871 at his home on The Alameda, Dr. James Dawson, a local doctor/fruit grower, formed Dawson & Company, which In 1875 was renamed the San Jose Fruit Packing Company (SJFPCO), located at the corner of Fifth and Julian Streets. In 1893 the company, relocated to the west side of the Guadalupe River south of Auzerais Street, was the largest cannery in the world. By 1900 canned food production had become the second largest industry in California, with Santa Clara County in the lead. During the 1930s, 38 canneries hiring up to 30,000 people at peak season operated in the county, several run by huge corporations such as Libby’s, Hunt’s, Richmond-Chase, and Calpak.

Commercial sales of fruit increased with the construction of the San Jose Fruit Packing Company facility in 1875. Workers at the first canneries included local residents and seasonal migrants. Some employers offered company housing for skilled workers, though individually rented boarding house rooms and hotel rooms were more typical. Worker neighborhoods with small family homes soon appeared adjacent to packing houses and canneries. San José's Eastside grew after the Mayfair Fruit Packing Company was constructed in 1944, in the largely Mexican neighborhood known as the Mayfair district.
Scholar Talk: https://vimeo.com/812986670
Identifier: B4SV Exhibit Topic Three: Slide 001

Site pages: Topic Three Gallery

Media: https://library.sjsu.edu/sites/library.sjsu.edu/files/images/b4sv-tp3slide-1-1080.png