Empson Cannery
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Cannery Apartments (Empson Cannery)
1887, Benjamin C. Viney; additions. 15 3rd Ave. (NR)
John Empson commissioned Luther Burbank to develop a smaller, sweeter pea for canning that helped the Empson Cannery to thrive. Expansions of his original cannery, probably designed by local architect Benjamin C. Viney, housed equipment that included mechanical “viners,” developed and patented by Empson to do the work of 600 hand shellers. Empson died in 1926, and his packing empire was purchased by Kuner Pickle Company in 1927 to become Kuner-Empson.
The two-story, 72-by-327-foot brick warehouse on the eastern edge of the site was constructed in three phases, beginning with the north half in 1901. Foot-thick walls support the gabled wooden roof sheathed with metal. Astride most of the ridgeline is a 9foot-wide glazed monitor. The factory closed in 1970 and was later redeveloped into the Cannery Apartments, with a second apartment building and clubhouse mimicking the warehouse.
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