Old chewing gum factory in New Orleans

American Chicle Company Building, New Orleans Louisiana

Date added: May 27, 2023 Categories: Louisiana Industrial

The building was constructed for American Chicle Company, a New Jersey firm that manufactured chewing gum from a substance called chicle. The company previously was located in the New Orleans French Quarter at 425 Decatur. A building permit for the present structure was reported on September 1, 1911, and the 1912 city directory lists the firm at the Carrollton address. One presumes the reasoning behind constructing such a strongly styled utilitarian building was to create a handsome symbol for the firm, corporate pride. Regardless of the reason, the American Chicle Building is indeed ornamental, being strongly articulated for a building of this type, from its striking towers to its many decorative details.

While New Orleans was never a manufacturing colossus, it did have numerous firms, some of which were quite large; for example, cotton mills such as Maginnis and Lane, the 430,000 square foot American Can Company complex and the Belle Creole Cigar Factory (the latter being among the largest in the country). Most of these facilities were (and are) concentrated in a warehouse/industrial sector of the CBD. Others, like the Chicle building, were scattered here and there around town. The various buildings that survive, along with historic photos, reveal that few were strongly styled, or for that matter styled at all. Notable exceptions are the Maginnis Cotton Mill, a huge largely utilitarian building with a single clock tower; another large fairly simple building with a single tower; the Belle Creole Cigar Factory, a five-story building with numerous arched openings; a styled elevator firm building; and the American Chicle Building. And it could be argued that American Chicle is the most intensively styled of any industrial/warehouse building in the city. With its towers, terra cotta tile, great round arches, and huge brackets, it brings a strong Italian flavor to Carrollton.

The American Chicle Company occupied the building only until 1918, at which time it was purchased by Marine Paint and Varnish. This company owned the facility until 1957, when it was sold to Butlem, Inc. They held the property until 1962, when it was acquired by the A. C. Suhren Corporation, an automobile parts company begun in the 1920s. This name is etched above the tower entrance and is found on a painted sign on the rear of a one-story section of the building. The Suhren Corporation moved its operations into the building in 1963. Its corporate offices along with those of Nerhus Realty Company (now Nerhus Properties, the current owner) were located on the first floor. Automobile parts were warehoused in the remainder of the first floor and all of the second and third floors. A. C. Suhren remained in the building until the early 1970s.

Building Description

The American Chicle Building is a three-story brick industrial building constructed adjacent to a railroad siding in 1911 in the Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans. One-story early twentieth-century houses are located to the immediate south, and a modern commercial thoroughfare is to the immediate north. The railroad siding is no longer there. The building is clearly Italian in inspiration, and while Italian Renaissance is not an entirely accurate label, it is the only one available for the data retrieval section of this form. Modifications have been confined largely to the temporary covering of many of the windows to protect them.

The large building is located on a corner and is square in shape. It is defined by three square corner towers and one "mock" tower. The entrance tower, which contains the staircase, is larger and taller than the others and is the only one to extend beyond the main wall planes. The "mock" tower is merely a tower top set on the roof near the corner, but within the building's mass. The roof is flat with a tile skirting section on each elevation that projects beyond the wall plane. The towers feature pyramidal tile roofs emphasized by large metal modillions and even larger metal brackets. Three towers feature brackets with a scroll pattern while the entrance tower has sinuous brackets of a type seen more commonly. The building's two principal elevations (those sides located along streets) feature a metal cornice with brackets and a dentil band. It is the building's decorative details (brackets, modillions and roundels) that are Italian Renaissance in inspiration. But, of course, towers would not have been used in the Italian Renaissance, belonging instead to an earlier period. Also, the asymmetry produced by the entrance tower is not of the Italian Renaissance, again belonging to an earlier period.

As is typical of such a building, there are numerous windows. Those on the ground story are set within large round arches, with the arch motif being repeated in the openings to the entrance tower. Windows on the second and third floors are set within square head openings. Although many of the windows have been covered within the last few years with metal or plywood panels, they are still there, as can be seen on the interior. The large openings between the towers feature a set of three 1/1 windows, with each window having a transom. The towers have individual one-over-one windows.

Additional decorative details include brick roundels between the round arch first-floor windows, stone lintels, a pronounced stone band between the first and second floors, segmental brick bands above the entrance tower's third-story windows, stone panels accenting the two arched openings of the entrance tower, and egg and dart molding ornamenting the ceiling of the entrance porch.

Although the American Chicle Company manufactured chewing gum and presumably built the building for that purpose, the interior reads as a warehouse, with little evidence of a factory having been there. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that American Chicle only operated in the building until 1918; hence any chewing gum manufacturing apparatus is long gone. Today each floor consists of a huge single space with row upon row of wooden posts. An historic freight elevator is located in the northeast tower.

The building's western elevation has a small one-story section with an arcaded porch. One presumes that it originally was a loading dock; it has since been enclosed. Sharing a wall with this space is a one-story brick section which is clearly historic (per an on-site inspection and old photos).