Old Life Savers Candy Factory
Life Savers Building, Port Chester New York
The Life Savers Building is significant for its association with one of the most famous and enduring American brands of candy, the "Life Saver." Designed and built by the noted industrial engineering firm of Lockwood, Greene and Co. in 1920, the structure embodies distinctive characteristics of early concrete construction technology and contemporary eclectic architectural design. The incorporation of "Life Savers" imagery in the ornamentation of the principal facades reflects the expanding role of product identification in corporate design, particularly as innovative packaging and promotion contributed enormously to "Life Savers" candies' commercial success.
While the candy was first made c. 1913, the distinctive Life Savers packaging was developed and promoted by Edward J. Noble during the late nineteen-teens. The Port Chester facility was constructed in 1920 to meet a growing demand for "Life Savers" and served as the company's headquarters until 1984. The Life Savers Building remains a prominent local landmark associated with one of America's most popular confections as well as with the twentieth-century history of Port Chester. A 1948-49 addition to the building was also built by Lockwood, Greene and Co. to a nearly identical design.
In 1913 a salesman of streetcar advertising space, Edward J. Noble, purchased a tubular package of mints marked "Life Savers" for a nickel in a New York City candy store. Impressed with the taste of the candy, Noble went to Cleveland to see Clarence A. Crane, creator of Life Savers. Crane, a chocolate manufacturer who made mints in the summer when chocolate sales dropped, was not interested in Noble's ideas to increase mint sales with creative advertising; he did, however, offer to sell the rights to the mint candies to Noble for $5,000, a sum that was eventually negotiated down to $2,900.
Soon after becoming the owner of the rights to Life Savers, Noble discovered that the mints he had tasted were less than one week old, and that boxes left on the shelves longer than that grew stale quickly and yielded "glue-flavored" candy. Promptly devising a tinfoil wrapping to retain the mint taste, Noble went back to Crane's retailers to restock their shelves. They would agree only to exchange new stock for old, however, and since the operation was at this point a shoe-string one, Noble, looking for new outlets, convinced the proprietors of barber shops, drugstores, cigar stores, and restaurants to take a few boxes.
As part of his sales strategy, he suggested that store owners put the mints near the cash register, give every customer at least one nickel in change, and "see what happens."
Still primarily an advertising man, Noble brought his talents to bear on the new product. The name "Life Savers" and the mints themselves were marketed in ways that began to make advertising history. Free samples (a new idea) were packaged and distributed all over New York City by women in nautical costumes, and by men dressed in metal tubes painted to look like Life Saver rolls. (This particular ploy was short-lived, due to a misadventure involving several of the men in metal tubes and a group of Columbia University undergraduates. The students, encountering Noble's employees at the top of a hill, were unable to resist the tempting opportunity to turn the men on their sides and roll them back down the hill.) Candy was delivered to dealers by a truck shaped and colored like a Life Saver package. Noble also devised a top-of-the-counter display case to hold cylinders of candy, designed so that as a cylinder was purchased and removed, another rolled down to take its place. World War I and sugar restrictions slowed production, but when sugar quotas were removed, production (then at 545 W. 20th Street in Manhattan) rose and sales jumped two hundred percent. So successful were his tactics that an early 1919 issue of the Saturday Evening Post carried the first written ad for the candy which read, in part: "Our problem has been to make Life Savers fast enough, rather than to sell them. Two years ago they were unknown, but now it takes a million-and-a-half little Life Savers every day to keep pace with your desire." Five years after Noble purchased the candy rights, he was a millionaire and in need of a larger manufacturing facility.
The village of Port Chester, New York, a long-established nineteenth-century manufacturing community, continued to prosper through the turn of the century, and the same favorable conditions that made the area ripe for industrial expansion in the nineteenth century, ease of transportation and a strong labor market, brought Edward J. Noble and Noble later introduced other packaging innovations to the industry, including aluminum foil for wrapping and a wax-attached "pull-string" for ease in opening. Material contained in Nabisco Brands files, Life Savers Building, North Main Street, Port Chester, N.Y.
The village of Port Chester, New York, a long-established nineteenth-century manufacturing community, continued to prosper through the turn of the century, and the same favorable conditions that made the area ripe for industrial expansion in the nineteenth century, ease of transportation and a strong labor market, brought Edward J. Noble and his factory to Port Chester in 1920. Land in a part of the community close to U.S. 1 and to a major rail line was available. Lockwood, Greene and Company, an engineering firm founded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1882 which specialized in industrial architecture, was commissioned to design a facility.
The basic architectural and engineering considerations addressed in the construction of the Life Savers factory were directly connected to those of other early twentieth-century industrial structures and to the traditions of American industrial construction that began with nineteenth-century New England mills. Mills were the first industrial buildings (as a distinct type) constructed in America and regardless of a structure's location; New England, or the southern or mid-Atlantic states, the mills had to provide, near a source of water power, space adequate in strength and dimension for the requisite machines and people. Form following function and site restriction produced long narrow buildings, two to six stories in height, constructed of stone or brick with many windows and gable roofs. Exterior interest, aside from aesthetics inherent in the proportions and symmetry, was focused on bell or stair towers if they were present. The office, or counting house, was most often found in a separate building, as was the heating system when the source of power changed from water to steam.
Late nineteenth-century changes in mill construction involved alteration in roofline from the gable, which restricted the depth of buildings and was considered a fire hazard, to the nearly flat configuration. Some designs incorporated the then-popular mansard roof in the 1860s and early '70s, but after 1875 all new mill construction, was distinguished by the less interesting but more practical flat roof. In conjunction with this alteration, wood continued to be used for large-size framing members, but all openings between floors were provided with self-closing fire doors.
In Westchester County, the Brandreth Pill Factory at Ossining (1872) has a mansard roof, while the first building of the Alexander Smith Carpet Mills Complex, dating from 1871, has a mansard roof stair tower and a flat-roof section.
The next major change, the use of concrete in mill construction, was introduced by Lockwood Greene in 1886 and was used by that firm from the early 1890s for foundations and footings. The earliest reinforced concrete mill structure in the country was designed by Lockwood Greene for Maverick Mills and was built in East Boston in 1909. Also during this period, changes in configuration occurred due to the freedom from dependence on water power; Lockwood Greene pioneered the introduction of electrically driven machines at the South Carolina Palzer Plant in 1895.
By the last decade of the nineteenth century, Lockwood Greene was building mills throughout the United States and in some foreign countries and was doing construction outside of the textile industry. The first commission of this type was for an 1892 crane shop in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and other non-cotton mill jobs followed rapidly.
A New York office was established in 1912; the office's first job was a candy factory, Huyler's, in Chicago, 1913.
Lockwood Greene's main office had moved from Providence to Boston in 1901, with branch offices wherever the number of commissions made one feasible. During the second decade of the twentieth century, two of the firm's Boston partners were Chester Allen, with "a thorough knowledge of concrete construction" and Frank Reynolds "whose specialty was cotton mills and architectural projects." Up to this point, plant design was dictated primarily by efficiency and economics. Reynolds, who focused increasing attention on the appearance of industrial structures, set up a separate Lockwood Greene architectural office in January of 1919.
This office, also in Boston but at a different address, was free to solicit business "of a purely architectural nature" but at the same time, its services were to be available to help personnel in other offices with the architectural treatment of factory buildings. Walter W. Cook was hired to head the Boston architectural office, and George W. Blount took the job as Cook's assistant.
Walter Cook attended the Mechanics Arts High School in Boston and took special courses at Harvard, M.I.T., and the Atelier of the Boston Architectural Club. Before joining Lockwood Greene in 1919, Cook worked in the office of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. Blount was a classmate of Cook's at Harvard and M.I.T. He worked for Parker, Thompson and Rice, and the U.S. Housing Corporation until 1919, when he joined Cook at Lockwood Greene.
Although the small New York office was responsible for bringing in the Life Savers commission, and it has never been the custom for designers at Lockwood Greene to be designated architects of record, it is probable that Cook and Blount, working closely with Reynolds and Allen, determined the architectural character of the Port Chester buildings. The Life Savers plant, with its Chicago School antecedents, is more architectural in the stylistic sense than any contemporary mill-type buildings in Westchester and yet is clearly related to these and other early twentieth-century Lockwood Greene industrial structures through materials, fenestration, and response to functional requirements. The incorporation of candy facsimiles into the detail, making the building an extension of Edward Noble's advertising techniques, indicates that Cook also collaborated with the client.
The constraints of the corner site proved to be an inspiration to the Life Savers Building's designers. Instead of placing the structure's main entrance in the conventional, middle-of-a-facade position, the doorway, with its concentration of decorative detail, was inserted into the truncated south corner. This placement provided maximum visual impact from the Main Street approach since the lower part of the building, hidden by the context, comes suddenly and dramatically into sight as the viewer emerges from under the railroad bridge, directly opposite the entrance.
In massing, form, and fenestration descended from such eminent American predecessors as the Marshall Field Wholesale Store (H. H. Richardson, Chicago, 1885), the Chicago Stock Exchange (Adler and Sullivan, 1894), and the Carson, Pirie and Scott Department Store (Louis Sullivan, Chicago, 1899-1904), the Life Savers Building at the time of its construction offered a new, light-hearted, and highly individual interpretation of classically derived detail. "Pilasters " formed by bay divisions with pendant Life Savers for capitals and additional candy forms interspersed among the foliate decoration of the otherwise Renaissance-like entrance surround are balanced by more traditional detail, including the simple rustication of the raised basement and the spandrel pediments and paterae. Despite the generous use of decorative and colorful terra-cotta forms, however, the primary facades have a curious Art Deco flatness, conveying the impression that the building, like the product manufactured within, has been packaged.
The Life Savers Building, completed in 1920, was doubled in size with an addition in 1948-49 designed by Lockwood Greene. Lockwood Greene's main office had by this time moved to New York and Cook and Blount had left the firm, but the same combination of functional, structural, and "architectural" characteristics developed to fit, the Life Savers program in 1919 was used again twenty-eight years later.
In 1961, Life Savers acquired the two c. 1900 structures directly west of the factory and the later, adjacent corrugated iron building and attached them to the main structure by a concrete passageway. In the 1970's, the concrete of the primary structure began spalling badly. The cause of the problem was thought to be the concentration of sugar in the air. Although replacement facades were considered, it was decided to cover the concrete instead with a thin coating of stucco, working carefully around the terra-cotta detail. At the same time, the original wooden sash windows and transoms, affected by the concrete deterioration, were removed. The windows were replaced with aluminum sash; the transom openings were blocked up.
Life Savers, Inc., which had purchased Pine Bros. Cough Drops in the 1930s, was in turn bought by the Beech-Nut Corporation in the 1950s. Squibb acquired Beech-Nut in the late 1960s, and sold it to Nabisco Brands in 1981. Life Savers continued to expand, throughout this period, adding flavors, developing new sales techniques, and branching out with other confectionery products such as gum and different kinds of candy.
The number of employees at the Port Chester plant reached its height in 1980 with between six hundred and fifty and seven hundred workers. During the next three years, changes in candy consumption (the trend toward sugarless gum and mints) began to alter the Life Savers market; the business was further affected by rising overhead and labor costs. Nabisco decided to consolidate the production of Life Savers with that of other products at its Holland, Michigan plant. The decision to close the Port Chester factory was announced on June 7th, 1983, and candy production stopped in March, 1984. Through adaptive development as a residential structure, the Life Savers Building will continue to contribute to the streetscape and economy of the village of Port Chester as well as recalling an important episode in the history of Westchester County.
Building Description
The Life Savers Building in Westchester County, New York, is located at the northern edge of the central business district at the intersection of Horton Avenue and North Main Street, the primary thoroughfare of the village of Port Chester. Surrounded by mixed-use commercial, residential, and light industrial buildings, the factory is one block west of the Byram River, an early source of power for much of the village's nineteenth-century industrial development. Sited adjacent to the New Haven branch of the Metro North railroad line, on approximately two acres of land incorporating landscaping and a graveled parking area, the 1920 industrial building was designed by the engineering-architectural firm of Lockwood Greene and Company and was expanded by a 1948-49 addition. Larger-than-life replicas of Life Savers rolls at the foundation line of the 1920 structure have been rebuilt in modern materials. Constructed of reinforced concrete, brick and terra cotta, the Life Savers Building is unusual in its combination of industrial form, distinctive stylistic elements, and image-projecting "Life Savers" decorative detail.
Five stories high, the first a rusticated raised basement, the original, 1920 section of the Life Savers Building is irregular in plan, nine bays wide, and four bays deep, with a flat roof and a bracketed wood and ceramic tile canopy at the rooflines of three facades. The 1948 addition, which extended the earlier portion to the north by two bays and increased the overall depth of the building by five bays, is nearly identical to the original section with the exception of the canopy, absent above the five added bays on the west facade. The building is constructed of concrete with terra-cotta detail on the south and southeast and on portions of the north and east facades. The remaining bays of the north and east facades and the entire west facade are constructed of concrete and Roman brick. The concrete has been stuccoed.
On the stuccoed concrete and terra-cotta facades, window bays, flanked by shallow pilasters, rise from the raised basement level to segmental keystoned arches at the cornice line. On each level, Chicago-style tripartite openings now contain a combination of aluminum frame double-hung, one-over-one and fixed sash, with the exception of openings in the raised basement where all (aluminum) sash are fixed. All window openings on these facades originally contained double-hung wood sash, of the six-over-six or four-over-four types. Divided wood transoms remain in place but have been covered with aluminum panels.
The rear (west) facade of the building and portions of the east and north facades (all part of the 1948 addition) have rectangular bands of multi-light metal framed partially operable casement windows.
Decorative detail on the Life Savers Building is confined to the North Main Street and Horton Avenue and Wilkins Avenue facades of the original building, and to the five Horton Avenue bays of the addition. Of particular note are the dark green terra-cotta spandrels incorporating triangular pediments with foliate tympanum detail above the second level, stylized paterae at the third and fourth levels, and, at the cornice, additional foliate detail with rust and cream colored replicas of individual Life Savers candies. Similar foliate detail enhances the main (southeast) entrance, which also incorporates classically inspired terra-cotta moldings, a terra-cotta "Life Savers" plaque (green and cream colored), and large scroll consoles. The original double entrance doors of oak and glass remain and are surmounted by a large one-light transom on which the name "Life Savers, Inc." is lettered in gold.
A secondary south facade entrance retains the original molded concrete surround with a projecting lintel. An aluminum canopy has been inserted beneath the transom, however, and the double doors are aluminum. Additional south facade entrances were designed to provide access for railroad cars (on a spur of the New Haven line) and for trucks. (The railroad cars were backed out; trucks exited through an identical opening in the north facade.) Modern metal overhead doors now fill the openings.
Alterations at the roof line include a large corrugated metal enclosure and a concrete stair tower projection decorated with one colossal (white) replica of a Life Saver.
Interior space is primarily' functional in character. The small first-floor entrance lobby, triangular in configuration, contains only a reception desk/switchboard and a glass-walled built-in showcase for product display. Surfaces include a terrazzo floor, acoustical tile ceiling, and plaster walls. Beyond the lobby is a long rectangular Space, entered as well from the side (south) facade, containing elevator and stair tower entrances. The floor here is quarry tile.
On the remainder of the first floor and on the second through the fifth floors, accessed by two elevators and a metal industrial staircase, spaces include corridors, laboratories, and large-span working spaces with round or octagonal reinforced concrete columns with splayed capitals. Floor surfaces are concrete, exposed or covered with quarry or vinyl tile. Interior walls are exposed concrete or exposed white-painted brick, some with glass brick insets or ceramic tile wainscotting. Lit by banks of windows on at least two sides, most of the large span spaces still contain the machinery, pipes, vats, and tanks (of copper, brass, stainless steel, or fiberglass) required for candy preparation.
Truck and train docks, entered from the south, were incorporated in the building when the 1948 addition was constructed. In these areas, supporting members are rectangular in configuration.