Old Chewing Gum Factory in Cleveland
White Chewing Gum Company - American Chicle, Cleveland Ohio
It was in this context of experimentation and innovation, an environment in which small start-up businesses grew into industrial giants, that William J. White took the chewing gum industry to new heights. Born in Ontario in 1850, White came to Cleveland with his parents at the age of six. As a young man, about the mid-1870s, White entered business as proprietor of a candy store. About 1876 he entered the chewing gum business through the purchase of an existing gum manufacturing plant from George Clark. White took in a partner, Charles Heisel, and later sold this first gum business to Heisel. The business was located at what is today 819 Superior Avenue in Cleveland, in a building that is no longer standing.
In 1885, White began his second chewing gum enterprise. Chewing gum had been developed in the 1830s and first used the resin of the spruce tree and later paraffin as a base. Chicle, the coagulated milky juice of a tropical American tree, came into use as a chewing gum base in the 1860s but saw limited acceptance because it could not be readily flavored.
Around 1886 or 1887, White and his wife experimented in their kitchen with a barrel of chicle from Yucatan which he obtained from a Cleveland grocer. He found that if he increased the sugar content and added flavorings to the corn syrup sweetener, the chicle accepted and retained the flavorings. Whether by accident or on purpose, White chose peppermint as the principal flavor, and almost overnight his chicle-based, peppermint-flavored gum became universally accepted. (Even today, peppermint is the flavor of some 50% of all chewing gum.)
White introduced an additional innovation around 1886 or 1887: the sale of gum as small flat sticks. Up to this point, gum was sold in foil-wrapped rods about half the length and thickness of a cigarette, or it was cut from a roll at a pharmacy or confectionery. Chewing gum is, of course, still sold in the form developed by White. He first named his gum "Yellow Band," but soon he changed the brand name to "Yucatan."
At this time, White established his new gum company at what today would be 1547-63 Columbus Road in Cleveland, in a now-demolished building. Cleveland then had two other gum manufacturers besides White: George Clark, who apparently stayed in the business even after White purchased his gum manufacturing plant in 1876; and Charles Heisel, to whom White had sold his first gum business.
White was soon to sprint far ahead of his competitors in the gum business, thanks to his innovations in the use of chicle. In 1887 alone he sold five million sticks of gum. The demand was so great that White sought a new manufacturing facility, and in 1888 he built the Chicle Building.
The new headquarters and plant of the White Chewing Gum Company was built in the then-separate municipality of West Cleveland, several miles west of downtown Cleveland.
The city directory for 1888-89 had an entry for "White, W.J., Manufacturer of Chewing Gum, "Yucatan' a Specialty, South Side Detroit St., at L.S. & M.S.R.R. Crossing, W.C., Telephone 1574." ("W.C." referred to West Cleveland.) White had chosen a somewhat isolated site in an area that still was largely open land or farms, but it was along what would become Detroit Avenue, a major east-west route to and from downtown Cleveland, and just west of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, which provided ready rail access to the east coast, Chicago, and all other major U.S. cities.
In addition to its wide popularity in the United States, White's "Yucatan" gum became "famous throughout the world," with sales totaling 150 million sticks annually by 1893. According to one source, White's Cleveland operation was "for almost a decade . . . the largest of its kind anywhere." Cleveland was known as the chewing gum capital of the world, and White was "America's First Chewing Gum King." In addition to his technical innovations, White was known for his marketing and promotion efforts and was said to have delivered a box of gum to every member of Congress.
About this same time, Cleveland managed to produce another "Chewing Gum King," Edwin E. Beeman. Trained in medicine, Beeman discovered that pepsin, an extract from the stomachs of hogs, gave relief from indigestion. In 1883 Beeman began the manufacture of pepsin in Cleveland, selling it as a white powder in a blue bottle with a pig's picture on the label. In 1890 the bookkeeper of the Beeman Chemical Company suggested adding pepsin to chewing gum, and Beeman's Pepsin Gum was born. Though his product was considered a medicine and not a confection like White's, Beeman had sales of over $400,000 in 1898. Beeman's firm was headquartered in the Bradley Building in Cleveland's Warehouse District between 1891 and 1899, when it became part of American Chicle Company.
The rapid growth and great success of his gum business made White a wealthy man, his fortune eventually growing to some five million dollars. He dabbled in politics, serving as mayor of West Cleveland and also serving a term in Congress. Around Cleveland he was known for his opulent lifestyle. He built a 52-room mansion, "Thornwood," on the lakefront not far from his factory, around 1890 (this house has since been demolished). He stocked the home with fine furnishings and art; some of the art ended up in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. White also owned a large stock farm and racetrack (both demolished), and a fine yacht which he sailed on Lake Erie. In the first decade of the 20th century, White's lifestyle would contribute in large part to his eventual downfall, particularly his lavish spending and his reputation as a "womanizer" who had taken up with a Ziegfield girl.
By the late 1890s, White's firm had taken the name W.J. White & Son, and in 1899 the company joined with Beeman Chemical Company and three other chewing gum firms to form the American Chicle Company, based in New York City. White took a 40% share of the stock in the new firm, reflecting the market share his company enjoyed at the time in comparison with the other companies. Formation of American Chicle set up the "Big Three" in American chewing gum, the others being Wrigley and Beech-Nut. These firms controlled virtually all the gum production in the country at the time. White, however, had made the whole venture possible through his pioneering work with chicle nearly 15 years before. He served as American Chicle's president.
At first, American Chicle carried on production at both Beeman's and White's factories, but by 1903 only White's remained in operation. (Beeman's plant was at 78 Bank Street in Cleveland.) Shortly after the formation of American Chicle, White's Detroit Avenue building was expanded, and White remained in charge of day-to-day operations.
By 1905, however, White was largely out of the chewing gum business. Conservative elements in American Chicle's management were said to look with disfavor upon White's lifestyle, and he was forced from the firm. City directories for 1904-05 tell the story: there was an entry for "American Chicle Co (Formerly W.J. White & Son)" at the Detroit Avenue address, and also an entry for White, W.J. & Son, American Chicle Co., Successor, Chewing Gum Manufacturers. The man who had made chicle work no longer worked for American Chicle.
White disappeared from the city directories by 1906. He was divorced and re-married late in 1906 and moved to New York City. By 1910 he had built a new gum manufacturing plant, under the name of the W.J. White Chicle Company, in Niagara Falls, New York. American Chicle Company, however, bedeviled White with lawsuits over the gum manufacturing process, and he lost the new firm and his fortune. Returning to Cleveland in 1922, White made another attempt at establishing a gum company, but early in 1923 he slipped on an icy sidewalk and died from his injuries a few weeks later at the age of 72.
After White's ouster around 1905, American Chicle continued operation of the Cleveland plant as the "American Chicle Co. (Cleveland Factory)." In 1919 the company announced plans for a new $2 million plant in Long Island City, New York, and in 1921 the firm's Cleveland plant closed. Since 1914, the plant had been the only Cleveland gum manufacturer, and after 1921 chewing gum was no longer made in Cleveland. American Chicle became a part of the Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company in 1962, and today the echoes of the firm's beginnings in Cleveland survive in the Beeman's and Chiclets gum brand names.
Building Description
The White Chewing Gum Company Building (today known as the Chicle Building) is located at 10307 Detroit Avenue on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio. The building is on the south side of the street, on an isolated site. The site is triangular and is. bounded on the north by Detroit Avenue, on the east by the Conrail railroad tracks, and on the west by the below-grade tracks of the city's airport rapid transit line. No other buildings stand within this triangular parcel of land, nor are there any across Detroit Avenue to the north.
The building is located at the brink of the bluff that rises from the shore of Lake Erie some half-mile to the north. From the lake level at approximately 571 feet a.s.l., the ground rises in a series of steps to the level of Detroit Avenue at approximately 665 feet a.s.l.; it then rises abruptly again to the top of the bluff at approximately 680 feet elevation. The White Chewing Gum Company Building is set into the bluff, so that the front portion is along Detroit Avenue and is five stories in height, while the rear portion is at the top of the bluff and is four stories in height. The main block of the building measures 58 by 98 feet.
The building was built in 1888 and is of brick bearing wall construction. It has an interior frame constructed of wood, with some wrought iron or steel posts and beams at the first floor. It could not be determined whether these posts and beams are original or are a later alteration. The building has a flat, sloping roof.
The exterior is very plain and severe, with almost no ornamentation. The north elevation, along Detroit Avenue, is the primary facade and is five stories high. It is dominated by the large segmental-arched doorway, near the northeast corner of the building, through which wagons and trucks could bring in supplies. To its right, three large arched windows have been infilled with masonry materials; to the left is the personnel door which leads to the wood interior stairway. The transoms of the personnel and wagon doors appear to be original, but the doors are later replacements. The doorway openings have not been altered. On the four upper floors of this facade, the windows are arranged in a pattern typical of the rest of the building: paired rectangular wood windows set into segmental-arched openings. The center bay of the five on this elevation is wider than the two to either side, which creates a 2-1-2 clustering of window openings. The windows contain a variety of sash: l-over-1, 4-over-4, 6-over-6, and jalousie-type replacement sash. The parapet wall above the fifth floor on the north elevation has several projecting brick courses, which form a shallow cornice, but there is no other ornamental treatment.
On the west elevation, the steeply rising grade of the lake bluff covers about half of the building's first-floor wall; thus the north half is five stories in height and the south half is four. On the first floor, three pairs of small arched windows have been infilled with concrete block. The other windows on this elevation are similar to those on the north in size and design. Four have been altered: one on the fifth floor near the northwest corner has been infilled, and one each on the third, fourth, and fifth floors have been converted to fire escape doors. Two other windows on the third floor south of the fire escape have been covered with plywood. Surviving windows have both 1-over-1 and 6-over-6 sash. At the southwest corner of the building is the nearly square dressing room addition, which was built in 1900 and measures 23 by 25 feet. Like the main building, the addition is of brick bearing wall construction with wood interior framing. The addition's north wall has paired windows similar to those on the main building at the third, fourth, and fifth floors; the west wall has two individual windows on each floor; and the south elevation is windowless. Windows are 6-over-6 double-hung sash, with some covered by plywood. The parapet on this elevation of the main building is stepped to accommodate the slope of the flat roof. At the second floor level, a contemporary frame entrance area has been added in the ell formed by the main building and the addition.
The south elevation has shadows and scars from long-demolished additions. These included a coal house, a boiler house, an engine and dynamo house, and a sugar room. These additions dated from the early 1890s and represented an expansion of the chewing gum manufacturing business; however, the entire business and all its processes were originally housed in the extant building. All the windows on the south elevation have been removed and the openings infilled with either brick or concrete block. Small contemporary windows have been placed in nine of the infilled windows.
On the east elevation, filled rafter pockets and other scars indicate where an office/loading/ storage building was built in 1900, as part of the business's expansion. This addition was one story high and extended the full depth of the main building; the facade of the addition was approximately the same width as the original building. Like the addition on the south elevation, this addition was removed at some point in the past. Thus the building survives today in its original 1888 form, with the exception of the dressing room addition on the west elevation. On the east elevation as on the west and south, the ground level is the second floor level of the building. On this elevation, several second-floor windows have been infilled with concrete block, as has one loading door (several loading doors once led into the addition here, which was served by a railroad spur). On the upper floors, the windows follow the pattern found elsewhere in the building: paired rectangular sash in segmental-arched openings. Sash are double-hung in 1-over-1 and 6-over-6 designs. One upper-floor window has been infilled, but the rest remain open, as do three small windows near the north end of the facade at the first-floor level. Faint painted signs can still be seen on the east elevation, including a circular one advertising Yucatan Gum.
On the interior, the White Chewing Gum Company Building is plain and utilitarian. On the first floor, the clear height is approximately 15 feet. The wood joists of the second floor are exposed and are supported by iron or steel columns and beams, which leaves the space on this floor largely unobstructed. The brick walls on this floor have been painted white.
The second floor remains largely open and unobstructed. Wood posts and beams support the joists of the third floor, and the wood floor remains exposed. The brick walls have been painted white.
On the third floor, part of the space has been finished in paneled partitions and lowered ceilings, of recent date, with carpeting on the floor. In the balance of this floor, the wood posts and beams remain exposed, but the fourth-floor joists have been covered with a ceiling material. In this area, the wood floor remains exposed, and the brick walls have been painted white.
The fourth floor has partitioning similar to that on the third, and the fifth-floor joists have been covered with a ceiling material. The brick walls have been painted white.
The dressing room addition looks the same on all levels: a simple, square room with a wood floor and exposed joists in the ceiling. The walls are painted white, and on the west wall of the original building there is a double window and a doorway which was cut at the time the addition was built.
The fifth floor is the most open in character. The space is similar to that in other areas of the building, though the wood floor has been covered, in part, with a flooring material. The roof joists are exposed, as are the posts and beams supporting the roof. The walls have been painted white, but the paint is quite old and deteriorated. A wood stair from the first floor is in the northeast corner, and a freight elevator is placed in the middle of the east wall.
A review of building permits and of atlas and insurance maps provides a picture of the building's evolution. Most permits associated with the building were for various mechanical, electrical, and plumbing projects, but some indicate dates of construction and demolition of additions and ancillary structures. One insurance map from c1910 has both a floor plan and a section drawing that shows uses on each floor.
By 1892, a triangular building, identified on a c1896 map as a chicle room, had been built southwest of the original building. On the building's south wall, one-story additions for the boiler house, the dynamo and engine rooms, and the sugar room were in place by 1892. Building permits note the addition of a coal shed in 1895, and this appears on the c1896 insurance map. By this same date, a stable or storage building had been built west of the chicle room. An atlas map from 1898 shows the property in the same condition, with no further addition or removal of structures.
By 1910 the property had assumed its maximum size. The chicle building has been removed and, with completion of the east side addition, all operations were under a single roof. This addition, the office/loading/storage building, covered the formerly open rail spur serving the building. Also by this time, the dressing room addition appears on the west side of the building (both it and the east side additions dated from 1900). Located near the building were an oil house to the south, the stable building previously noted, and a 30,000-gallon water tower to the west. Building permits show an addition in 1904, which appears to have been an enlargement of the engine room on the south elevation; and in 1905, when a "new store house" (possibly the oil house on the 1910 map) was approved.
Permits show a "building addition" approved in 1937, but nothing further is known about it; possibly it was approved but not built or was only a minor modification. The building's form did not change from 1910 into the 1950s, though the water tower was removed at some point. Permits show approvals for fire damage repair in 1958 and construction of a small frame shed in 1960, along with various mechanical work. Major change came in 1968, when the permits show approval to "raze 4 & 1 story brick factory & office." The reference to four stories is unclear, but this appears to be the date when all the east side addition was removed; a c1972 insurance map confirms this and shows that the stable and oil house were gone by this date as well.
Permits show another approval for interior office alterations in 1969 and for fire damage repair in 1971. More interior changes were approved in 1983.
The building assumed its current form in 1984, when permits show approval to "raze storage building, 1 story, 20'X70'," and "raze garage 1 story, 34'X126'." These dimensions do not fit those of free-standing buildings known to have been on the site, so they appear to refer to the south elevation additions that housed the coal shed, boiler house, engine room, and sugar room. Removal of these elements left the original 1888 building with its 1900 dressing room addition as the only structures on the site.
Looking southwest at east elevation (on left) and north elevation (on right, looking onto Detroit Avenue) (1999)
Closer view of primary (north) elevation, showing five-story height of this portion of building (1999)
Looking southeast at north elevation (on left) and west elevation (on right), showing dressing room addition at southwest corner of building (1999)
Looking east at west elevation; dressing room addition is on right (1999)
Looking northeast at south elevation. Dressing room addition is on left; at first floor, shadow of demolished coal house/boiler house/engine room/ sugar room addition is visible (1999)
Looking north along east elevation from building's southeast corner. Area to right was once enclosed in loading building/office addition (1999)
Looking west at east elevation's southern portion. Note rafter pockets at second floor level (first floor in this area), indicating where loading building/ office addition once stood. Circular sign is a faded advertisement for Yucatan Gum (1999)
Looking west at east elevation, showing its northern portion (1999)
First floor interior, looking west toward west wall (1999)
