Loleta Creamery Research Notes Susie Van Kirk

Humboldt State University Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University Susie Van Kirk Papers Special Collections 2-2013 Loleta Creamery Research Notes Susie Van Kirk Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/svk Part of the Agriculture Commons, Architecture Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Van Kirk, Susie, "Loleta Creamery Research Notes" (2013). Susie Van Kirk Papers. 18. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/svk/18 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections at Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Susie Van Kirk Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University. For more information, please contact kyle.morgan@humboldt.edu. SUSIE VAN KIRK HISTORIC RESOURCES CONSULTANT P.O. BOX 568 BAYSIDE, CA 95524 707-822-6066 svkirk@humboldt1.com LOLETA CREAMERY RESEARCH NOTES November 2011-February 2013 APN 309-123-002 281 Loleta Drive Loleta, CA 95551 Owner: Peter van der Zee P.O. Box 334 Loleta, CA 95551 Site visit with Peter and Kathleen Stanton, 11/16/11 Peter wants to remove overhang in front in order to remove tanks. His engineers have told him the door and area where glass bricks are can be "popped out" to get tanks out. Cypress Grove goat cheese plant wants the tanks. There are nine tanks, each 7000 gallons. He wants to do this soon. Next year he wants to demolish the brick storage building in back of the main building. No way to save. He needs to take it down in order to remove the PG&E transformers. The creamery was abandoned several years ago. The powdered milk production was terminated nine years ago; then used for storage four or five years; creamery went into receivership; vandalism. Thinks the brick storage building was built in the 1930s or 1940s. During WWII, the plant produced powdered ice cream mix. The building, with multiple bays, was built in early 1940s. Used as machine shop and to wash trucks. He wants to clean up and clear out things; rusted steel pressure tanks, but still doesn't have a clear long-term vision of what he wants to do here. Need for stabilization work at southwest corner of main building. Double-hung wood sash windows are of heartwood redwood. Wants to take down wood linkage between main building and brick storage building. He doesn't want to sell-out the town. He wants to develop value-added agricultural products. Coal oil for boilers; tanks at back. No documentation yet of contamination. Loleta Plant Fire Protection, Golden State Co., Loleta blueprint on wall in entrance hall. Tank room upstairs is amazing. Lots of light, quite beautiful actually. Boilers made by Pennsylvania Boiler Works, Erie, and Eureka Boiler Works, dates of 1932. Ralph Robison of Loleta worked here for 20 plus years. Foremost-McKisson bought plant; made Milkman powdered milk. Powdered milk used in baby formula for national distribution. 2 Site visit with Peter and Ralph Robison, 12/6/11 Ralph worked at the Foremost plant from 1974 until 2002, but he first visited the plant as a kid in 1951-1952, when he "shipped" milk here from the family dairy. He lived near where Peter presently lives near the overhead trestle; Peter lives in the old Elliott house. The last powdered milk was produced in 2007. The Fernbridge plant then used the facility as a warehouse up until about 2008-2009. Peter purchased it in April 2011. Front Overhang: Ralph thinks it was probably added in the 1950s to provide cover for the hatch in the top of the tank truck. Milk tank trucks and tanks in the milk house on the dairies came into pretty general use late 1950s-1960. Ralph said he worked at Barnes at Fernbridge between 1956-1960 and they were selling lots of tanks at that time. The milk went from a pipe at the rear of the truck tank into the creamery pipe; opening the hatch relieved the strong vacuum which could otherwise flatten the tank. Overhang measures 15x30 feet, corrugated metal panels about 2 feet wide laid on 3-inch channel iron. It rests on 4-foot channel iron on the wall of the building and is anchored to the wall by metal rods that angle off the building. Prior to tanks (both in milk houses and on trucks), the milk was delivered in 10-gallon cans. The cans were delivered to the open docks on the front of the easternmost building. At the far end was the weigh station, where each can was weighed. The dairymen brought their pails to be cleaned each day around the corner at the east end of the building. Metal Building: Ralph said the building was built prior to 1964 flood, because after the flood, the dairymen brought their electric motors to be repaired and be dried out in the ovens inside the building. Peter thinks the building is rather "modern" because it has a perimeter concrete foundation and not just simply a concrete pad. Measurements are 24x40 feet; four skylights of corrugated plastic panels; exterior is covered with vertical corrugated metal; wood roof trusses. Ralph pointed out that under the concrete floor along the southern wall is a concrete tank that probably served as a settlement basin for water from the boiler room. Peter called is a SOG tank, like he was required to put in the bakery to catch and settle out grease (soap, oil, grease?). Ralph said a pipe from the tank drained the water out the northwest corner of the property and eventually onto somebody's pasture? The tank predates the metal building which was built over part of it; a portion remains outside the building beyond the south wall. Tank area measures 10x32 feet, maybe half the width inside and half outside. Transformers: There are three large transformers, installed in 1953, and containing PCBs. There is a power pole on the east side of the transformer enclosure, indicating that the power lines from the poles at the eastern edge of the property came to the transformer as overhead wires. At some point, they were put underground and Ralph pointed out the holes in the concrete between the tall brick building and the metal building. Could we conclude that the metal building was constructed after installation of the transformers? Did the workers of 1953 just horse them in there or did they use cranes like they will use to remove them? If the latter is the case, the metal building would have to post-date the transformers because the brick building and the causeway are obviously older than the transformers. [Jerry Rohde reported that transformers were removed in late October] Brick Milk Powder Plant. Tall brick building. Ralph said at one time the dryer for the powdered milk was in this building. During the War, they stored all the spare parts and replacement supplies in this building so they could keep the plant operating during those years of scarcity. Building's south wall seems to indicate construction at two different times. 3 Causeway/Walkway: This is a two-story affair above ground, sloping upward to connect the main facility with the brick milk powder plant. It has v-rustic siding, but laminated (liked cribbed wall) flooring, probably 6 or 8 inches thick to support heavy loads. The structure measures 7 feet 5 inches in width and 34 feet in length. East wall has no windows; west wall lined with multi-paned windows. [HS (20 Aug. 1932) Advertisement for redwood; Redwood Crib Construction; otherwise known as laminated flooring when used as a bridge decking; used for 35-40 years] Second Causeway/Walkway: Connects main facility with package room for Milkman powder. Sanborn (1909 map updated 1931 overlaid map shows a very narrow connection, which was expanded at some point. Area off the east side of the package room had two, large, glass- lined tanks for storing boiler water. One is still there; the other is in the yard east of the metal building and later held diesel oil. Extending to the north along the east side of the package room is a series of bays, the first three were machine shops, the next several were for the trucks that picked up the milk cans from outlying areas, three more bays with doors, and at the northern end a loading dock. Ancillary Structures: Cooling tower, water storage structure which once held two 20- foot diameter redwood tanks, and the spring house from which water flows all the time and was evident today. To the south of these structures is the large machine shop with its walls lined with multi-paned windows. Immediate Needs: 1. removal of front overhang in order to "pop out" the glass-block area and remove the large tanks which he wants to sell. 2. brick and wall repair, and structural shoring up 3. removal of transformers 4. removal of metal building in order to remove transformers 5. removal of first causeway. Referred me to man who lives in Stafford Alford Kelly Engineers in Fortuna: Brian Ontiveros and Associates. 725-7410 Assessor's Records, reviewed 1/5/2012, spoke with Ken Armstrong He has yet to assess. Said the property area is 2.95 acres. Sheets 2 & 3. One and two stories, concrete and brick buildings Date of construction estimated as 1915; first assessed in 1960 Computations: 1st floor (25,488) less 1/2x14x120=840 76x5=380 293x19=5,567 16x4=64 217x51=11,067 185x50=14,800 C (4,152) houses 7 boilers 60x51=3,060 4 42x26=1,092 D (2,750) evaporator 55x50=2,750 E (696) boiler area 34x12=408 24x12=288 G (760) pent house, dryer H (1,470) I (240) 20x12=240 Walk in box, 2,112 elevators 3,000; 2,000 vault, 411 Office, 297 docks 2,660 2nd Floor (17,760) A and B 76x24=1,824 16x4=64 52x70=3,640 65x120=7,800 2nd Floor: 18,800 less 1/2x14x120=840 17,960 Buildings A: Receiving platform B.

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