Visiting the Beet Sugar Factory in old-time, and modern Glendale, Arizona


One of my favorite old buildings in Glendale, Arizona is the Beet Sugar Factory. It's huge, and it was built in anticipation of the success of growing beets for sugar. Sadly, it turned out to be a failure, with huge investments being lost, and has been mostly forgotten as just one of the things that Arizona investors tried.

I found the old postcard on the left on eBay, and I go visit the building whenever I can, which is still there, on 52nd Avenue and Glendale. Of course there's no booming beet sugar production, and actually the building has spent most of its life completely empty, and abandoned. Locals tell me that it's been used for things on an off, but I really don't recall. If you do, make a comment and I'll update this blog post. Of course the photo on the right is from Google Street View.

It was built just south of Samuel Bartlett's ranch (the brother of William, who owned the Sahuaro Ranch, a couple of miles northwest). Here's a map from 1903 to get you oriented. The main cross streets which you will recognize are Grand and Glendale Avenue.


I have other photos of the Beet Sugar Factory, which must have been very exciting for the people who invested in it, and were sitting back waiting to get rich from the production of sugar from beets. Here ya go:





And here's some other stuff on the Beet Sugar Factory:



1909

Thank you for visiting the Beet Sugar Factory with me!


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