The Cannery of Palo Alto

The Sobrato Organization plans to take advantage of Senate Bill 330 in its bid to build 85 townhomes in a sprawling area of Palo Alto that was recently occupied by Fry's Electronics. I was going to try to stop this but I think it’s hopeless in this town. Sobroto is one of the biggest developers in the State, they built Facebook headquarters and the Googleplex.

Dr. Gloria Hom shares the remarkable life story of her grandfather, Thomas Foon Chew, who was a very successful Chinese-American businessman during the early 20th Century, in the Chinese Exclusion Act period in California. Settling in the South Bay, he became a cannery magnate, starting and developing Bayside Cannery, the third largest cannery in the US. Dr. Gloria Hom is a fourth-generation Californian who has spent her life in pursuit of the best for her family and community. She is an economist, professor, lecturer, businesswoman, community leader and administrator with extensive civic and community involvement. Presented on March 31, 2019 at Rinconada Library in Palo Alto, California.

Here's a group of employees at Bayside Cannery (former home of Maximart & more recently, Fry's), Mayfield, September 23, 1918. The Chinese American owned cannery opened for business on July 16, 1918, with 350 people canning apricots. By August the cannery was still frantically recruiting local women to cut pears, via ads in local papers. A free bus to and from the cannery picked up workers at Redwood at 6:20 a.m. and at University Gate on the State Highway (Palm Dr. & El ...Camino Rl.) at 6:30 a.m. A majority of the cannery workers were women, mostly Portuguese and Chinese immigrants. Employment, of course, varied by the season and the size of the crops. Newspaper stories provide snapshots from different years. In 1934, there were 3035 permanent (year-round) workers in the office, mechanical, and shipping departments. For canning spinach in the spring, there were 350375 temp workers for 20 days in 1933. For the peak season in August during the World War II years of 194245, there were up to 1500 temps. During the war years, the cannery frequently ran ads seeking from 50 to 400 workers on an urgent basis to handle expected crops. In 1946, 1,000 employees were expected to vote in a union election, but the actual work force was certainly higher. In 1949, when the cannery was closed, it was estimated that Palo Alto would lose a million dollar payroll (which probably translates to 1,000 or more workers). This would be the equivalent of nearly $20 million today. It was the largest employer in Palo Alto at that time. [Barron Park Assoc.]

Palo Alto Online story from August 2019.

Old cannery in North Carolina being converted into multi-use center. Story from January 2018.