225 Church Street, Philadelphia PA 19106
© Helene Schenck & Michael
Parrington, Workshop of the World (Oliver Evans Press,
1990).
The Sugar Refinery was built
in 1792 by Joshua Cresson and John Bartholomew on
undeveloped land near Christ Church, in a neighborhood
that developed in importance as a commercial and
residential sector prior to the Revolutionary War. The
"Sugar House," as it was known, grew over the years from
its original five stories to eight stories, and the sugar
storage house was expanded into a steampowered refinery.
Famous Philadelphians held an interest in the property
over the course of the 19th century; architect John
Dorsey owned the building between 1793 and 1803; Clement
Biddle, Jr. owned a half interest until 1839. An
advertisement during this period describes the Sugar
House as a "capacious building...5 stories
high...containing all the necessary pans, coolers,
cisterns, moulds and implements for carrying on the
business on a large scale". 1
Joseph S. Lovering, who had been a grocer at 2nd and Pine
Streets, owned and operated the Sugar Refinery from 1836
to 1866. During this time, it was one of the largest in
the world. Lovering apparently had his own methods of
refining sugar which New York refiners sought to
discover.
For
the purpose of deceiving and misleading them in their
attempts, he had a room in his refinery fitted up with a
great number of pipes and valves, also intricate looking
machinery, into which at certain times, he would go and
turn valves and manipulate levers, simply as a blind, the
whole arrangement being a mere fake, that had nothing to
do with the real process of refining.
2
Lovering's advertisements made the claim that his Steam
Sugar Refinery produced "Steam Sugar, Refined without the
use of Blood". 3
Edwin Freedley described the process of refining sugar at
midcentury: sugar was dissolved by steam passing through
a perforated pipe in the bottom of the pan. After the
removal of color the solution was boiled down in what
were known as vacuum pans, heated by steam. Upon cooling
the concentrated solution underwent a rapid
crystallization within funnel or sugarloaf molds. The
syrup which ran from the molds was again boiled and
condensed to produce the lower grades of sugar. The syrup
remaining after the final condensation was sold for
molasses. Freedley indicated that the introduction of
"machinery and steam" had transformed the process: "this
improvement, with the substitution of aluminous finings
in place of bullock's blood, which supplied a fertile
source of deterioration, has wonderfully increased the
quality of production and raised the standard of
quality". 4
Freedley went on
to comment that "a few years since but a single Refiner
had a name here (Philadelphia), and a well deserved one.
The firm alluded to ... is J.S. Lovering &
Co.—a name well known in the principal markets of
the world, and we may say in the scientific
world." 5
Joseph Lovering sold the refinery to McKean, Newhall
& Borie in 1866. The building was finally abandoned
as a refinery around 1910 and became the property of
Joseph Wharton, the son in law of Lovering. He used
it as a warehouse, as did subsequent owners, until it was
converted to luxury apartments in 1976.
1 Poulson's American
Daily Advertiser, June 30, 1828, p. 4.
2 William H.
Jordan, North
Third Street, Philadelphia Fortyfive Years
Ago,
1905, pp. 24-25.
3 Quoted in R.A.
Smith, Philadelphia
As It Is in 1852, p. 138.
4 Edwin Freedley,
Philadelphia
and its Manufacturers, (Philadelphia, 1857), p.
386.
5 Freedley, p. 387.
Update May
2007 (by
Harry Kyriakodis):
Still standing as an apartment
complex.