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| Above: The historic Muirson Label Plant on Stockton St. The city's Planning Commission has recommended that it be demolished to make way for a housing complex despite opposition from preservationists and neighboring residents. |
Although listed as Structures of Merit on the city’s historic resources inventory and eligible for landmark status, the Muirson buildings' significance in local history were not enough to save them.
On August 20, the San Jose city council certified the Cinnabar Commons environmental impact report (EIR) and approved a high density housing project which would result in the demolition of the historic Muirson Label factory. Passionate pleas to save the landmark by PAC*SJ President Pat Curia and former Historic Landmarks commission chair Marti Wachtel did not dissuade the council.
The Muirson Label buildings, are perhaps the only remaining industrial buildings designed by renowned local architect William Binder (see, Douglas, William Binder: San Jose’s First Major Modern Architect, Continuity Spring 2001, at pp. 10-12).
The architecture of the buildings, both interior and exterior is largely intact. The County of Santa Clara Environmental Resources Agency, commenting on the draft EIR, points out: if it can be established that Binder designed the later additions on the buildings the historic resource could prove to be a rare example of industrial design by an important San Jose architect.
PAC*SJ has considered legal action for violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to fully consider feasible alternatives.
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'The city planning director brought this project forward in violation of the City Council Policy on Preservation of Historic Landmarks. . . . The policy affects any designated [landmarks], or structures that qualify. Besides the policy direction, which public officials are obliged to follow . . . the policy has specific guidelines [requiring] findings justifying alteration or demolition of a landmark structure. No draft findings are provided. Pat Curia, PAC*SJ President |
Seven Hills Property proposes to build a 260-unit four-building housing complex on the west side of Stockton Ave., between Cinnabar St. and Lenzen Ave., to be known as Cinnabar Commons. The residential buildings would be as many as six stories high and have a mixture of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.
The draft EIR for the project admits that a reduced scale adaptive reuse alternative . . . would keep the existing Muirson Company buildings on site and modify them so that they can be converted to residential use. Purportedly, this would yield approximately 40 loft-style units. New construction could then occur on the southern portion of the site, consisting of eight-story high rise buildings to accommodate the balance of the 260 units proposed.
However, the draft EIR says, [t]he added height of the new reconfigured buildings may be visually intrusive to the existing neighborhood and could create more severe shade and shadow impacts on nearby single-family residences. Accordingly, alternative reuse is rejected by the document.
The draft EIR proposes no mitigation measures whatsoever to address the significant impacts to historic resources by demolition of the Muirson Label buildings.
"We agree with the DEIR in that the project as proposed will have significant impacts on cultural resources, but also believe that the DEIR inadequately discusses these impacts and incompletely addresses mitigations and alternatives, PAC*SJ president Pat Curia wrote in a formal commentary on the draft EIR submitted to the Planning Dept. on May 6.
Curia also pointed out that the city planning director brought this project forward in violation of the City Council Policy on Preservation of Historic Landmarks. . . . The policy affects any designated [landmarks], or structures that qualify. Besides the policy direction, which public officials are obliged to follow . . . the policy has specific guidelines [requiring] findings justifying alteration or demolition of a landmark structure. No draft findings are provided.
The First Amendment to the DEIR, dated May 10, 2002, responds briefly and obliquely: The project has complied with the City Council Policy on the Preservation of Historic Landmarks to the extent possible.
In other words, the Planning Dept. tacitly admits having violated the city policy. No explanation is offered why factual findings could not have been provided.
Curia also pointed out in PAC*SJ’s commentary that similar adaptive reuse projects have been undertaken in the recent past on similar sites . . . such as the two Del Monte sites currently under renovation for adaptive reuse for loft housing. What is unique about the Muirson Label site that sets it apart from other projects where this potential impact has been adequately mitigated? The DEIR does not provide adequate assessment of this issue.
The Planning Dept. responded: [S]ubsurface contamination is a condition unique to this site presumably associated with the label printing business and other uses of the site which are unlike canning operations at the Del Monte plants.
This, however begs the question why high density housing can be built on a site without cleaning up the subsurface contamination.
As much as our community desperately needs affordable housing, it also needs housing with a heart, soul and sense of history. The loss of historic and cultural resources under this project is unacceptable . . . There are few historic warehouses left in San Jose, and the Muirson Label Factory is among the most historic and architecturally significant.' Mary Macdonald President, Shasta-Hanchett Neighborhood Assn. |
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PAC*SJ’s critical comments concerning the draft EIR were echoed by the local neighborhood association and by the County's environmental resources agency.
The retention of the Muirson Label Company building should be further explored as a mitigation measure, the County of Santa Clara Environmental Resources Agency declared in a May 3, 2002 commentary on the draft EIR. The building is currently occupied and appears, in its present use(s) to be economically viable.
And Shasta-Hanchett Neighborhood Assn. president Macdonald wrote: As much as our community desperately needs affordable housing, it also needs housing with a heart, soul and sense of history. The loss of historic and cultural resources under this project is unacceptable . . . The failure to fully evaluate adaptive reuse alternatives is more than an unfortunate avoidable impact, it is unacceptable. There are few historic warehouses left in San Jose, and the Muirson Label Factory is among the most historic and architecturally significant.
The neighborhood association gathered more than 200 signatures in a petition drive against the project.
Despite the absence of mitigation measures and notwithstanding the pointed critique of preservationists and public watchdogs, the Planning Commission certified the draft EIR on July 10. Planning commissioner Xavier Campos, brother of city councilmember Nora Campos, reportedly stated in effect that housing people is more important than preserving history.
PAC*SJ filed an appeal on July 15 which went before the city council on August 20.
Muirson Label, located at 425-435 Stockton Ave., played an important role in San Jose’s agricultural industry, creating the images of the Valley of Heart’s Delight seen worldwide via the colorful labels on fruit crates and containers, says Mary Macdonald, president of the Shasta-Hanchett Park Neighborhood Assn., which encompasses the area where the factory is located.
Muirson Label manufactured the labels affixed to the Valley’s fruit and vegetable produce packaging. These labels and crates are now highly collectible pieces of our history, Macdonald continues. Many were designed by Ralph Rambo, whose histories of the Valley were treasured by local schoolchildren.
Muirson Label, single story industrial buildings, were designed to gather the maximum amount of light for workers. The unique sawtooth roofs held scores of windows, allowing the design and printing operation of Muirson Label Co. to be performed with the good natural daylight that was so essential to this type of manufacturing.
The Muirson Label Co. is located in the heart of what was San Jose’s famous fruit packing district. Fruit packing was the mainstay of San Jose’s economy for more than a century, and the industrial buildings clustered near Stockton Ave. and The Alameda were at the hub for this Valley-wide enterprise.
Located nearby are Del Monte's Plant 51, the site of early canning and fruit processing operations dating to the 1870s, the Southern Pacific RR roundhouse and freight terminal, the Western Pacific freighthouse (recently demolished), the Union Ice Co. and a wide-range of related industries such as box and can manufacturers. Many of these structures still exist and are being renovated.
Rambo prepared a manuscript in 1963 entitled Plant Life, which is a history of the Muirson Label plant. The manuscript remains to be published, and PAC*SJ has urged that it published as a potential mitigation measure if the labeling plant is destroyed.
The label plant made fruit and vegetable crate labels like this one. |
The Muirson Label Co. buildings are located in the heart of what was San Jose’s famous fruit packing district. Fruit packing was a mainstay of San Jose’s economy for more than a century, and the industrial buildings clustered near Stockton Ave. were at its hub. |
In addition to its fruit packing heritage, Muirson Label is an important structure because it is linked to a Valley dynasty that pioneered the local printing industry.
George Muirson, founder and owner of Muirson Label Co., was the patriarch of a family that dominated the San Jose printing industry for generations. Muirson was of Scots ancestry; his father had emigrated from Scotland as a young man, bringing his bride, Eliza McKay Muirson.
George learned the printing trade and became the business manager for the San Jose Morning Times. He operated a printing company, bringing his nephew Theodore McKay Wright into the business. The company was known as Muirson Wright Printing. According to one family member, when Wright went to work one morning he found the presses already turning out still another fruit label jog. He remarked in disgust: Is that all we're going to print, box labels?
Shortly after, according to historian Charlene Duval, the business divided. Muirson Label was formed to print labels, Wright-Eley Printing handled the more traditional printing assignments.
George Muirson and his wife had no children, but George did bring another nephew, Theodore’s younger brother Charles, into the label business. While Theodore Wright built the Wright-Eley Co., his brother Charles was the vice president and sales manager of Muirson Label.
Another branch of the family specialized in journalism. George Muirson’s sister Christie married Horace G. Wright and they entered the newspaper business around 1872, publishing the Santa Clara Messenger. They later bought a paper in Paso Robles, and their daughter Mabel Wright Street became the editor. The third generation of news writers, Olive Street Engwicht, was the first woman graduated from the journalism department at San Jose State University.
The dynasty continued with Christie Engwicht, named for her great-grandmother, the pioneering publisher. Christie started working for the San Jose Mercury as a student and continued after graduation.
The Muirson-Wright-McKay clan and its offspring dominated the business for generations. The business continued into recent times with younger family members taking over as older ones retired. T.M. Wright died in 1946, but a printing company still occupies his business on N. Second St. Leonard McKay, another descendant, still operates McKay Printing and his inimitable Memorabilia of San Jose shop near the Peralta Adobe.
Muirson Label was bought out by International Paper in the 1960s, but the business continued under fourth generation Whitney Wright until the plant was finally closed in the 1970s.
Excerpt from: CONTINUITY, PAC*SJ's Newsletter, Summer 2002
by April Halberstadt and Don Gagliardi
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San Jose pear crate label depicting the Lick
Observatory on Mt. Hamilton 