by Paul R. Spitzzeri
It is hard to overestimate the importance to our built environment of 19th century building material innovations like the Bessemer steel and Portland cement (so named in the 1820s for an island of that name off the coast of England in the county of Dorset, southwest of London) manufacturing processes. As the American population burgeoned during that era and into the 20th century, thanks, in large measure, to innovations in health care and medicine, cities were enabled to go increasingly vertical with apartment and commercial buildings increasingly using cement and steel in their construction. These aren’t the sexiest historical topics, but as we’ve dug into to an extent with a post about early Irwindale, the development of building material in our region is vital if not well-recognized.
Los Angeles, which grew remarkably quickly from the mid-1880 through the Roaring Twenties, during the Homestead’s interpretive period of 1830 to 1930, had to important its cement during the Boom of the Eighties, which peaked during the mayoral term of William H. Workman, nephew of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste. A significant change, however, came in September 1891 with the incorporation of the California Portland Cement Company, still operating 135 years later, which built a plant in Colton and established its headquarters on Broadway north of 2nd Street in the Angel City.
The featured artifact from the Museum’s collection for this post is a cabinet card photograph, taken about 1900, of a group of 40 men, a mix of Anglo and Latino employees of the firm, with a few gents, two in the front and one in the second row, likely managerial staff, given their sartorial splendor with suits and bow ties. The rest were certainly the laboring crew at the plant, some holding tools of the trade. Note, too, the boy, perhaps about 12 years old seated fourth from right at the edge of the platform or loading dock. On the wall of the facility is the firm name, plant and headquarters locations and products, including lime and marble dust aside from cement.
This post looks at the first decade of the operations of California Portland Cement, beginning with a notice in the Los Angeles Journal of 19 September 1891 concerning the incorporation of the firm, with two Angel City directions and three from San Bernardino, including majority stock owner Ernest Waycott and his brother Richard. The Waycotts, assisted by a sibling, Frederic, were from Surrey, near London, England and were building contractors who recognized a long-felt need for local materials for construction.
The third partner from San Bernardino was Harry R. O’Bryan, whose family firm did bricklaying, plastering and wallpaper hanging. The Angel City cohort included civil and hydraulic engineer, as well as surveyor, John P. Culver and Frank H. Jackson, who was a partner in Culver’s company, formed a month or so earlier, which made electric, gas and water appliances, sewer pipe and for building gas and water plants under Culver’s patents. A partner in this latter enterprise was James R. Toberman, an important figure in Los Angeles, including service as its mayor for a half-dozen one-year terms between 1872 and 1882, while former Lincoln, Nebraska mayor Samuel W. Little was also involved.
The Colton location, now south of Interstate 10, west of Interstate 215 and north of the Santa Ana River, was selected on the north side of Slover Mountain, known to the indigenous people of the area as Tahualtapa (Raven Hill) and as Cerrito Solo (Little Solitary Hill) during the Spanish and Mexican periods. The landform, some 1,200 feet high, was rich in limestone and marble and took its American-era name from Isaac Slover, a fur trapper who knew William Workman in Taos, New Mexico with the two part of the Pattie trapping expedition along the Gila River to the Colorado in 1827. Not long after Workman migrated to this region, Slover came out and settled in an adobe house at the base of the mountain.
Speaking of New Mexico, migrants from there, including those who came with Workman in late 1841, established the nearby communities of Agua Mansa and San Salvador and they established kilns at the base of the mountain to burn limestone for use as mortar and plaster for their adobe residences. In the 1880s, the Colton Marble Company operated at Slover Mountain and, when California Portland Cement was established, it was, reportedly, the first cement company west of the Rocky Mountains.
The firm began slowly, as common with new enterprises, and the company opened its Colton plant in spring 1894. That summer, it petitioned the Los Angeles City Council to amend specifications for cement work to remove the words “Imported English,” so that it would have the opportunity to bid on contracts for municipal projects. The 18 August number of the Los Angeles Express commented that, “The petitioners set forth that they are a home company, producing the best brand of Portland cement for all kinds of cement work and do not want to be shut out of competition.”
The New Year’s Day 1895 edition of the paper noted that millions of dollars of imported cement came from Europe, but “this company have extensive cement works and aim to remedy this great and constant money drain by producing a superior quality of Portland cement and selling it at a less price than the foreign [article].” It was added that the Colton plant had a capacity of 200 barrels daily, along with 300 of lime as well as “broken stone for concrete, marble dust, etc.,” while in eight months of operation the company sold 6,000 barrels of cement and double that number of lime.
The article continued that the firm had “many creditable samples of cement work in some of the best buildings in this city” and “have quietly gone ahead without any flourish of trumpets,” relying on local customers, “by everyone having the best manufacturing interests of Southern California at heart.” The piece closed with the remark that “this company fully warrant their Portland cement to be equal to any foreign brand.”
On the 9th, reported the Los Angeles Herald, the company’s annual meeting included the election of Toberman as secretary and treasurer, while there were two new directors including Little. The paper added that the company “has become firmly established in a business which now constitutes one of Southern California’s chief home industries” and concluded that “it has been extensively introduced, and if it continues to grow in favor with builders and contractors, will eventually supply the entire home market.”
The Los Angeles Times of 9 May 1895 observed that, “the California Portland Cement Company began work yesterday making excavations on Slover Mountain for new foundations” as “the company intend to double the plant at once.” Moreover, it was noted that “last week all the employees were paid in full for wages due to May 1, about $3300 having been disbursed.” Ernest Westcott, the company president, informed the press that,
The demand for our cement is greater than our supply. We can never get a barrel ahead, and there was nothing left for us to do but to increase our productive capacity. We decided, while we were at it, to double the plant and I have no doubt we will be able to dispose readily of twice as much cement as we are now manufacturing. The market is growing rapidly and it seems reasonable to expect that the demand will be steady for years to come.
In its account of the expansion effort, the Journal of the 18th remarked that “it is more than gratifying to chronicle this evidence of prosperity which has come to a home industry” and it continued that “Mr. Waycott had a hard struggle at the start, but he had skill and energy, and above all, confidence in the enterprise, and he richly merits the fortune in store for him and his associates.”
In its opening issue of 1896, the Times featured the firm, informing readers that California Portland Cement “now has a large and successful plant in operation,” with some $100,000 invested, and
Unjust and ignorant criticism for a time had to be overcome, delaying deserved patronage, but now all they ask is an open, fair field, and fear no competition from foreign manufacturers, who should be satisfied to rest content with the millions and millions of dollars they have drawn from this Coast for foreign cement, and which is now about to be turned to home manufacturers.
The piece added that “the day is past” when agricultural products raised in California were “adulterated” by having foreign labels attached to them to raise the retail price, but the cement company “openly branded itself a straight home production,” while its owners refused to engage in “misleading deception by branding their product with any foreign label to hide its nativity to induce users to buy it.” It was added that using local oil for its operations and “employing our own idle men,” the firm “stands on its merits alone, without any fulsome lauding, and proves its goodness by thousands and thousands of barrels sold and used.”
Commenting that “American Portland cements are now conceded to make better concrete than the imported” variety, and that the plant ran continuously, so that another doubling in size was anticipated in a few months, the article concluded with another promotion of local enterprise as “thoroughly original and American,” while noting that,
These works are beginning to attract much attention in consequence of their rapid growth and extent, and are now looked upon as being the most important manufacturing plant in the [San Bernardino] valley.
The 5 June number of the Times reported that the form “recently doubled the capacity of its plant . . . and is now capable of turning out 400 barrels of good cement daily,” and gave the lie to the notion that only imported product, mainly from Belgium and England, was successful. Notably, it was remarked that “nowhere perhaps is more cement used in proportion to the population than in Southern California and Arizona,” not only for buildings and streets, but irrigation canals and reservoirs, as water delivery and storage became more critical with growth.
Also interesting in the piece was the comment that experimentation found that local cement was of inferior grade because of use too quickly after firing in furnaces, so “it has been demonstrated that ‘aging’ is an important factor,” which reflected in imported material being at least three months and generally a year old when brought to the area. California Portland Cement asserted that its product had the same ingredients as the British variety, so aging was achieved “by the erection of large warehouses and aerated bins.”
The article observed that “the Colton cement works are owned by Los Angeles parties, who have made an expenditure to date of about $175,000 and will invest more as the business expands. A reiteration of the importance of “home industry” was followed by the assertion that “there are many more such opportunities for profitable investment of money in Southern California.”
This was not so for Ernest Waycott, who, by the end of 1896, declared insolvency (he moved to Fort Collins, Colorado and continued to work as a building contractor), but the company pressed on. The Times, in its 21 August 1897 edition, included a report from Colton that the plant “is working overtime to fill orders, and gives employment to forty men.” In the 6 November issue, the paper, in a short piece titled “Busy Colton,” mentioned that, having “completed a large warehouse” with a capacity of storing 10,000 barrels, the firm paid workers a cumulative $2,000 monthly, “all of which is received by residents of Colton.”
The same day’s Express cited the San Bernardino Times in a repetition of these facts, but added that,
The Los Angeles city cement testing department records show this cement to have been superior to all other brands used in that city the past year. There is reason for the authorities to send the public money to Europe for cement when an equally good article is made in our midst by a firm paying taxes and spending its money right here.
During the fervor amid the Spanish-American War and as part of its commemoration of Independence Day, the Times, in its expanded 5 July 1898 “Patriotic War Number”, published a major feature on California Portland Cement spanning nearly two full pages, deeming it “A Great Home Industry.” After reviewing the history and use of the Portland variety, the article went into some significant detail about the materials and manufacturing process, to the degree that the company isn’t mentioned until nearly the end of the first page.
When he finally got to it, the unknown writer remarked that “California Portland cement has now been in use over four years, with a previous test of some four years, and by every test has excelled the average imported cements in tensile strength, both neat [as is] and with sand.” It was averred that, “as a commercial matter, no question can be arise as to the duty of users of Portland cement to buy the home product,” but there was a bit of bitter invective about the lobbying of foreign companies, which “hamper, binder, belittle and prejudice the use of the home article, though it is fully as good, or better . . . and costs less money,” as it inquired, “why is it that people can be so hoodwinked into these things?”
Returning to the company, the piece observed that the “extensive plant . . . at the base of Slover Mountain, three-quarters of a mile distant from the town of Colton” had 70 workers and had a daily capacity of 300 barrels of cement, 500 of lime and “an unlimited output of crushed rock.” Its use for hydraulic power and irrigation systems for the region’s booming citrus industry and others was touted, while it was reminded that it was the only such facility on the Pacific coast. It was also remarked that “the plant is continuous and largely automatic in operation, machinery being employed to such an extent that three barrels . . . are obtained for every man employed,” compared to a 1:1 ratio in European facilities.
The article highlighted the plant’s proximity to “the two principal railroads of the State [which] have side-tracks to the doors of the warehouse,” these referring to the Southern Pacific and Santa Fé lines.” Moreover,
In the rear of the mill towers Slover Mountain, with an inexhaustible deposit of pure calc spar [calcite], and two clay deposits at short distances provide abundant crude materials. The Los Angeles petroleum [industry, with major recent discoveries a few years prior near downtown and a new one underway at Olinda in Orange County that year] furnishes a cheap and excellent fuel. All of these advantages enable the company to manufacture their produce at a minimum cost and place it on the market for about three-fourths the price of foreign cements.
Slover Mountain provided “a limestone almost chemically pure, and a clay peculiarly adapted to the manufacture of cement” and the piece went into some detail about that process, including burning, crushing, grinding, and mixing of raw materials. It was especially observed that “the raw mix is subjected every half hour to chemical determinations for the percentage of lime,” while the fineness was also critical, as chief chemist Edward Duryea was an essential figure in quality assurance. The finished product was put in 95-pound sacks, with every tenth sampled for testing, the results of which were provided to buyers of the product.
Lastly, a statement from the Los Angeles City Cement Testing Department included a listing of some projects in which California Portland Cement’s material was used, including the German-American Bank, the Chamber of Commerce Building, streets and sidewalks, U.S. military posts in Arizona, the Santa Monica sewer system, Maier and Zobelein’s brewery, the Santa Fé, and many water and power enterprises. A new product, Colton Cube Lime, which is part of the signage on the plant in our featured photo, was boasted as “the purest lime at present in the trade” with five testimonials to buttress the claim.
A few months prior to the piece’s publication, the Journal of 19 February reported that the company filed for a bonded indebtedness of $80,000, with sets of bonds priced at $100, $500 and $1000 and with 6% interest involving 4,210 shares of stock as the firm, using the plant as security, sought to raise capital to continue its development. The directors included Jackson, Toberman, Little and plant manager Michael A. Murphy, founder of the Pioneer Lumber Company of Colton. A reincorporation was filed at the end of November with the directorate listing the same five men as in 1891 and Waycott was issued his final insolvency discharge in February, though he soon decamped for Colorado.
There was a report in the 28 June 1899 edition of the Los Angeles Record that “the firm’s “present owners, J.R. Toberman and S.W. Little” were prepared to transfer California Portland Cement to “some Los Angeles persons, whose identity is not disclosed, but who are acting for Chicago capitalists, [and who] have secured an option on the plant.” The intention was “to put in more capital and to develop the cement production to greater proportions,” though Toberman was loath to give details in case the deal fell through. He did report that “the Colton works employ about eighty men and pay out about $7000 a month for the expenses of operating this home industry.” Lastly, it was noted that the firm was providing cement for the Third Street Tunnel, an important transportation project in the Angel City.
As the 19th century came to a close, the Times of 14 January 1900 briefly recorded that the firm “employs nearly one hundred men, is running day and night and turns out a [rail] carload of cement daily, the product finding a ready market.” With the dawn of the 20th century, reported the Sun through a reprint by the Journal of 13 August 1901, lime manufacturing, which was terminated for a couple of years “at the request of the cement and lime combine [association]”, was reintroduced, with plans for a second kiln. There were 75 workers, but it was intended to grow that number to 100 as major rail, sidewalk and a beet sugar factory project at Los Alamitos in Orange County were mentioned and production was at about 300 barrels of cement a day.
A few months later, California Portland Cement decided to increase its bonded indebtedness 250% to $200,000, as well as issuing a trust deed to Title Insurance and Trust Company, a sign that business growth warranted the effort to secure more investor funding as greater Los Angeles was entering its third great boom. Small wonder that the Whittier News of 27 April remarked,
In view of the building activity in Southern California it might be appropriate to say a few words in regard to the California Portland Cement that is being used extensively in foundation and fireproof work of all the principle buildings in course of construction in California and other western states . . . The California Portland Cement company have an extensive plant at the foot of Slaver [sic] Mountain, near Colton. They employ about 75 men and the capacity of the plant is 300 barrels per day . . .
With the explosive growth of the oil industry, it was remarked that this “absorbed a vast amount of his cement in the way of plastering excavations for oil storage as it is cheaper to make excavation in the earth than to erect steel tanks,” though this would later change. “The use of plenty of water, as water is the life of cement morter [sic]” was also highlighted and increasing water supply became crucial in this period, leading to the Los Angeles and Colorado River aqueduct projects in ensuing years.
The Pomona Progress of 5 December 1901 reported on the appearance of Jackson to the city’s Board of Trustees requesting that bids for contracts include provision for local companies to submit for the process, echoing what was done in Los Angeles seven years prior. Boosting of the company’s enterprise, including that “its kilns are the longest in use in the world,” was present, with the addition that there were only a few American Portland cement manufacturers and the purity of the product was promoted.
This look at the first decade of California Portland Cement Company’s operations shows how it went through common struggles to establish a durable foothold in the region and the firm expanded dramatically afterward, including under the presidencies of Daniel Murphy, a prominent Los Angeles capitalist, and Richard A. Grant. A new plant was built on the south side of Slover Mountain in 1906-1907 and the original facility, processing cement for about another decade, was converted to a lime kiln operation, lasting until the end of World War II, when it closed. In 1917, Slover Mountain was given a special status by Congress to continuously fly an American flag on its peak.
Continued processing leveled the mountain into a small hill, with quarrying operations conducted there, and now the site is essentially a level area. In November 2009, the Colton plant closed down, while the company, which grew dramatically in post-Second World War years throughout the Pacific coast region, merged in 2005 with Glacier Northwest to become CalPortland.
The firm’s website highlights major projects like the Los Angeles Coliseum (1923), the Space Needle, stadiums like the Intuit Dome in Inglewood and the recently opened David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as marking its 135th anniversary this year. Its story is one that reflects the dramatic development of greater Los Angeles since 1891, though this photo of nameless, though vital, employees also reminds us of the importance of work on this Labor Day.