B-994

Domino Sugar Plant, (American Sugar Refining Company,

AMSTAR)

Architectural Survey File

This is the architectural survey file for this MIHP record. The survey file is organized reverse-

chronological (that is, with the latest material on top). It contains all MIHP inventory forms, National

Register nomination forms, determinations of eligibility (DOE) forms, and accompanying documentation

such as photographs and maps.

Users should be aware that additional undigitized material about this property may be found in on-site

architectural reports, copies of HABS/HAER or other documentation, drawings, and the “vertical files” at

the MHT Library in Crownsville. The vertical files may include newspaper clippings, field notes, draft

versions of forms and architectural reports, photographs, maps, and drawings. Researchers who need a

thorough understanding of this property should plan to visit the MHT Library as part of their research

project; look at the MHT web site (mht.maryland.gov) for details about how to make an appointment.

All material is property of the Maryland Historical Trust.

Last Updated: 03-10-2011

Domino Sugar (8-q~ y) Statement of Sign .

Statement of Significance

The American Sugar plant is Baltimore ' s only remaining

operating sugar refinery in a city which once ranked second among

the nation's refining centers and supported as many as six separate

plants. Built in 1921 as a massive complex in the 1000 block of

Key Highway, the plant is the second largest refinery in the United

States . The Amstar Corporation, which operates the Baltimore plant

and 11 other refiner i es , presently supplies over one quarter of all

sugar annually consumed in the United States.

MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST B-994 Magi -0 409945714

INVENTORY FORM FOR STATE HISTORIC SITES SURVEY

DNAME HISTORIC

American Sugar Refining Company ANO/ OR COMMON

Domino Sugar Plant

fJLOCATION STREET & NUMBER

1100 Key Highway East CITY. TOWN

Baltimore - VICINITY OF

STATE

DcLAss1F1CATION

CATEGORY OWNERSHIP _DISTRICT _ PUBLIC

X BUILDING\Sl X PRIVATE

_STRUCTURE -BOTH

,- X.SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION _ OBJECT _JN PROCESS

_BEING CONSIDERED

DOWNER OF PROPERTY Amstar Corporation

NAME

American Sugar Divis i on t TREET & NUMBER

1100 Key Highway East CITY TOWN

STATUS

XoccuP1Eo

- UNOCCUPIED

_WORK IN PROGRESS

ACCESSIBLE -YES: RESTRICTED

- YES· UNRESTRICTED

XNO

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

COUNTY

PRESENT USE

-AGRICULTURE _ MUSEUM

_COMMERCIAL _PARK

- EDUCATIONAL _ PAIVA TE RESIDENCE

- ENTERTAINMENT _ RELIGIOUS

_ GOVERNMENT _SCIENTIFIC

2<iNOUSTRIAL _ TRANSPORTATION

_ MILITARY _ OTHER

Telephone # i752-6 150 -------

Baltimore _ VICINITY OF Maryland STATE' zip code

21230 llLOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION

COURTHOUSE. REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC. Baltimore City Courthouse STREET & NUMBER

Fayette and Calvert Sts . CITY TOWN

lfl REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE

None DATE

Liber #: JFC-2174 Folio #: 581

STATE

_FEDERAL -STATE -COUNTY _LOCAL . ...-- ~--------------------------------------~ DEPOSITORY FOR

SURVEY RECORDS

CITY. TOWN STATE

f.IDESCRIPTION

LEXCELLENT

_ GOOD

_ FAIR

CONDITION

_ DETERIORATED

_ RUI NS

_UNEXPOSED

CHECK ONE

_ UNALTERED

ULTERED

CHECK ONE

.h.ORIGINAL SITE

_ MOVED DATE __ _

DESCRIBE TH E PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEA RANCE

Designed by a consul ting board to be the most efficien t plant poss i ble i n 1920 the Amstar facility remains the second largest sugar refinery in t he United States . Outside contrac­tors were engaged to design and buil d both the Boiler Pl ant and the overall site . The consulting board , composed mainl y of American Sugar Company engineers and management1 assumed re­sponsibi l ity for layout and design of all process and equi pment . The initial plant was designed to permit a 50% increase in capacity if desired.

As built the plant was compo~ed of sixteen s t ructures in­cluding offices, warehouses and ancil l ary bui ldings. At the east end of the property is the powerhouse with a nearby coal storage tower. North of it with an axis parallel to the bul k­head is the Raw Sugar Shed with i ts cranes for unloading ships. West of the Powerhouse is the Machi ne Shop. Southwest of the Raw Sugar Shed are the Wash House and the Filter House . Further west is a U-shaped compl ex composed of the Pan House , Finishing House and the Domino Storage Buildi ng. The plant also had a complete barrel-making p l an t and a three million gallon mo l asses storage tank.

Construction of the plant was a difficult engi neering pro ­blem because more than half of it was built i n the water. Hun­dreds of piles were driven both on land and i n the harbor with the average water dri ven pile penetrating 6 to 22 f eet of mud and 8 feet of hard strata and up to 30 feet of water . A total of over 1 . 2 million linear feet of pil ing was dr i ven . A mat of heavy ttmbers and planking was buil t on these p i lings and a rein­forced concrete foundation l ayed on t h is surface .

Since this plant was contructed at one time and has been virtually unaltered, a l l 4-process buildings have the same rein­f orced concrete design . They vary i n hei ght s i nce they were designed to house the equi pment necessary to that stage of the refi ning process . Raw sugar passes from the ship or the raw sugar shed to the wash house v i a bucket conveyors . The wash house , a seven-story steel-frame and bri ck building wi th movable casement windows . After passing through mechanical crushers , the raw sugar enters a system of "mingl er~; ' large t roughs , where it is mixed with syrup from sugar that has already gone through the raw sugar centr ifugal machines . The resulting mass of sugar and syrup is cal led "magma." The magma is then passed into a large mixer and agitated before being di scharged into the centrifugal machines directly below. The object of these machines is to sepa rate the syrup from the sugar crystals. Below the centrifugal

(con ' t . ) CONTINUE ON SEPARATE SHEET IF NECESSARY

II SIGNIFICANCE

PERIOD AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW

_ PREHISTORIC

_1 400-1499

-1 500-1599

_ 1eoo. 1e99

_fi'00- 1799

_1 800- 1899

~1900·

.....ARCHEULOliY· PREHISTORIC

.....ARCHEOLOGY · HISTORIC

-AGRICULTUR~

-ARCHITECTURE

_ART

_COMMERCE

_COMMUNICATIONS

_COMMUNITY PLANNING

_ CONSERVATION

-ECONOMICS

- EDUCATION

_ ENGINEERING

-EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT

!l1NOUSTRY

_lANOSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

_ lAW

_LITERATURE

_ MILITARY

_MUSIC

_ PHILOSOPHY

__ POLITICS/GOVERNMENT

_ RELIGION

_SCIENCE

_ SCULPTURE

_SOCiAUHUMANITARIAN

_THEATER

_ TRANSPORTATION

_OTHER (SPECIFYI

_INVENTION

SPECIFIC DATES BUI LOER/ ARCHITECT

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The American Sugar Plant is Baltimore's only remaining opera­ting sugar refinery in a city which once ranked second among the nation ' s refining centers and supported as many as six separate plants . Built in 1921 as a massive complex in the 1000 block of Key Highway , the plant is the second largest refinery in the United States . The Amstar Corporation, which operates the Baltimore plant and 11 other refineries, presently supplies over one quarter of all sugar annually consumed in the United States .

Histor ical Significance

r

I mmediate l y prior to the Civil War , the sugar refining industry in Baltimore greatly expanded. Since col onial times, the city sup­ported several small refineries which supplied local demand; but in the 1850 ' s the introduction of the vacuum pan process, and other de­velopments in refining , greatly improved the methods of manufacturing and increased production. Baltimore ' s excellent harbor and proximity to the crude sugar sources, particularly in the West Indies, combined with a well developed rail transportation system , encouraged many new refineries to begin production in the city. By the late 1860 ' s, six large companies--The Baltimore; Calvert; Canton, Chesapeake; Maryland; and Merchants- -all had refi neries in the city . In 1871 The Baltimore Sun described "the refini ng of sugar as most important to the general trade of the city , 11 noting the large numbers of workers employed, the huge amounts of imported raw sugar and t he capital invested.

In 1873 , however, the Baltimore sugar refini ng industry collapsed . Stirling , Ahrens and Company, owners of four of the city's refineries and largest importers of molasses and sugar in the United States , de­clared bankruptcy . Al though several businesses made efforts to revive the industry, from 1875 to 19 20 onl y one refinery operated in Balti­more . This was the Curtis Bay Sugar Refinery , established in 1891 at the foot of Aspen Street on the waterfront.

Revival of the sugar industry in Baltimore occurred in 1921 when the American Sugar Refining Company built a massive plant in the Locust Point area of the cit y. This p lant, commonly known as "Domino Sugar," took over t wo years to build, contains 15 buildings and co­vers over 20 acres--with over one quarter waterfront. In addition to

-cont ' d

CONTINUE ON SEPARATE SHEET IF NECESSARY

·;~

IJMAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Query+Vertical Files, Enoch Pratt Fr~e Library . '' Baltimore AMSTAR Refinery, Construction Completion

Reportu(private, 1922)

CONTINUE ON SE~.ARATE SHEET l~ NECESS~Y

IEGEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY--------

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION

LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES

STATE COUNTY

STATE COUNTY

mFORM PREPARED BY NAME/TITLE

Linda Daur , Dennis Zembala ORGANIZATION ' ·QA11e r ? r 1

Baltimore Industrial Museum Sept 1980 STREET & NUMBER .! TELEPJ-tOtlE:. l

217 N. Charles Street 301-396-1931 CITY OR TOWN ~ , •r STATE ..

Baltimore Md. 21201

The Maryland Historic Sites Inventory was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature, to be found in the Ann~tated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 Supplement.

The Survey and Inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only and do not constitute any infringe­ment of individual property rights.

RETURN TO: Maryland Historical Trust The Shaw House , 21 State Circle Annapolis, Maryland 21401 (301) 267-1438

PS• t tol

American Sugar Refining Company Baltimore City , Maryland B-994

7. Description (continues) - Page 2

machines are the r•p re-mel ters," where the sugar is dissolved by adding hot water . The sugar then passes to large receivers known as "melter blowups, 11 where it is boiled to the proper consistency . From here it passes to the filter house.

The filter house is a ten-story steel-frame and brick building containing multi-story spaces fo r the large fi lters neccessary to purify the melted "liquor ." In 1920 this plant was one of the first to use pressure f il ters which greatly reduced filtering time and labor costs. Previously gravity filters made up of many layers had to be removed and cleaned by hand after each fi ltrat ion. After the liquor has gone through these presses , it passes into the "char-fil­ters," large cyl i ndrical cast - iron vessels ten feet in diameter and twenty-three feet high. Thes e are f ull of " bone char, " burned animal bones ground and grated as to size . In the char filters the soluable impurities, both organic and inorganic, which discolor the liquor, are removed.

The next important step of the re fining process is the boiling crystalization of the sugar which takes place in the pan house. The pan house, the third of the process buildings, is nine stories of the same type of construction of the buildings previously described . It contains large vacuum pans in which the sugar is boiled at a low tem­perature in order to prevent the destruction of its crystals . After the sugar has been crystalized, which may take up to eight or nine hours, it is dropped from the pans into large centrifugal machines which separate the crystals from the syrup. Sugar from these machines is taken by another set of bucket conveyors to the finishing house .

Large rotary dryers are contained in the finishing house , a nine­story steel frame and brick structure. At this point the sugar con­tains 2-3% of mo isture . The dryers are revolving drums in which the sugar is tumbled while a current of hot air passes through. Below are another set of drums similar in design in which the heated sugar is cooled as it tumbles. The finished sugar is then passed over a set of inclined , vibrating screens , where it is grated into course, fine extra­fine. It is then taken by conveyor to storage bins before being packed.

The large "Domino Building" west of the finishing house is ten­stories of reinforced concrete construction . It contains the packaging machinery and storage facilities for the plant. Several other struc­tures are important to the operation of the site, including a large boiler house, southeast of the wash house. This is a lso a steel-frame brick structure eight-stories high. It originally contained f ive vertical boilers with mechanical coal-handling facilities. West of this powerhouse is the engine house and machine shop building , a three story steel-frame and brick structure . This building housed the steam engines and generators which powered the plant. These consisted of

(con ' t .)

American Sugar Refining Company Baltimore City , Maryland B-994

7 . Description (continues) - Page 3

three 1250 kilowat ts direct-current generators , each connected to and driven by two twin , four-valve , non-condensing reciprocating engines , 2512" x 32" with a speed of 135 r . p . m. and developing 1880 housepower per set .

Additional buildings include a large cooperage to the southwest which produced barrels for storing the sugar . The power plant and processing buildings were constructed of steel-frame and brick because the heavy concentration of machinery they contained made the more stan­dard reinforced concrete construction impractical. Only the "Domino Building," a barrel-filling station and an office structure are of concrete construction . The cooperage is of standard mill construction, with heavy timber floors and brick bearing walls.

Unlike earlier manufacturing sites which grew organically over a number of years, the American Sugar Plant was the product of sophisti­cated engineering planning and construction . Although there have been some additions over the years, the plant remains essentially the same as when it was constructed in 1920. At that time it was a monument of state-of-the-art modern industrial design .

cont'd American Sugar {S - OJqLf) Hist . Sign . p . 2 (-o . '2.)

several warehouses, the plant contains a power house, wash house where the raw sugar is cleaned, pan house where sugar liquids are boiled, finishing house and packing house. The complex also includes its own railroad t erminals and three docks to facilitate the transport of raw and finished sugar . Few structural changes have been made to the plant since it began operation in April of 1922.

Amstar Corporation, which now owns the American Sugar Refining Company, supplies 60% of the sugar sold in bulk or liquid form to i ndus­trial sugar users and over one-quarter of all sugar consumed annually in the United States. Their Locust Point plant--the second largest in the country--employs approximately 850 persons .

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