MAKE  HISTORY

 

Scottish siblings, Thomas Crawford and Anne E. Crawford immigrated to the U.S. in 1891, first residing together in Minnesota and then in Anaheim. There, Thomas established Crawford’s Marmalade Factory in a small room in the fall of 1915 with his sister, “Miss Annie Crawford’s” over-100-years-old recipe that she brought with her from Scottland. Annie managed a spick-and-span kitchen, supervising an all-female staff who would meticulously cook the small batches of marmalade within kettles on small stoves. The contents required constant stirring and testing until just right.

 

Marmalade originated in Scottland, and is neither jam nor an orange jelly, but a true orange marmalade, consisting of a clear jelly in which are suspended very thin slices of the outer, or red, part of the orange peel. In 1916, due to growing demand for marmalade, Thomas Crawford started work on the erection of a building on the southeast corner of South Los Angeles Street (now Anaheim Blvd) and Santa Ana Street. As the demand grew, so did the factory, with 3 buildings side by side by the end of 1918.

 

In May of 1918, Thomas Crawford Inc. expanded to become Exchange Orange Products Company Inc and additional factories were planned for San Dimas and Pomona. Later that year, Exchange Orange Products Company Inc had become an affiliate of the California Fruit Growers Exchange (later Sunkist Growers) and the marmalade was marketed under the Sunkist brand.

Advertisements in magazines touting that Sunkist Marmalade was “cooked in the genuine ‘home way’ – on small stoves only a few pounds at a time… The New American Marmalade.”

 

In 1920, Exchange Orange Products Company suspended operations after a brief and unsuccessful history of attempting to salvage oranges by manufacturing orange marmalade. High costs of production, failure to achieve uniform quality and inadequate marketing contributed to the demise of the Sunkist Marmalade Factory.  In November of 1920, The Anaheim Gazette reported that the Anaheim Orange and Lemon Association purchased the former marmalade factory to use in storing their fertilizers, fumigating outfits and surplus packing material. 

 

Since the closure of the marmalade factory, the building has had many uses, one being a radiator shop. Thankfully, the building was restored and through adaptive reuse, revitalized in step with the former City of Anaheim Redevelopment Agency and its current owner, LAB Holding, to be rebranded as Anaheim MAKE, a name paying homage to its original makers.