A 20th-Century Industrial Fortress In A Gold Rush Era Disguise
This building’s character and history is defined by weight, innovation, and logistics.
When the Blake, Moffitt & Towne Paper Company took over this parcel, they built the enduring structure you are standing in today in 1927. They designed this 20,000-square-foot fortress of board-formed concrete, engineered to withstand the floods of the Sacramento River and the fires that had claimed so many of the city’s earlier structures. From this floor, paper flowed out to every corner of the American West: ledgers to account with, newspapers to stay informed with, and the fine stationery that built a modern California.
The Pillars of Front St.
FROM COUNTY SLIGO , IRELAND TO SACRAMENTO’S FRONT STREET
The Rise of an Industrial Pioneer
In 1851, a young Irish immigrant named John Black arrived in Sacramento with nothing but his grit. He started as a “roustabout,” hauling heavy sacks of flour off riverboats just steps from where you are standing. Within months, he turned a humble lunch stand located on the Waterfront’s Front St into a Victorian empire.
By 1862, Black established the Fountain Bakery less than one block away on L Street between Front and 2nd Streets. He wasn’t just a baker; he was an innovator. In order to supply his bakery he bought a cracker machine and began the manufacture of crackers. In 1862 he moved to his new production headquarters that was just a stone’s throw away from his bakery and in-between two skinny hotels at 1119 Front Street. Black put purchased “the most approved machinery”, for his business; a Rager’s Centennial Self-Scrapper and a Hall Bros.’ Reel Oven.
Produced at this exact spot, John Black’s crackers and baked goods fed the gold miners, the railroad workers, and eventually, the entire West Coast.
THE CAPITAL CANDY & CRACKER CO.
This 1918 letter represents the final era of the Black family’s industrial legacy. Long after John Black’s death in 1896, the company evolved into a regional powerhouse. Within a decade of this letter being written, the old wooden ovens and flour dust of the bakery would make way for the concrete and steel of the Paper Age.
Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the original location of the Capital Candy & Cracker Company Factory on Front Street in Sacramento’s “West End”. c.1895
A letter to from the Capital Candy & Cracker Co. to Kirkwood, Cal. informing them of delayed order due to low sugar supplies sugar. c.1918.
John Black’s Final Mystery
Born When…?
History is rarely a straight line. While we have John Black’s business letters, his court records, and his newspaper obituaries, the man himself remains elusive, even in death.
If you visit the Sacramento City Cemetery, you will find the Black’s grave and modest headstone, which he shared with his deceased wife. Look closely at the stone: it lacks both a date of birth and death. The 1860 Census says Black was born in 1833. The 1880 Census says he was born in 1835 and the county history records him as born in 1836. Black’s death is recorded on March 23, 1896, his age at the time of his death has only been surmised by his obituary.
Perhaps it is fitting for a man who survived a shipwreck as a boy, built a baked goods empire from a quaint lunch stand, and walked free after a fatal shooting, to leave us with one last contradiction. Whether he was a pioneer at 20 or 25, the footprint he left on Sacramento and the West Coast is undeniable. He was a man of the 19th century; larger than life, and ultimately, impossible to pin down.
Black’s Obituary, dated March 24, 1896 read as follows:
Grave and headstone of John and Rose Black. Old City Cemetery, Sacramento, California
BLACK: In this city, March 23rd, John Black, father of J.Grant, Minnie, Clara, and the late Andrew Black, a native of Ireland, age 62 years. Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend the funeral today (Wednesday) at 9:15 am from his late residence, no. 1119 Front Street, thence to the Cathedral, where requiem High Mass will be celebrated for the repose of his soul, commencing at 10am. The casket will not be opened in the Cathedral. Friends can view remains at his late residence from 1 p.m. today until the hour of the funeral.
THE GREAT PIVOT: 1924
From Ovens to Rolls. From Wood to Stone.
By the early 1920s, the Victorian Era was fading. The old wooden ovens of the Fountain Bakery in “Mill Row” once filled with the scent of toasted flour, were finally cooled to make way for the next chapter in Sacramento’s history. The Capital Candy & Cracker Co. moved its operations, leaving behind a legacy of sugar, grit, and the pioneer spirit of John Black.
In 1925, the dust of demolition settled and the ground was cleared for a new kind of enterprise. The “Paper Giants” had arrived in Sacramento, trading the fragile brick and wood of the past for the indestructible reinforced concrete of the future.
The Pioneer Paper House
By the mid-1920s, the Sacramento’s “Mill Row” was vanishing. In its place rose this “Daylight Factory”, a reinforced concrete fortress built for the Blake, Moffitt & Towne Paper Company. Founded during the Gold Rush, Blake, Moffitt & Towne was known as the “Pioneer Paper House of the Pacific.”
This building was the heartbeat of Sacramento’s paper product shipping industry.
Modern Industry Arrives At the 1100 Block of Front St.
The “Cracker” Myth?
Correcting the Record
For years, locals and city officials have called this the building “The Cracker Building.” While the Black family certainly baked millions of crackers on this parcel in the mid-to-late 1800s along the section of the Sacramento Waterfront’s “Mill Row” the building you see today is actually a monument to the West Coast’s Paper Industry.
From 1925 until the late 20th century, this was a place of logistics and commerce. Today, we honor both: the Irish baker who broke ground here, and the paper merchants who built the walls that still stand. While the true fate of the original “Cracker Building” remains uncertain, its most likely end came in the form of a planned demolition along with the rest of he dilapidated, combustible buildings along Mill Row in the 1920s.
A REINFORCED EVOLUTION
The high ceilings and massive support columns weren’t for beauty, they were for survival. In an era of seismic uncertainty, these “Industrial Chic” characteristics allowed workers to grade and cut paper with precision and more importantly, safety. The reinforced concrete floors were engineered to hold tens of thousands of pounds of paper products and logistics, protecting the “white gold” from the constant threat of earthquakes and riverfront fires.
The Bear of the West
The Blake, Moffitt & Towne paper company was founded in San Francisco in 1855, just five years after California achieved statehood. At that time, the California Grizzly Bear was the ultimate symbol of the untamed West and its frontier pride and durability.
THE 1960’S MAKEOVER
A Modern Misfit Joins the Past
In the 1960s, as Old Sacramento was being reconstructed to look like the California Gold Rush era of the 1800s, this more modern 1925 industrial monolith didn’t exactly fit the aesthetic the State was seeking . To save the building (and to avoid a challenging, costly and hazardous demolition), architects removed the oversized modern warehouse windows and created a false facade on the street-facing side to help it blend in with the Gold Rush aesthetic of its neighbors.
The HIDDEN Loading Docks: When entering the building, you will notice that there are three steps up. Once inside, you would be standing on what was once a high-capacity elevated loading dock. Behind the 1960s renovation lies a building designed for massive cargo, not foot traffic. In the alley behind the building (now the Back Door Lounge bar and restaurant), the soaring staircases in that space are the literal ghosts of the receiving platforms where paper was hoisted from delivery trucks.
The Concrete Fortress
Wood or Stone? The Secret of the Grain
Observe the interior and exterior walls of the building. They look like weathered wood planks, but if you touch them, your hand will meet cold, immovable stone.
This is Board-Formed Concrete. In 1925, massive wooden forms were built to hold wet concrete. When the wood was stripped away, the pattern of the grain was forever etched into the structure.
While its neighbors are made of fragile 19th-century brick, this building is a monolithic fortress. It is supported by 81 massive freestanding inverted conical columns (27 on each floor), and 90 wall supporting columns around its perimeter. These columns are driven deep into the Sacramento soil to carry the weight of millions of pounds of concrete and paper.
1927 Sacramento Bee photograph at the opening of the Blake, Moffitt & Towne paper company building.
Towers, Vaults, and Heavy Lifts
The Roof Towers: From L Street just outside of the building, look at the roof today. You see one large concrete tower and one small. These are the heart of the original stairwell and cargo elevator system. During reconstruction in the 1960s, the massive cargo elevator closest to the front the building was decommissioned and its tower was demolished, leaving only two towers. The buildings original elevator shafts were so massive that when the building was converted for regular passenger use in the 1970s, the new “modern” passenger elevator was buried inside the original oversized concrete void.
Can you locate the old elevator shaft hidden inside the building?
