This month I have the pleasure of working on a two-painting commission for some friends of mine. I say pleasure because of the fun subjects, but really it’s bittersweet because these friends are moving out-of-state! They asked me to paint a couple of local spots to remember their home in Campbell, California.

This is the first of the two paintings. It’s a street view of the Campbell Water Tower – a recognizable landmark to anyone who has taken a stroll through Downtown Campbell or driven by the small city on Highway 17. It stands on 1st Street at Orchard City Drive and can be seen clearly day or night. It’s well-maintained and well-lit at night – even lighting up in different colors for different occasions. Now empty, the tower exists today as a symbol of Campbell’s agricultural past.

If you don’t already know this about me, I love learning about local landmarks and history, so I jumped at the chance to do a little digging and share what I found out about this tower and its significance to Campbell.

The Campbell Water Company was established in 1892 as the city’s first utility, serving Campbell’s residents and farmers with fresh water. It became increasingly important in the city’s early days of development. The tower site originally housed a much smaller, single tank, which was later replaced by a pair of wooden tanks. The 1906 earthquake destroyed those two tanks, but within a matter of months, four 20,000-gallon tanks went up in their place. Only a few years later, a flood in 1911 damaged the four still-new tanks. Repairs saved them and they were used until 1928, when the Company invested in the current 75,000-gallon steel tank made by the Pittsburg-Des Moines Steel Company. Sitting on a tower at one hundred feet off the ground, it’s easy to see why it became Campbell’s landmark soon after it was erected. (Watson)

The Hyde cannery’s office and warehouse buildings sat conveniently between the railroad and the water tower.Photo attribution: Office & Whse. [warehouse] #1, George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Ban… — The Hyde cannery’s office and warehouse buildings sat conveniently between the railroad and the water tower.
Photo attribution: Office & Whse. [warehouse] #1, George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

The Company also sold surplus water for irrigation, which was crucial for the farms that were starting to plant fruit trees in the area. As many San Jose and Campbell residents know, the Santa Clara Valley was a major producer of fruit from the late 19th century well into the 20th century. Campbell in particular became known as the “Orchard City” early on in its history, and for good reason. Fruit produced in Campbell could be distributed all over the state, country, and world thanks to its location along the railroad. (Watson)

Campbell was home to several fruit packing canneries during those early years, but from what I can gather, the major players at the start were J.C. Ainsley Packing Company and George E. Hyde and Company. The Hyde family cannery operated in a plant located right next to the water tower. Those buildings still stand today. If you’ve ever enjoyed watching videos of the inner workings of factories (I still remember Sesame Street’s classic clip about how crayons are made), you can read detailed descriptions of how the machinery worked in a 1921 issue of a publication called Canning Age. My favorite part was the description of the “syrup room”:

The syrup room is located directly over the syrup machines. There are two rooms used exclusively for storing sugar. The syrup room is located between these two rooms. Sugar is elevated to the storage rooms by means of an elevator built by the company, Rex chains being used in this construction. In the syrup room there are two round-bottom cooking tanks each having an open coil pipe 1 inch in diameter. Sixteen blending tanks are also located here, the syrup being delivered from these tanks to the syrupers by galvanized iron pipes. This room is sanitary throughout. The walls are painted white with ample facilities for natural light provided by wired glass windows extending along two sides of the room.

The Hyde plant processed many types of fruit grown in the valley, including peaches, pears, and apricots. Apricots in particular were a bit of a gamble to grow as they are particularly sensitive if the temperature dips below freezing. To combat this, farmers used smudging to help prevent loss during unexpected bouts of cold weather. This involved an alarm that would wake farmers and their wives when the temperature became dangerously low. Everyone would rush out to the rows of fruit trees and light small cans that had been previously filled with oil to bring the surrounding temperature up. (Watson)

A handful of the many beautiful canned fruit labels produced by George E. Hyde & Co. in Campbell, California.All 4 photos from the collection: George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, … — A handful of the many beautiful canned fruit labels produced by George E. Hyde & Co. in Campbell, California.
All 4 photos from the collection: George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. See image list below for individual links.

The Hyde family canning business went under in the early 1930s (Bowdidge). In 1937, the plant was sold to Sunsweet, who used the space for warehousing its dried fruit (Packing Houses of Santa Clara County). That same year, Sunsweet also teamed up with fruit growers in the area to form the Campbell Cooperative Dryer. Campbell earned bragging rights when the co-op built the world’s largest dehydrator. (Watson) And so the old Hyde building stayed in use for dried fruit production until 1971, when the building was converted for retail (Donato-Weinstein).

In addition to their involvement in the fruit canning industry, the Hyde Family also owned and operated the Campbell Water Company beginning in 1918 until it merged with the San Jose Water Company in the late 1970s. The San Jose Water Company transferred ownership of the tower property back to the city in 1994, at which point Campbell turned it into a park named for the Hyde family. (Vongsarath)

To learn more about the water tower and the golden age of canning in Campbell, including more great early photos, check out the reference material linked below.

You can also subscribe to my blog or join my mailing list to stay current on my work and the research that sometimes comes with it. Next up: painting two of this commission – the front of the Campbell apartment my friends called home for many years.

Works Cited

Watson, Jeanette. Campbell, the Orchard City. Campbell Historical Museum, 1989.

Vongsarath, Chris. “Historic water tower stands tall in Campbell.” The Mercury News. 26 March 2009.

“George E. Hyde & Company.” Packing Houses of Santa Clara County, 2020. https://vasonabranch.com/packing_houses/index.php?title=George_E._Hyde_%26_Company

Donato-Weinstein, Nathan. “Historic Campbell building changes hands.” Silicon Valley Business Journal. 4 September 2013.

Bowdidge, Robert. “How Much Is That Cannery II: Hyde Cannery.” Robert’s Vasona Branch Blog, 4 March 2013, http://vasonabranch.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-much-is-that-cannery-ii-hyde-cannery.html?m=1

“Canning Peaches in the Santa Clara Valley: A Description of the Production Methods of the George E. Hyde Company at Campbell, California.” Canning Age 2, vol. 7, August 1921, 9-16.

Images

Office & Whse. [warehouse] #1, George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

1920, Canning Tables, George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Syruping Machines, 1920, George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

pears label: Standard, George E. Hyde & Co. Canning Operations, 1915-1921, BANC PIC 1982.069--ALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.