Built from Beet Sugar: Community Attachment and the Remnants of Industry

Abstract

Glendale Arizona’s original beet sugar factory, built in 1906, resides in the city’s historic downtown, defying metropolitan Phoenix’s progressive habit of tearing down historic properties. This thesis endeavors to unpack and rediscover the continuing legacy of the deindustrialized factory, and how in a vacant and seemingly abandoned state, few within the community of citizens, local governments officials, and investors advance any definite plans for renovation, rehabilitation, or even demolition. The purpose of this research is to better understand why the city of Glendale, encompassing past and present generations of residents, remains content with the now derelict state of the Beet Sugar Factory and how the city’s past, present, and future are reflected in its enduring influence. Analytical research looked to uncover how community attachment and sentimentality significantly influence the continued existence of the Beet Sugar Factory, despite the factory no longer offering any economic influence. Research into the extensive notes on beet sugar experimentation at the end of the nineteenth century and historical newspaper data provided evidence of the factory’s early success with securing investments and producing beet sugar and then the subsequent failure and slide into abandonment. Oral interviews with present government officials and residents, modern newspaper articles, and current podcasts were juxtaposed with earlier commentaries and analysis, clearly presenting a timeline of the Beet Sugar Factory’s fall from prominence to neglect while maintaining a place of sentimental reverence within the community. The outcome of this research resulted in revealing that Glendale’s beet sugar factory is a microcosm of how community sentimental attachment in an urban environment, despite decades of waning purpose and eventual decline by desertion, is the heart of preservation. In the end, community attachment within an urban environment is more important to preservation than detached criteria.