Washington Packing Corp. Tuna Cannery

In 1962, two women in Detroit, Michigan, died from botulism food poisoning after eating a bad can of A. & P. tuna packed by the Washington Packing Corp. here in San Francisco. Health authorities across the country began searching for all the other cans of Washington packed tuna marketed under various brand names (Tastewell, Ocean Beauty, Drake's Bay, Tuna-4-Cats) with a certain code. Meanwhile, Tuna sales nationally plummeted for all brands and the Washington cannery, which had never had a problem before and had packed 12 billion cans of tuna in it's 45 year history, closed it's doors. They were never accused of any health violations that could account for such a poisoning either. Although only a few cans were infected, all of Washington's stock was confiscated by the government and buried with pomp and great publicity beneath ten tons of garbage in a dump next to Candlestick Park.

The building has remained abandoned for 47 years, but recently I saw a notice posted there which is why I decided to pay the old cannery a visit. Caltrans has applied for a permit to remove existing structures, foundations and footings saying that the building is within an existing Caltrans right-of-way. A man on the side of the building was pulling stuff out of the trailer that's been there for a long time so I asked him about it. He told me the trailer is going to the scrapyard this week now that the building is coming down. He didn't know the exact date, but said they're going to blow it up. I decided to take some photos since we we don't know how much longer the Washington Packing Corp. building will remain with us.

You can view my cannery photos here.