From the Vault: Domino Sugar
The Baltimore sugar plant opened in 1922, and was owned at the time by the American Sugar Refining Co., or Amstar. In 1984, Amstar Corp. was sold for $428 million to investment banking firm Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co., which sold it two years later to Merrill Lynch Capital Partners Inc. Tate & Lyle bought the company in 1988.
Then, two politically connected brothers who fled the Castro regime and later built a sugar empire in Florida agreed in 2001 to purchase the Domino Sugar company for $180 million.
Hidden Maryland: Domino Sugars sign | More Hidden Maryland | From the Vault
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- January 11, 1959: Baltimore City aerial view, photo by Richard Stacks.
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- May 15, 1922
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- February 13, 1934: American (Sugar refinery) in Baltimore Harbor.
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- February 15, 1922: Baltimore’s Sugar refinery.
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- January 11, 1941: The sugar plant in Baltimore.
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- The sugar refinery in Baltimore.
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- July 26, 1950: The Sugar Refinery in Locust Point loads 150 trucks a day. Photo by Joshua S. Cosden.
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- October 30, 1946: A worker packages sugar at the American Sugar Refinery. Photo by William Klender.
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- October 31, 1946: Workers upload sugar cane from Puerto Rico at the Sugar Refinery. Photo by William Klender.
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- October 31, 1946: Workers upload sugar cane from Puerto Rico at the American Sugar Refinery. Photo by William Klender.
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- March 12, 1974: How sweet it isn’t — What appears to be clouds of black smoke emitting from Domino Sugar is in reality being spewed by the freighter “Union Defenders.” Photo by Lloyd Pearson.
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- July 2, 1978: Inspecting sugar bags at the sugar refinery. Photo by Clarence B. Garrett.
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- Oct. 10, 1980: Pickets at the sugar plant. Photo by Joseph A. DiPaola.
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- March 20, 1977: A front-end loader takes a bite out of a mountain of “raw” cane sugar in a storage shed at the refinery. Photo by Walter. M. McCardell.
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- January 15, 1980: Employees at Amstar Corp.’s Domino sugar plant on Locust Point picket during a wildcat strike. Photo by Walter M. McCardell.
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- August 20, 1987: Packaging of brown sugar, bone char, cyntifical spinners before and after filtering.
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- March 23, 1975: No fire here — clouds of thick, black smoke appeared to cme from the Domino Sugar are ain South Baltimore yesterday morning. But there was no fire as the smoke originated in the stacks of the freighter.
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- July 10, 1978: The domino is down to ‘no.’ Photo by Clarence B. Garrett.
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- Dec. 31, 1967: The city, viewed across the inner harbor, from atop the American Sugar Refinery. A. Aubrey Bodine photo.
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- View from Sugar Refinery Locust Point. A. Aubrey Bodine photo.
“We view Domino as synonymous with sugar in America, and we are very excited because it fits very well in our plan,” Alfonso Fanjul (pronounced fan-HOOL) said in an interview at the plant. “We could not conceive of a better brand.”
But even more than the brand name itself, the “Domino Sugar” sign is an icon in Baltimore’s skyline.
Each evening, it takes 15 minutes from the moment the timer clicks on for the noble gases to be ready to paint the town red. Showtime zips through hundreds of miles of wire and 230 transformers until it makes a grand entrance in 650 elongated glass tubes bent in the shapes that spell out America’s No. 1 sugar.
The result is picture perfect. Countless people have made the sign the backdrop for their snapshots. People have called the refinery or arrived unannounced at the front gate, begging to have the sign illuminated just for them.
“You’re suddenly talking to someone who’s having a birthday or bar mitzvah and they want you to turn the sign on,” says Mickey Seither, who was in charge of the Domino sign for a decade and is now a senior vice president. “And I’m like, “Well, I can. But it’s noon. You won’t see it.’”
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A. Aubrey Bodine
Viewing Baltimore from above
Emily P Tilley
Mar 03, 2015 @ 23:26:55
It is truly refreshing when I see pictures of old Baltimore in your newspaper. More importantly, I would like to know how I can purchase some of the pictures; particularly the two pictures of the black male workers who were uploading sugar from Puerto Rico at the Domino Sugar Refinery in 1946. Please advise as to how I may purchase a picture.