George Haas & Sons

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George Haas & Sons was a confectioner in San Francisco, California. George Haas established his first candy factory and store, where he made some 200 varieties of candies, in 1868. After selling the business in 1880 he opened a new business two years later in the Phelan Building, designed by William Curlett, which was marketed as the most beautiful candy store in the U.S. and featured on an historic postcard.

Haas Candy Factory
George Haas & Sons is located in San Francisco County
George Haas & Sons
George Haas & Sons is located in California
George Haas & Sons
George Haas & Sons is located in the United States
George Haas & Sons
Location54 Mint St., San Francisco, California
Coordinates37°46′58″N 122°24′24″W / 37.78278°N 122.40667°W / 37.78278; -122.40667 (Haas Candy Factory)
Arealess than one acre
Built1906 (1906)
ArchitectWilliam Curlett
Architectural styleEarly Commercial
NRHP reference No.00001622[1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 8, 2001

Haas candies were used in a murder by poisoning in the latter part of the nineteenth century when a spurned lover sent candies laced with arsenic to her former lover's wife in Dover, Delaware.[2][3] The killer was identified only after the candies were traced to Haas's San Francisco store.

After being destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake the business reopened in the rebuilt Phelan Building and three other sites, later expanding to eight stores in San Francisco and a thousand outlets elsewhere. The stores not only sold candy, but also featured soda fountains and restaurants; the Phelan Building also had a tea room on the building's second floor.[4] The Haas Factory Building, also designed by William Curlett, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).[5] Tongs from the business are collectible.[6]

George Haas's son R. C. Haas married Corinne Madison, daughter of the head of the California Associated Raisin Company.[7] Members of the Gruenhagen family were involved in the business.[8] The company went bankrupt in 1940.

Haas Candy Factory

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The Haas Candy Factory building in San Francisco is listed on the NRHP in San Francisco. It is at 54 Mint Street in the South of Market neighborhood.

References

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  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. ^ Nash, Jay Robert (1986). Look for the Woman: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Female Prisoners, Kidnappers, Thieves, Extortionists, Terrorists, Swindlers and Spies from Elizabethan Times to the Present. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1461747727.
  3. ^ Scott, Gini Graham (2007). American Murder. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0313024764.
  4. ^ Whitaker, Jan (2015). Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1250089816.
  5. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Haas Candy Factory". National Park Service. Retrieved December 11, 2020. With accompanying pictures
  6. ^ Yvaska, Steven Wayne (February 9, 2008). "Boxes used to come with more than just candy". The Mercury News. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  7. ^ California Fruit News, Volume 49, Issue 1337. Howard C. Rowley. 1914.
  8. ^ The Bay of San Francisco: The Metropolis of the Pacific Coast and Its Suburban Cities : a History, Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company. 1892.