who owns sugarhouse casino in philadelphia pennsylvania

According to a former employee turned chronicler of the company named Dan Gutleben, it was the increasing demand for sugar by America’s allies during World War II that caused the plant, situated in a predominantly white neighborhood, to begin hiring African Americans. During World War II, it produced a whopping 408,000 tons of refined sugar. His son Charles moved the refinery to the foot of Shackamaxon Street in 1881, where, despite multiple owners, legal problems, and short periods of disuse, it remained for over a century until closing.ĭuring the first half of the century, the Sugar House’s presence in the neighborhood and the city as a whole expanded-while it employed about 40 men throughout the 1880s, by the 1950s it employed over 1500 men and women. Its story began with John Hilgert, a Bavarian immigrant, building a smear house at 5th and Girard in 1868 where molasses was refined.

The Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Company was the last independent producer to fight the giant Sugar Trust early in the 20th century it later became the Pennsylvania Division of the National Sugar Refining Company in 1942. Known to many in the neighborhood as the Sugar House, this long-standing sugar refinery closed its doors in 1984.

Who owns sugarhouse casino in philadelphia pennsylvania