Groceteria.com

The Hanford (Calif.) Sentinel ran an article in its March 27, 2007 edition about the history of the Safeway creamery in Hanford, California, the seat of Kings County in the San Joaquin Valley. It was operated by Safeway from 1929 until its closure in 1993.

See: http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/articles ... life02.txt

The creamery opened in 1904 and in 1916 began providing butter under contract to Sam Seelig stores under the Lucerne label. Safeway acquired the creamery in 1929. The article says that the plant later became a major producer of cottage cheese.

The article was written by Pat (Roberts) Machado, a former employee.

Nice little writeup. That reminds me...

Somewhere near Sebastapol on Route 116, there's a farm type building with a Safeway circle S on it...wonder if that was a similar facility to this one...last time I saw that building was in the late 90s though.

<<Moved to the General & Miscellaneous forum>>

I think the Hanford dairy was the original Lucerne dairy, and where the Safeway brand gets its name. A 1928 LA Times picture spread calls it the Lucerne Cream and Butter Company. There is a 1915 picture of the San Joaquin branch at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/affiliates/ima ... a0189a.jpg

As was mentioned in this thread http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1013 they were a major supplier to Safeway and when they had financial problems Safeway bought them to protect their supply chain.

As for the orgin of the name Lucerne, the area at one time was known as Lucerne Valley, not to be confused with the current Lucerne Valley in the High Desert of San Bernardino County. There was a large vineyard in the area called the Lucerne Vineyard which started in 1890. Eventually it became the largest raisin vineyard in the world and was a major supplier to the Sunmaid cooperative. The company went under in 1925 due to defaults on bonds. I couldn't find any relationship between the vineyard and the dairy, though.

Came across a 1926 ad:

Lucerne Cream & Butter Company
418 East Third Street
Los Angeles

Telephone 875-687
MEtropolitan 4844

Chad, could you search and see what/if anything currently exists @ the site? Thanks!

Note the telephone numbers only had 6 digits!

This is the heart of Little Tokyo.
Today there look to be a medical plaza (a pharmacy is on street level) and parking structure.