Diamond Match, Chico California
4/1/2018
Diamond Match, Chico California
Chico California is known for being a pleasant college town and the home of the Sierra Nevada Brewery. It's not known for having interesting post-industrial landscapes but perhaps it should be. Chico was the home of the Diamond Match Company's western operations from 1901 to the 1980s. The Diamond Match Company, the result of an 1880s consolidation, was headquartered in Akron Ohio. The company was led by a man named Ohio Columbus Barber which, thankfully, is usually shortened to O.C. Barber. In 1891, Barber relocated his Akron match factory to a planned industrial suburb outside of Akron that he named Barberton, after himself. In 1901, Barber/Diamond Match purchased the Sierra Lumber company, which had lands northeast of Chico, to use as a source of lumber. A railroad spur was built from Stirling City CA, a Diamond lumber camp, to the main rail line in Chico. Barber then purchased 240 acres south of Chico where he built a saw mill and later match factory. The small company town that grew up around the mill was called Barber. Barber is now a neighborhood within Chico. The match factory/sawmill operated until the 1980s but have been abandoned since. Several of the larger structures in the factory complex burned years ago but the machine shop (photo above) and the central building of the power plant (below) are still standing. The former factory grounds are mostly empty aside from the building ruins and the cracked pavement of the complex's former roads. One small section on the northwest end of the grounds has been reused. The neighborhood to the north of the plant is still predominantly composed of small worker cottages and bungalows. A rectangular hip roofed cottage being especially common (photo below). The factory grounds are accessible from the southeast and are almost certainly private property but I don't recall seeing any no-tresspassing signs. I have no idea what, if any, plans are in the works for preserving and developing this very significant and very large Chico property.
Diamond Match, Chico California
The map below shows the Diamond Match property in maroon. The neighborhood to Park Ave on the NE and Little Chico Creek on the NW would have been the former company town of Barber. At some point Barber was annexed by Chico and has since become one of the older and most central neighborhoods of Chico. One thing I find especially interesting about Diamond Match and Chico is how the complex seems to have affected the development pattern of the city. The industrial complex was large enough that it blocked the extension of arterials heading south from downtown Chico. This would have stifled development in that direction. The property seems to cast a development free shadow to its south. Almost all development in recent years has taken place to the north of downtown. There was an active effort to exclude new development from the rich orchard lands to the southeast of Chico and steer it towards the foothills. I'm sure this is largely responsible for the development pattern I'm seeing. But very large industrial complexes like Diamond Match often direct development away from themselves by choking off transportation networks. Sometimes neighborhoods of small workers homes can establish larger metropolitan economic and social patterns. This can also cast development shadows. While the plant was operating it was the center of social and economic circulation in the southern part of Chico. Now that the plant is closed and fenced off it blocks circulation in that part of the city. It is a void. It's not visible from any but the closest streets but its presence is felt. It is annihilated or subtracted space from the larger urban fabric. Reintegrating this space into the fabric of Chico will require connecting it to the rest of the city through established neighborhoods that have grown accustom to the peace and quiet of the outside edge. It is such a large and central property that it should be developed. A few thousand units of housing could be developed on the Diamond Match property that would be within walking distance of Chico State and downtown. This is the kind of, car optional, environmentally friendly development that California desperately needs. But redeveloping and re-integrating this property will present a number of fascinating challenges.
Map of the Diamond Match grounds
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Housing near Diamond Match, Chico California
Power House, Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Power House, Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
Diamond Match, Chico California
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