Most New Orleans shoppers recognize those little yellow bags of Domino Sugar sitting on grocery shelves. But few might know, however, that much of that sugar is produce right here at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Arabi, a small community tucked away in St. Bernard Parish between the Lower Ninth Ward and Chalmette. As seen in this 1913 photograph, the Domino Sugar Refinery Chalmette (it’s official name) then and now is the largest sugar refinery in the Western Hemisphere.
Construction began on Aug. 29, 1905, with little fanfare except for a few officials from the parent company American Sugar Refining Inc. a member of ASR Group, which now owns sugar refineries in North America, Europe and Central America. Work continued for the next four years with a completion date scheduled for mid-March 1909. But along came a minor setback on Feb. 5, 1909, when fire destroyed an 800-foot wharf, sheds, steel viaducts and part of the raw sugar warehouse. The following day, the Daily Picayune (today’s Times-Picayune) gave a colorful description of the event:
“Like a match dropped into a pile of oil-saturated chips, the flames burst forth furiously, and then began eating into the approaches, or viaducts, to the gigantic warehouse. Thousands stood upon the bank of the river gazing excitedly at the fire, as it rapidly ate its way through the building, each moment anticipating the sweep of the flames over towards the main buildings.”
Later that April, the company announced it would construct houses on the property and surrounding neighborhood for employees who would “like to live as near the scene of their work as possible.”
Finally, on the morning of May 17, 1909, the refinery cranked up operations, again to little fanfare. A few home office officials showed up along with thousands of men looking for jobs. The Daily Picayune gave a running account of the $4 million construction costs and other minutia such as the number of bricks, steel and concrete needed to build the refinery. The company also said it planned to employ 1,000 men.
Over the years, all went well at the refinery that is until Feb. 15, 1965, when a blast injured 34 workers, caused over $1 million in damages, and killed one worker while trying to save others. “Balls of flame with fire everywhere” is how one victim described the horrific scene to the Times-Picayune. A fire inspector speculated that static electric or a spark caused by sugar dust triggered the explosion. The plant manager, however, said a private company was installing electrical equipment in the granular building when the blast occurred.
The following June, the company launched a major project to expand and modernize the refinery. Much to the horror of local preservationists, that expansion included demolition of the circa 1830 Three Oaks Plantation house seen here on the far right in this photograph. The plant superintendent’s house stands to the left. In a June 29, 1965, Times-Picayune article, company officials, in their defense, described Three Oaks as a “badly deteriorated 19th century house” that had been “weakened and disfigured by dry rot.” They also reminded readers that another antebellum house on the opposite side of the refinery, the 1839 Cavaroc House (not seen in photograph), had been “maintained in first class condition,” and served as the refinery’s office building. The Cavaroc House still stands on the upriver side of the refinery.
Fires, explosions, Domino also survived Hurricane Betsy in September 1965 and Katrina in August 2005. Today, the refinery employs 500 people, plus another 100 non-company support personnel, and has the capacity to produce 6 million pounds of sugar a day or 950,000 metric tons annually. Not bad, considering the United States total annual sugar production is about 8.4 million metric tons. And to the delight of Louisiana growers, a company spokesman says 100 percent of Domino’s sugar produced at the Chalmette plant is from Louisiana sugarcane. Those little yellow bags of sugar continue to play an important role in the state’s economy – and in a good cup of café au lait.
