Spreckels, California

Alongside Spreckels Avenue about a mile south of California State Route 68 is one of the oldest Company Towns that has been continual operation; Spreckels.

Spreckels was built on the bank of the Salinas River by the Spreckels Sugar Company in 1898. When Spreckels was opened it had the largest sugar beet factory in the world. Freight service in Spreckels moved via the Spreckels Branch Railroad which opened alongside the company town. Spreckels Sugar operated in Spreckels until the 1980s and it was eventually replaced by two agriculture companies that still operate in town today.

Spreckels essentially consists of nothing but company homes and commercial buildings built in the late 19th/early 20th century. Alongside Spreckels Avenue there is a small strip of buildings that clearly were meant to serve as a Main Street. Above the building on the left is a closed two-story commercial building, a US Post Office, and Volunteer Fire Department building.

The Spreckels Fire Department building shows a establishment date of 1898.

The Spreckels Branch Railroad apparently was razed in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Abandoned Rails shows a map detailing where the line was, largely the alignment was next to Railroad Avenue.

Abandoned Rails on the Spreckels Branch

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