2013 December PASO Magazine

In 1922, they accomplished a feat in five
months, erecting a processing plant of over
11,000 square feet of reinforced concrete, so
efficiently engineered that a handful of men
could process 500 tons of nuts. Lots of those,
under the “Blue Diamond” logo, wound up
in Hershey chocolates.
In the autumn of 1922, a handsome
$60,000 processing plant, majestic in a
warm-red stucco, stood at the gateway of
Paso Robles between the State Highway and
the railroad. Considered “lasting evidence of
our success,” the building pulsed with life,
with farmers, trucks, machinery, and gears as
500 tons of almonds poured into the tower’s
bins. Trains chugged down the tracks on the
western side, transporting the city’s premier
crop, in the era when Paso Robles was the
“Almond Capital of the World.”
The dirty work
Saving history is not an ordinary construction
job.
Neal Madsen and Mike Anderson have
spent a year and a half in the company of the
old hulk. Just the two of them, alone on the
site. It’s the longest job they have ever had.
“Unbelievable,” says Neal, shaking his
head at the volume of time consumed by this
building. “When I walked in, it was a disaster.
It was beyond disgusting. I went home and
went online to research pigeon poop. There
are 17 different diseases in pigeon poop. We
had to hire a company for a toxic environmental
cleanup.”
Ray scooped up Mike & Neal Construction
for general contractor duties after they
wrapped up the restoration of the Linn’s
building in Cambria.
craft
Work done with pride endures. The building’s
structural engineering was ahead of
its time. Loaded with rebar, it had
exceptional seismic
strength.
“They are superior to everything a general
contractor is supposed to be,” he says. “We’ve
had zero accidents, really only one unpleasant
surprise — when we struck oil in an
underground storage tank that was left over
from the almond processing days. Mike and
Neal spent two months working through the
proper disposal.”
Neal says that he and Mike spent a long
stretch in the interior, unseen by the public, as
people asked, “When are you going start?” His
wife passed away in that period, and he found
pleasure in pounding nails and pouring concrete,
alone in the building with his partner.
Now that dirty work is done, the structure
retrofitted and 60 tons of steel stronger, the
pace has picked up, Neal says. “We’re incredibly
busy, shepherding subcontractors.”
A lot of work has to be done to adapt the
building for its new purpose in life: the production
of wine. And it must be done carefully.
The building’s integrity is at stake.
Integrity is valuable
When the old building catapulted to the
role of historic treasure in 2005, it gained
special status as a structure. Its prospects
had been dim; the property owner at the
time, Smart & Final Corporation, asked permission
to demolish the old relic and build
a store with a replica tower. When townspeople
rallied to save the genuine article, the
city ordered the warehouse to be thoroughly,
professionally scrutinized by a firm specializing
in old buildings.
The report of that investigation changed
everything.
The city declared the old Almond Growers
building a “significant historic resource,” officially
announcing that the building deserves
to be saved because it contains immensely
valuable evidence of an era that wrote history
in the heritage of Paso Robles.
The Derbys bought the newly designated
historic building, says Ray, “to preserve the
past with respect and preserve a part of history
through adaptive reuse. There’s a lot the
past has to teach us. We can learn from it.”
To reincarnate the Almond Growers warehouse,
they’ve walked in the footsteps of the
men who built it 91 years. It’s a painstaking
process, governed by Secretary of the Interior
Standards for Historic
Buildings.
To protect the integrity
and authenticity of the Almond
Growers building, the
Derbys are vigilant in following
the stringent rules
dictating the modifications
they make while restoring
the building to usefulness
again. They want the building
listed on the Register of
Historic Places.
December 2013, Paso Robles Magazine 19