Review by Hui-Lan H. Titangos, Technical Services Librarian, Santa Cruz Public Library
Librarian Alverda Orlando, an authoritative historian on Davenport, California, and Robert W. Piwarzyk, a lime industry
historian and retired engineer, collaborated, along with several plant personnel and area residents, to compile a
history of the Davenport Cement Plant, one of the few remaining plants in California.
Unlike some books devoted to company history, Davenport Cement Centennial is focused not on any bigger-than-life
founders, or their insightful thinking and exemplary endeavors, but on a single and simple point: how events evolved as
a continuing history. It narrates how the plant was conceived in 1903, when William Dingee, owner of the Standard
Portland Cement Company, saw the potential of the significant limestone and shale deposits in the Ben Lomond
Mountains. Together with his partner Irving Bachman, he purchased property twelve miles northwest of the city of
Santa Cruz and constructed the second largest cement plant in the nation. A few months later San Francisco was
hit by the devastating 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire.
This historical backdrop has predestined the fate of the Davenport plant ever since. To respond to the sudden
overwhelming demand for cement and concrete, the construction of the Davenport plant was completed one year ahead of
schedule. In late 1906, the plant started with limited operations. By 1910, its annual production rose to
1.4 million barrels, an amount not exceeded until World War II. The importance of Davenport Cement has by no
means been diminishing. On the contrary, its presence has been felt throughout the state of California, from the
building of the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House (1932) to Golden Gate Bridge (1937); from Bay Area Rapid Transit
(BART) to Oakland-Alameda Coliseum (1966) from the Stanford Medical Center to the expansion of San Francisco
International Airport, not to mention countless private homes built in California's cities and suburbs, all of which
have used Davenport cement for their foundations.
Davenport Cement Centennial utilizes friendly graphs and illustrations to denote the timeline by which it has
left its footprints on the history of California in general, and the San Francisco Greater Bay Area in
particular. The sidebar in the chapter, Building for Future Regeneration, uses clear and easy-to-understand
English to explain what cement is and what types of cement Davenport produces.
For specialized readers, Davenport Cement Centennial is an interesting study which follows a century of
innovative cement manufacturing. It shows how and from where limestone was quarried; what mill processes were
involved in homogenizing the raw materials, calcinating those in the kilns, and further handling in the finish
mill. Transportation of the limestone to the plant and shipment of the product is also included. However,
the book does not dwell exclusively on technology, but focuses on the community behind the plant, the people who made
natural resources and technologies work, and their small but complete society. The Davenport residents and cement
plant workers built the one-room Pacific School (1906), Crocker Hospital in 1910, a two-cell jail in 1914, and the St.
Vincent de Paul church in 1915. Davenport Cement Centennial is a must read for both the general as
well as specialized audiences, for both adult and young readers.
Review by Chris Watson for the Santa Cruz Sentinel on January 28, 2007
Cementing a bond with Davenport
Davenport — that sweet little town on the North Coast — was built soon after the Portland Cement Co. opened the second
largest cement plant in the U.S. there.
The neighbors haven't been too keen on the noise and dust kicked up by the company, but there've been pluses.
Not only did Davenport cement help build the Pearl Harbor dry docks, the Panama Canal, the San Francisco Opera House,
the Golden Gate Bridge, the Oakland Coliseum and BART, but the company, in the last couple of decades, has provided
community support by establishing an endowment fund for Bonny Doon School and aiding the victims of 9/11 and the
Indonesian tsunami.
This history — and more tidbits — can be found in the book "Davenport Cement Centennial: Honoring Our Past, Building
the Future," sub-sub-titled, "The Story of the Davenport Cement Plant and the Important Part It Has Played and
Continues to Play in California's History"
Created with the help of Cemex employees, Pacific School, Bonny Doon School, the Davenport Resource Service Center,
UCSC Special Collections and the San Francisco Public Library, the book was written by Alverda Orlando and Bob
Piwarzyk, with publishing support from Trisa Endicott and Hilary Haycock.
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