The Campana Factory is a historic building in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. It was built in 1936 to serve as a factory for

The Campana Company The Campana Company of Batavia, Illinois was a major manufacturer of cosmetics in the 20th century. History The Campana Company was incorporated in Illinois in 1927. Its first product was Italian Balm, a hand lotion. The formula was purchased f ...

, which produced Italian Balm, the most popular hand

lotion Lotion is a low-viscosity topical preparation intended for application to the skin. By contrast, creams and gels have higher viscosity, typically due to lower water content. Lotions are applied to external skin with bare hands, a brush, a clean ...

in the United States during

The Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

and

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

building features many innovative technologies, such as

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979.

History

was a manufacturer of hand lotion, most notably Italian Balm, and other beauty products. Despite the economic hardships of

, Campana was prosperous due to an aggressive radio advertising campaign featuring commercials on several hit shows, including

The First Nighter Program ''The First Nighter Program'' was a long-running radio anthology comedy-drama series broadcast from November 27, 1930, to September 27, 1953. The host was Mr. First Nighter (Charles P. Hughes, Macdonald Carey, Bret Morrison, Marvin Miller, Don Br ...

. Campana also advertised by mailing millions of free samples to potential customers. The company was successful enough to warrant a new factory in 1936. The factory was intended to use the latest technologies and architectural styles to promote its products. Campana Factory (Batavia, IL) 04

The

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

inspired building was three stories tall with a central tower rising . The building is in a long, horizontal block, and the third story is half as long as the other two. The floors alternate between tile and

glass brick Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. The appearance of glass blocks can vary in color, size, texture and form. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light. The modern glass block w ...

with no

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s. The glass bricks provide interior lightning in lieu of full windows. Horizontal bands of turquoise tile stretch around the building, with vertical bands rising up the tower. The Campana logo is written in

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

above the main entrance and in a large, red

neon sign In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in Decem ...

near the top of the tower. Inside,

fluorescent lights A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet lig ...

provide lighting to areas not nearby glass brick. Most walls are painted white or are tiled. The east side of the building was used as a visitors' gallery, where Campana executives could give tours of the building and its product without disturbing the workers. The manufacturing floor was visible through large

plate glass Plate glass, flat glass or sheet glass is a type of glass, initially produced in plane form, commonly used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, and windscreens. For modern architectural and automotive applications, the flat glass is s ...

windows from this wing. The interior of the tower housed a water tank for fire protection and

. The

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

in the lobby featured Art Deco depictions of nudes. The building was one of the first to be completely air conditioned. As a consequence, operational windows were considered unnecessary and were never added. Its automated assembly lines and mechanical mixers were considered to be state-of-the-art technologies. Cosmetic ingredients were dropped from the third floor to the second floor to be mixed. The company also moved its administrative offices in the building. Desks were established in rows to maximize space, a new idea at the time, but now one of the most common methods of desk arrangement. A glass block wing was added to each end of the first floor in the 1940s and is the only major addition since the plant opened. The Campana Company was purchased by Dow Chemical of Midland, Michigan in the early sixties which allowed it to function as a separate unit. Because Campana's president, I. Willard Crull, was asked to briefly serve as Dow's interim president, he was afforded time to shop around Campana so that it would be kept intact by its future owner. California headquartered

Purex PUREX (plutonium uranium reduction extraction) is a chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. PUREX is the ''de facto'' standard aqueous nuclear reprocessing method for the recovery of uranium and plutonium ...

subsequently bought Campana in the mid sixties, made Crull its vice president for health-care products and toiletries."a, b, c..." ''The Standard & Poor Directory of Corporations and Executives'', Volumes 1965-77. New York: Standard & Poor. Purex moved all operations out of state after Crull's retirement in the mid 1970s and the factory is now closed. The building was added to the

on April 6, 1979. It is now the home of All Dressed Up Costumes and the Fizzy Magic bath bomb company.

Notes

External links

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
{{Registered Historic Places Industrial buildings completed in 1936 Buildings and structures in Batavia, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Kane County, Illinois Streamline Moderne architecture in Illinois Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois 1936 establishments in Illinois