A look back at the history of William White and The Chicle Building...

  William J. White took the chewing gum industry to new heights. Chewing gum had been developed in the 1830’s and first used the resin of the spruce tree and later paraffin as a base. Chicle, the coagulated milky juice of a tropical American tree, came into use as a chewing gum base in the 1860’s but saw limited acceptance because it could not be readily flavored.

  White and his wife experimented in their kitchen with a barrel of chicle from Yucatan. He found that if he increased the sugar content and added flavorings to the corn syrup sweetener, the chicle accepted and retained the flavorings. Whether by accident or on purpose, White chose peppermint as the principal flavor, and almost overnight his chicle-based, peppermint-flavored gum became universally accepted. Even today, peppermint is the flavor of 50% of all chewing gum.

  White introduced additional innovation at this time: the sale of gum as small flat sticks. Up to this point, gum was sold in foil-wrapped rods about half the length and thickness of a cigarette, or it was cut from a roll at a pharmacy or confectionery. Chewing gum is, of course, sill sold in the form developed by White.

  White was soon to spring ahead of his competitors in the gum business, thanks to his innovations in the use of chicle. In 1887 alone, he sold five million sticks of gum. The demand was so great that White sought a new manufacturing facility, and in 1888 he built the Chicle Building.

  By 1896, the Chicle Building housed offices in the front, stock rooms in the basement, wrapping and shipping on the first floor, manufacturing on the second, and a paper box factory on the third and fourth floors. Four small buildings attached to the rear housed a sugar mill, coal, storage, and power sources.

  Due to the continued growth of the company, a one-story brick addition was constructed in 1900 to the east and was used for shipping and stock storage. The office was also moved to this building. Around 1905, White’s connections to the chewing gum industry in Cleveland largely came to an end, partially as American Chicle Company took a more direct role in management of White’s building, and because White had become notorious for his lavish spending. The board voted his dismissal and split his millions of dollars’ worth of shares between themselves.

  From about 1909 to 1920, the Chicle Building was occupied by the “American Chicle Company”. It was considered one of America’s Big Three (the other two were Wrigley and Beech-Nut), and was responsible for many innovations in gum making. In March, 1919, the company announced plans to build a $2 million plant in Long Island City, New York, and by 1921 ceased operations in Cleveland.

  Several businesses occupied the building from 1923 to 1989 including, the G.E. Conkey Company, The National Sash and Door, The Tooling Service Company, J&W Fabricating, and Cleveland Model and Supply Company was located there.

  The Chicle Building is the only surviving structure associated with the active business life of William J. White and his development of chicle-based gum, the foundation upon which the entire modern chewing gum industry was built. As such, it is an important reminder of Cleveland’s business and industrial past and a tangible document of the city’s economic contribution to the nation.