Last updated: August 10, 2021
Place
The Suffolk Peanut Company
Photograph by Marcus Pollard, courtesy of Virginia Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
303 South Saratoga St. Suffolk, Virginia
Significance:
Architecture, Industry, Transportation
Designation:
Listed in the National Register – Reference number 16000801
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Private
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, the Suffolk Peanut Company in Suffolk, Virginia is an example of the successful growth of the peanut industry in the early 20th century. Formed on January 20, 1898 by John Y. King and Colonel John B. Pinner, the Suffolk Peanut Company was the first successful peanut company in the region. The company was initiated by Pinner, an attorney and realtor, who was the company’s first president before later entering a partnership with King for his experience running a small peanut cleaning plant in Windsor, Virginia. The Suffolk Peanut Company was the first peanut business in Suffolk to be successful after the Farmers Alliance of Nansemond County opened the first peanut cleaning, grading, and shelling mill in 1890. This was the beginning of what would eventually make Suffolk the largest peanut market in the world, the “Peanut Capital.”
The first commercial production of peanuts in the United States is believed to have been accomplished by Dr. Matthew Harris near Waverly, Virginia, in 1844. But it was after the Civil War that the peanut soared in national popularity. By the late nineteenth century the “Virginia peanut” had become the most popular type in the country. To improve marketing and profits, peanuts also began to be graded: in 1877 peanuts were sold as fancy, prime, ordinary, and inferior. Buyers wanted uniformity in peanut purchases. Cleaning and shelling peanuts also improved marketability. Initially much of this was done by hand, often by African American workers, but much of the process was standardized and mechanized in large facilities, like the Suffolk Peanut Company. The Suffolk Peanut Company warehouses and processing buildings represent the full range of functions historically associated with the site and result in a property with a high degree of integrity and significance. The Suffolk Peanut Company is a rare intact peanut processing facility and representative of an industry which once dominated the economy of southeast Virginia.
The first commercial production of peanuts in the United States is believed to have been accomplished by Dr. Matthew Harris near Waverly, Virginia, in 1844. But it was after the Civil War that the peanut soared in national popularity. By the late nineteenth century the “Virginia peanut” had become the most popular type in the country. To improve marketing and profits, peanuts also began to be graded: in 1877 peanuts were sold as fancy, prime, ordinary, and inferior. Buyers wanted uniformity in peanut purchases. Cleaning and shelling peanuts also improved marketability. Initially much of this was done by hand, often by African American workers, but much of the process was standardized and mechanized in large facilities, like the Suffolk Peanut Company. The Suffolk Peanut Company warehouses and processing buildings represent the full range of functions historically associated with the site and result in a property with a high degree of integrity and significance. The Suffolk Peanut Company is a rare intact peanut processing facility and representative of an industry which once dominated the economy of southeast Virginia.