The original Life Savers candy factory is on North Main Street in Port Chester, not far from the Connecticut line. Check out the life saver rolls on the side.
Today, it’s condos. According to a 1989 article in the New York Times, Life Savers company abandoned the building in 1984 after 65 years there. “The five-story structure had turned out as many as 616 million rolls of Life Savers a year during its peak period in the 1960’s, said Ray Sammarco, former plant manager. Indeed, old-timers recalled that residents always knew which flavor was being produced by the aroma that wafted over the town.”
(photos: top: Westchester County Archives; bottom: LandmarkHunter.com)
I had a tour of the plant in 1960 for my 10th birthday. They were making Choco-Mint that week and I filled my pockets! My paternal grandfather Walter Leo Cosman worked there in 1930 after he had immigrated from Canada in 1926. Liked going by on our way to my maternal great grandmother who lived on Leonard Street in Port Chester. The sweet smells meant we were getting close.
I was a student at United Hospital in 1979-1980. I remember walks around the town of Port Chester and especially the giant rolls of Life Savers outside the building. I’m so sorry I never had my picture taken there (no cell phones!). I remember the scent of Butter Rum. Hope someone else has the other rolls.
I grew up in the Town of Rye, now Rye Brook. when we could smell the Lifesaver Plant, it was a sure sign of rain.It is definitely tragic that those fabulous works of pop art, the big Life Saver packages, were not preserved somewhere. Does anyone know if this is the sad truth?
One of the giant Life Saver rolls is in Gouverneur, NY — http://www.gouverneurchamber.net/lifesaver/lifesaver.html