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Benjamin Dreyfus, a Bavarian Jewish immigrant, settled in Anaheim, CA, in 1858. He initially operated a mercantile store, but gradually got into the local wine industry, at first as a manager in San Francisco, CA, supervising the Anaheim Wine Growers Association's facility in Northern CA>. Subsequently, he opened his own winery and a wine distribution business with offices in New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA. The earlier, wood-frame buildings of Dreyfus's Anaheim winery were built in the 1870s on East Center Street (now Lincoln Avenue) at East Street. By about 1880, Dreyfus had become the largest vintner in CA, and, to increase capacity still further, he built this impressive, capacious, brick building in 1884 to take the place of the East Center Street facilities. By the time the huge plant was erected, however, Anaheim's booming wine industry had been decimated by Pierce's Disease, a bacterial infection that attacked a vine's roots spread by insects called leafhoppers. In "A History of Wine in America from the Beginnings to Prohibition," viticultural historian Thomas Pinney said of the second Dreyfus Winery: "The fate of the bold new winery building that Benjamin Dreyfus, the Anaheim wine king, had erected in 1884 is symbolic. This was an imposing stone building, far larger than anything else of the kind in the area, but when it was completed and ready to receive a vintage, there was no vintage to receive. The building thereafter passed through various humiliating roles as a warehouse, as a factory for chicken-feeding equipment, even as a winter quarters for a circus." (See Thomas Pinney, "A History of Wine in America from the Beginnings to Prohibition," [Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989], p. 292-293.) In its later years, the brick building was also used as an orange juice cannery.

The Dreyfus Winery was a brick building that, in 1914, occupied an 8-acre property.

This former winery was used as a warehouse between the late 1880s through the 1910s. In c. 1912, John Cook and John Walls bought the Dreyfus Winery #2 and courted the Los Angeles China Manufacturing Company to lease or buy the building. This deal fell through. In 1914, Hall Holdaway, President of the Universal Tire Company, purchased the warehouse from owners John Walls and John Cook for $35,000 as a manufacturing location. The Los Angeles Times reported on 02/19/1914 that $75,000 worth of manufacturing equipment had been ordered for the plant which was expected to start work by 06/01/1914 or sooner and employ 200-500 workers. The Times noted that the winery was a local landmark and praised its reuse: "A particularly gratifying feature of the proposition is the fact that it will bring into active service a fine old building that for many years has been one of the noted landmarks of the early wine industry. During the the last twenty-five years it has stood as a warehouse, although both Mr. Walls and Cook have been active at all times in trying to interest outside capital in coming to Anaheim and establishing a factory here." (See "New Tire Factory: Machinery Ordered for a Concern Which Will Soon Begin Manufacturing in Anaheim," Los Angeles Times, 02/19/1914, p. II8.)

Demolished; The Dreyfus Winery #2 was located close to the Santa Ana Freeway (built between 1947-1956). To make room for freeway construction, part of the winery was demolished in the 1950s or 1960s. The entire building was taken down in 1973.

PCAD id: 16031