The Sugar Refinery was built in 1792 by Joshua Cresson and John Bartholomew on undeveloped land near Christ Church. The "Sugar House," as it was known, grew over the years from its original five stories to eight stories, and the sugar storage house was expanded into a steampowered refinery.
Joseph S. Lovering owned and operated the Sugar Refinery from 1836 to 1866. During this time, additional buildings were added on, creating one of the largest refineries in the world. Lovering had his own special methods of refining sugar which other refiners were desperate to discover. For the purpose of deceiving and misleading them in their attempts, he had a room in his refinery fitted up with a great number of pipes and valves, also intricate looking machinery, into which at certain times, he would go and turn valves and manipulate levers, simply as a blind, the whole arrangement being a mere fake, that had nothing to do with the real process of refining. Lovering's advertisements made the claim that his refinery produced "Steam Sugar, Refined without the use of Blood". He had figured out how to purify sugar without the use of bulls blood, which was a necessary addition at that time. By 1845, Lovering had become a millionaire.
Joseph Lovering sold the refinery to McKean, Newhall & Borie in 1866. The building was finally abandoned as a refinery around 1910 and became the property of Joseph Wharton, the son in law of Lovering. He used it as a warehouse, as did subsequent owners, until it was converted to apartments in 1976.
Lithograph, mid 1800's Current Basement
1879
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