Colgate & Company Jersey City Plant, Between 1931 Pierhead Line, Essex, York, & Montgomery Streets, Jersey City, Hudson County, NJ

Significance: The Colgate-Palmolive Company is one of the oldest and largest companies in the world making soap, detergents, and personal care products, with corporate origins beginning in 1806. The Jersey City plant was Colgate & Company's most important manufacturing operation from 1847 until the company's 1928 merger with the Palmolive-Peet Company, and including company headquarters from 1910-30 and 1934-56. By ca. 1870, Colgate & Company was one of Jersey City's largest employers, and participated in the assimilation of many immigrants to the United States. When operations ceased c1986-88, the plant was significant as what was probably the longest continuously-operated soap-making facility in the United States, and as an outstanding example of long-term re-use, adaptation, and enlargement of a mid-nineteenth-century industrial complex.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1641
Survey number: HAER NJ-71
Building/structure dates: 1847-1980 Initial Construction