Wrigley Memorial

Wrigley Memorial is dedicated to the memory of Wm. Wrigley Jr. and was designed by the architectural firm of Bennett, Parsons and Frost of Chicago. Excavation began in July 1933, construction started in October of that year, and the building was completed in June 1934. The structure is 232 feet wide, 180 feet deep, and 130 feet high from the bottom of its circular stairway to the top of its main 80 foot tower. It was built as nearly as possible from Catalina materials, using aggregate stone quarried and crushed on Catalina as the principal building material, bonded with white cement and sandblasted to emphasize the stone’s colors and textures while exposing as little cement as possible. In addition, 13,400 sacks of white cement from the East Coast and 9,900 sacks of gray cement from the Pacific Coast were used, along with 114 tons of reinforcing steel. Its arches and red tile roof reflect the Spanish influence that dominated the architecture of Early California, and Wm. Wrigley Jr. established a tile plant on Catalina that produced the red roof tiles and the colorful handmade glazed tiles used for decorative effects in the building. The bronze doors, made by the Coleman Bronze Company of Chicago in August 1934, were created to exact specifications from architectural bronze and statuary bronze containing 90% copper, with castings at least 3/16 inch thick. Blue flagstone on the ramp and tower terraces came from Little Harbor on Catalina, and pink and green marble from Georgia was used for certain finishing effects.

Avalon, California · United States