Fontana Macaroni

If you were looking for some fun in San Francisco during World War II, the thing to do was to go dancing at the Fontana macaroni factory. Indeed, it was a lively time in the Golden City, a place packed with the military gearing up for deployment to the Pacific. At the end of a busy day, the pasta factory turned into a dance hall where you could boogie down amid boxes of freshly minted golden macaroni. All that was needed were some dancing sailors to spice up the mix and a few Marines to turn up the heat. The dances at the macaroni factory offered a good break from an otherwise challenging period.

The Fontana macaroni factory was built to look pristine, exuding an aura of cleanliness to all who saw it. It was a 100 x 300-foot (30 x 91-meter) four story building in South San Francisco, covered in massive windows to maximize natural lighting, thus acquiring the moniker of the “Sunshine Plant”. The factory was state of the art, with hydraulic power and its own water purification system.

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