In 1915, Claude E. Street produced his first bottle of Street's Grapefruit Juice in Haines City, Florida, becoming the first citrus juice processing manufacturer in America. Today, behind Brazil, Florida is the second-largest producer of orange juice in the world with nearly 76,000 Floridians working in the citrus industry or a related business, generating more than $8.6 billion in economic activity. Here's a look at where your orange juice is produced now and has been in the past.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Exhibits dedicated to the citrus industry inside the Winter Garden Heritage Museum.

In 1970, 200 million boxes of citrus were picked. In the later half of the 20th century, a combination of crop destroying freezes and the urbanization of Central Florida would reshape the state’s citrus industry. Most citrus is now grown in the southern two-thirds of the Florida peninsula, leaving a Central Florida landscape filled with interesting abandoned packinghouses and juice processing plants. Here are a few:

The former Alturas Packing Company, Inc. packing house on SR 60 between Bartow and Lake Wales.

See interior images of the former Altrus Packing Company building here.

The former Waverly Growers Cooperative packing house was established by W.C. Pederson. In 2005, the cooperative closed its packing house after losing hundreds of grove acres to commercial development resulting in a diminishing supply of fresh fruit.

The Auburndale Citrus Growers Association Packing House (also known as the Exchange Packing House) dates back to 1910. Added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1997, the restored structure is utilized for a diverse range of uses.

The former Lake Wales Citrus Growers Association packing house in Lake Wales. Built in 1915, the building is now occupied by HARMS Lake Wales.

The original Lake Wales Citrus Growers Association packing house in downtown Lake Wales.

The former Lake Alfred Citrus Growers Association building was completed in 1922 in downtown Lake Alfred.

Minute Maid once operated a juice processing plant in Lake Alfred. That plant is now occupied by Florida Distillers Inc. The company supplies liquor manufacturers with a 189-proof alcohol product produced from pulp by-product from orange juice plants. The company’s beverages included fortified citrus wine, citrus brandy, citrus spirits and rum.

The former Florence Villa Citrus Growers Association packing plant dates back to 1930. For much of the 20th century, it was an orange juice concentrate plant for General Foods Corporation’s Bird’s Eye Division. In 1985, the plant where Awake and Orange Plus frozen concentrate juice brands were produced was sold to California-based TreeSweet Products, Inc. After TreeSweet’s bankruptcy in 1988, the plant was acquired by Florida Distillers, in order to be used as a bottling facility. Today, the plant is largely empty and available for sale.

The former Adams Packing Association processing plant dates back to 1927 and was purchased by Royal Crown Cola in 1972. It was the industry’s first to construct tank farms for juice storage, effectively replacing fifty-five gallon drums as the primary vehicle for transporting juice. It was acquired by Florida Global Citrus in 1992. Juice processing operations ceased in 2000 when its parent company shifted its operations to Lykes Pasco in Dade City. In 2000, the plant became All Temp Storage LLC.

The former Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative juice plant in Lake Wales. Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative grew to become Florida’s Natural and continues to operate at a larger site roughly one mile west.

This Bartow plant was originally a fruit sectioning operation owned by the Ben Hill Griffin Inc. In 1981, it was sold to Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble. After struggling to compete against other national juice brands, Procter & Gamble shut down this plant in 1992. At the time, it employed 376 seasonal workers and was one of the last in Florida to produce and sell citrus sections. The decline in citrus section plants was due to most jobs related to the labor intensive process being shifted to lower-wage countries.

Established by John Andrew Snively in 1934, Winter Haven-based Snively Groves Inc. was one of the state’s first large citrus packing, canning and processing companies, employing over 1,500 before World War II. Juice brands produced by Snively included Cypress Garden, Bird’s Eye and private labels. Since 1978, the 400,000 square foot former juice plant has served as the home of Phoenix Industries. Phoenix Industries is a full service logistics company, providing transportation, climate controlled warehousing and storage, distribution and freight management service.

Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Davis is a certified senior planner and graduate of Florida A&M University. He is the author of the award winning books “Reclaiming Jacksonville,” “Cohen Brothers: The Big Store” and “Images of Modern America: Jacksonville.” Davis has served with various organizations committed to improving urban communities, including the American Planning Association and the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. A 2013 Next City Vanguard, Davis is the co-founder of Metro Jacksonville.com and ModernCities.com — two websites dedicated to promoting fiscally sustainable communities — and Transform Jax, a tactical urbanist group. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com