Warren Sanitary Dairy prior to demolition.

Circa 1996.

050-025 082

Still Image

10 x 15 cm.

Local History & Genealogy Center

The Warren Sanitary Dairy, also known as The Warren Sanitary Milk Company, was founded at Dana Avenue and Pine Street, Warren, Ohio in 1925 by Samuel Stauffer and his family. As the name suggests, the main selling point was sanitation, with the Newton Falls Herald stating, “State sanitary inspectors have complemented time and again this efficient plant whose managers are determined that its records for cleanliness and sanitation shall not be beaten in the state” (Newton Falls Herald, June 19, 1930). In 1927, a new plant was built at 1296 Youngstown Road SE to accommodate the expanding production of the company and to add a retail space that would additionally serve as an ice cream parlor, as ice cream was another specialty of the Warren Sanitary Dairy. In March of 1942, a new, enlarged modern building was opened, and in April of 1942, the products of the Warren Sanitary Dairy were used to stock the Tribune Cooking School. In October of 1947 the milk companies Kreitler & Sons and City Milk Service, Co. closed, allowing the Warren Sanitary Dairy to take over the operations of both. The Dairy switched over to milk trucks in 1959 after the last Sanitary Milk Horse retired. Samuel Stauffer, founder and president of the Dairy since it opened in 1925, died in April of 1957, passing the presidency of the company down to his son Lester R. Stauffer, who served as president of the company until it closed for financial reasons in 1980. In 1990, after the Dairy had sat abandoned for 10 years, the site was bought by Ken Morelli for the purpose of transforming it into “a nostalgic maze of specialty shops” and to “revive the 50s style ice cream shop”. It was meant to be called Dairy Square Mall. (Freehan, J., Tribune Chronicle, September 7, 1990). This was, however, unsuccessful in its entirety, as the City of Warren, on the basis of the site being abandoned for 15 years and becoming something of an eyesore, bought the site for $50,000 in 1995 in order to tear it down (Tribune Chronicle, October 18, 1995). Less than a month after the purchase, a fire broke out at the plant that had engulfed the entire second floor by the time firefighters arrived. The plant was officially demolished in early November of 1995. Lester R. Stauffer, the second and last president of the Warren Sanitary Dairy, died at the age of 90 in February, 2002. Gift of Richard Angstadt.

Warren-Trumbull County Public Library.