2015 February PASO Magazine

The Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce Announces 2014
Beautification Award of the Year Recipient
Derby Wine Estates
The Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce is proud
to announce the selection for the 2014 Beautification
Award of the Year, Derby Wine Estates. The Beautification
award is being presented this year for the
preservation of Paso Robles’ history with the renovation
of the historic almond processing building by the Ray
and Pam Derby.
The Derbys, of Derby Wine Estates, moved to the
Central Coast in the early 1990’s with the intention
of retiring. In 1998 they purchased their first vineyard
property, now known as Derbyshire Vineyard. In the
years following, Ray acquired the historic Laura’s Vineyard
in east Paso Robles and the Westside property,
Derby Vineyard. In 2008 Ray and Pam launched
Derby Wine Estates and soon were looking for a
building to serve as their grape processing location.
Resurrection
Writer Chris Weygandt Alba describes the revival of a
monument in the December 2013 issue of Paso Robles
Magazine:
A phenomenon happened on Riverside Avenue this
year. A resurrection. Right here in Paso Robles. You
can see it with your own eyes.
The corpse was a public spectacle for a generation
of Roblans, abandoned at 525 Riverside Ave. for the
elements to slowly decompose. Now, it stands boldly,
blinking in the sunlight as if savoring this moment on
the brink of charging into its new job.
Whatever this building knows about life and death,
the old Farmers Alliance warehouse has experienced a
resurrection.
It has been saved from extinction and given a new
purpose. Its existence was spared from demolition by
the city council of Paso Robles. It has been studied
and saluted for its significance in the life and history
of the town that created it. Its integrity has been
honored, and it is cared for by people who respect
the craft that built it.
Revival of a Relic
In the autumn sun, the building seems taller on a
recent visit, standing new and vigorous head to toe.
Its owners believe it’s a building that inspires pride.
“It’s a living monument,” says Ray Derby. “An architectural
and engineering masterpiece. It stood like
a rock through the earthquake in 2003. The engineering
techniques were well ahead of the their time. It
was built in a majestic manner, the work well done by
men who take pride in their work.”
Three years ago Ray and Pam Derby bought the
decaying relic because they envisioned a future for
it. The vision came at a price, says Ray: “Three years
of hard work.”
When escrow closed in October 2010, Pam says,
“We came over here to look at our new property.
Pigeon droppings everywhere, fish skeletons on
the walls…We looked at each other and said,
‘What did we do?’”
To resurrect the building as the home of Derby
Wine Estates, they caused history to repeat itself.
They formed an alliance to create a majestic living
monument to the town’s agricultural
heritage.
That’s how the building began
a century ago.
United by a vision, six small
almond growers formed the Paso
Robles Almond Growers Association
in 1910. They were savvy
men with a good understanding
of the forces that were changing
their world.
With foresight and success, they
hired a master architect to design
a cutting-edge warehouse at 525 Riverside Ave.
In 1922, they accomplished a feat in five months,
erecting a processing plant of over 11,000 square
feet of reinforced concrete, so efficiently engineered
that a handful of men could process 500 tons of
nuts. Lots of those, under the “Blue Diamond”
logo, wound up in Hershey chocolates.
In the autumn of 1922, a handsome $60,000 processing
plant, majestic in a warm-red stucco, stood at
the gateway of Paso Robles between the State Highway
and the railroad. Considered “lasting evidence of
our success,” the building pulsed with life, with farmers,
trucks, machinery, and gears as 500 tons of almonds
poured into the tower’s bins. Trains chugged down
the tracks on the western side, transporting the city’s
premier crop, in the era when Paso Robles was the
“Almond Capital of the World.”
The widespread Derby Wine Estates’ vineyards (in
San Simeon, on Hwy. 46 West, and on Hwy. 46 East)
sells over 90 percent of their grapes to customers like
Gallo. With the reserved portion, winemaker Tiffinee
Vierra creates diverse varietals and successful blends.
Preserving history and making it useful again, say
the Derbys, is a compelling idea.
“Not everything you do should be in dollars and
cents,” says Ray. “Some things you do because it’s the
right thing to do.
Photo by Kevin Archambeault
“My theory is that it’s good for the community
and good for business. It’s win-win.”
- Chris Weygandt Alba
* **
The productivity of almonds began to decrease in
the 1930s and the building went on the market in July
1936. In 1936 K.B. Nelson, a representative of the
Farmers Alliance Business Association, a grain brokerage,
purchased the building. For 84 years the FABA
owned and operated the grain brokerage out of the
building, closing their doors in 1975.
The historic building remained empty for ten years,
until 1985. In 1985 it became “Riverside Centre” and
was home to various businesses such as an appliance
repair shop and a drywall storage business.
It took the Derbys three years to complete the
restoration.
* * *
Chris Weygandt Alba, Paso Robles Magazine, January
2014:
Ray Derby is impressed by the people who built this
landmark. He has pondered it for three years, off and
on, as he and Pam restore it to process grapes.
Ray controlled manufacturing plants on a global
scale before retirement made him a farmer. He knows
industrial construction, and he admires the Almond
Growers building.
They knew how to think back in those days, he says.
They could problem solve, with ingenuity and common
sense.
“I love the idea that it was built to process the
world’s largest almonda crop,” Ray says as the building
approaches its grand opening in March 2014.
“We’re preserving a part of history, the natural
progression from grains to almonds to grapes. Grains
and almonds have moved on. It was built to process
the top viable crop. Through adaptive reuse, it will
again process the area’s top viable crop.”
* * *
Derby Wine Estates is located at 525 Riverside
Avenue, Paso Robles, open for tours and tasting daily
from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
HAMON from page 10
Marjorie enjoys hiking and became involved with
triathlons to honor her dear friend, Mary Barth.
Her Team Ovacome raises awareness and funds
for ovarian cancer; with her fellow triathletes,
Marjorie has participated in the Wildflower Triathlon
and the SLO Marathon.
Getting involved and volunteering locally is
something Marjorie and John plan to continue doing
for a very long time – they enjoy helping others and
working with their fellow volunteers, many who have
become lifelong friends.
Says John, “I would encourage everyone
in Paso to become involved in something!
All of us have opportunities to help out
with things that make our hometown special
to us and to those that visit.”
That’s just the giving spirit that made the
selection of the Hamons as the 2014 Roblans
of the Year an easy decision – thanks for
your dedication and service to the people of
Paso Robles, John and Marjorie!
Marjorie fishing
for trout in Idaho
John and Marjorie enjoy time on their
motorcycle while overlooking Yosemite
12 Paso Robles Magazine, February 2015