Sugar Land's annual Wine & Food Affair is a 5-day series of events, which runs from April 24th to April 28th. The event on Saturday is a Sip and Stroll on the old Imperial Refinery site. Local chefs and other food vendors will offer the public a chance to sample their fare. Click this link to view details. (You can navigate to pages explaining other events.)
The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation will open the Sugar Land Museum to visitors during the event and will display historical photos through the strolling area, which consists of the 1st floor of the Char House and the Three-Bay Warehouse.
Of course, a large part of the refinery complex was demolished a couple of years ago, anticipating redevelopment of the site. Here are a few photos from the Museum's archives that show how the refinery looked in its heyday.
The two photos below show a 'sip and stroll' from 1948. Actually, it's a company picnic on the refinery grounds. These pictures show guests lining up at the serving lines at the west end of the Three-Bay Warehouse. This area is now covered with a modern extension of the Warehouse.
The next two photos show the same area as it looked during a normal working day in the 1950s. The trucks are backed up to the dock where the food service tables were located in the 1948 pictures. The second picture shows men loading the trucks with sacks of Imperial Sugar.
The next photo shows the west side of the Power Plant, which stood northeast of the Three-Bay Warehouse. (This photo was taken in late 1940s.) The Power Plant has been demolished, but the two smoke stacks on the right of the picture still stand on that exact spot.
These last two photos show buildings that were part of the refining process. The first picture wasn't labeled. Someone will probably correct me, but I think it is the Pan House. (Update: This is the Water Treatment Plant next to the Power Plant. It treated water used to produce steam in the refining process.) An annotation on the second picture said it was the Remelt House. Both pictures were taken in 1950.
