{{short description|American spice and flavorings company}} thumb|right|250px|Crescent Foods warehouse on Maynard Avenue, Seattle, in 1983 '''Crescent Foods, Inc.''' was a Seattle, Washington, spice and flavorings company founded in 1883 that was bought by McCormick & Company in 1989.
==Earliest history== thumb|Crescent Manufacturing Company in 1900 Crescent's earliest incarnation was a spice business operated in a Seattle store. Six years after its creation came the Great Seattle fire, and then the economic depression of 1893 which the company struggled through.
Business recovered in 1897 with the discovery of gold in Alaska. Seattle became the jumping off point for the Klondike Gold Rush as the last city between the continental U.S. and the gold fields of the north.
===Mapleine=== thumb|right|1909 advertisement for Mapleine Crescent's best known product was Mapleine,<ref name=mohai>{{citation|title=Thursday Hidden Treasure... Maple Flavoring|url=http://www.mohai.org/explore/blog/item/1850-maple-flavoring|publisher=Museum of History and Industry|date=February 9, 2012|author=Curt Fischer|accessdate=2012-10-16|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318165242/http://www.mohai.org/explore/blog/item/1850-maple-flavoring|archivedate=March 18, 2014}}</ref> an imitation maple flavoring that became popular during the Great Depression to create a table syrup that substitutes maple syrup.<ref>{{Historylink |title = Crescent Manufacturing Company |article = 2006 |author = James R. Warren |date = January 1, 2000 |quote=Mapleine was the company's signature product for much of the twentieth century. Cash-strapped housewives used it to make a substitute for maple syrup during the Depression of the 1930s, and it remained popular with cooks and bakers for decades.}}</ref> Crescent had introduced Mapleine at the Puyallup Fair in 1908,<ref name=mohai/> and exhibited it prominently at the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific (AYP) Exposition. A ''Coast'' magazine issue promoting Seattle for the AYP included an article by and about Crescent boasting that it had "spread the fame of Seattle throughout the Western hemisphere" and "made Seattle famous—and blessed among millions of lovers of maple sweets."<ref>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LARAAAAYAAJ&dq=mapleine&pg=RA1-PA203|title=Fame of Mapleine is international|journal=The Coast|volume=XVIII|number=3|date=September 1909|page=203|accessdate=2012-10-16}}</ref>
An early enforcement action of the United States Pure Food and Drug Act in 1909 concerned a shipment of Mapleine confiscated in Chicago. The case was ''United States of America v. Three Hundred Cases of Crescent Mapleine''<ref>{{citation|url=http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/fdanj/bitstream/123456789/37758/9/fdnj00163.pdf|publisher=United States Department of Agriculture (NIH archives)|date=February 10, 1910|title=Notice of Judgement No. 163, Food and Drugs Act|access-date=October 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113062349/http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/fdanj/bitstream/123456789/37758/9/fdnj00163.pdf|archive-date=January 13, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> in which it was found that the product was misleadingly labeled to represent actual maple extract. The case was cited as a precedent for the United States Supreme Court's 1916 decision in ''United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola''.<ref>{{citation|title=SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 562 1916.SCT.297 , 241 U.S. 265, 60 L. Ed. 995, 36 S. Ct. 573 UNITED STATES v. COCA COLA COMPANY OF ATLANTA / ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT|date=May 22, 1916|url=http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/legal/l1910/united_states_v_coca_cola.htm|publisher=SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES (Schaffer Library of Drug Policy)}}</ref>
== Centennial, 1983 == When the company's centennial was near, the owners hired Archie Satterfield to produce a book based on interviews with the owners and longtime employees. "Archie produced exactly what we wanted: A conservative chronicle that we used for gifts and public relations," said Dick Weaver, Vice President.
==Sale== In 1989, the retail spice business of Crescent Foods was purchased by McCormick & Company.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/HistoricalSite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=2147012005|title = Seattle Historical Sites Search Result - Department of Neighborhoods (DON)}}</ref> Mapleine flavoring is still manufactured by McCormick, under the Crescent brand name.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|asin=B0006YBVMQ|authorlink=Archie Satterfield|title=Crescent, 100 years|last=Satterfield|first=Archie|url=http://www.archiesatterfield.com/books_for_organisations_and_families_93703.htm|publisher=Crescent Foods|access-date=2012-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205020401/http://www.archiesatterfield.com/books_for_organisations_and_families_93703.htm|archive-date=2012-02-05|url-status=dead}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Crescent Manufacturing Company}} * [https://www.mccormick.com/spices-and-flavors/extracts-and-food-colors/extracts/mapleine-imitation-maple-flavor Crescent brand Mapleine at McCormick & Company] * [http://clerk.seattle.gov/~scripts/nph-brs.exe?S1=93+yesler+way&S2=&S3=&l=20&Sect7=THUMBON&Sect6=HITOFF&Sect5=PHOT1&Sect4=AND&Sect3=PLURON&d=PHO2&p=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fclerk.seattle.gov%2F~public%2Fphot1.htm&r=1&f=G Crescent Mfg. Co. in 1916] at 93 Yesler Way. Seattle Municipal Archives. * [http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv24139/ Guide to the Collection on the Crescent Manufacturing Company] {{Coord|47.601739|-122.334671|display=t}} Category:American companies established in 1883 Category:Defunct companies based in Seattle Category:Food and drink companies based in Seattle Category:Manufacturing companies based in Seattle Category:1883 establishments in Washington Territory Category:1989 disestablishments in Washington (state) Category:Food and drink companies disestablished in 1989 Category:Food and drink companies established in 1883
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