[Images: Wrigley Building, Chicago; papalars, mahansen, webmb via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]

Will the stock market's 777 point drop yesterday affect the recently announced merger of two
giants in the candy industry? Last Thursday the stockholders of the Wrigley Company agreed to the purchase of the gum giant by Mars Candy for $23 billion. Board chairman Bill Wrigley, Jr., the great-grandson of founder William Wrigley, Jr., believes the deal will close by October 6th, and said that the company will remain headquartered in its long time Chicago home on Michigan Avenue. The Wrigley Building is as much a part of the architectural fabric of the city, as the Old Water Tower pumping station that survived the Chicago Fire.

Until the Michigan Avenue bridge opened in 1920, there was no direct access across the river
from south Michigan to north Pine Street. That same year, Wrigley broke ground for his new company headquarters, which would serve as the gateway to a new retail district on north Michigan Avenue (formerly Pine Street). By turning the building at an angle, the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White ensured Wrigley's gleaming, white tower commanded attention.

[Images: Theurer-Wrigley House, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Alan Hess via cityofchicago.org; Wrigley Catalina House,
crow bead via flickr; Wrigley Pasadena Mansion, California, parstimes /Artwork: designslinger]

William Wrigley, Jr. came to Chicago in 1891 to sell his father's line of Wrigley Scouring Soap.
As a sales incentive, Jr. gave out free gifts, one of which was baking soda. It proved so popular that he switched to soda sales, and gave out two packages of chewing gum as his "little something for nothing" treat. Once again, he saw the potential of the product he was giving away, and moved into the chewing gum business in 1893. By 1911, he was doing well enough to purchase a large mansion, designed by architect Richard Schmidt, fronting Chicago's Lincoln Park. The 20,000 square foot, 11 bedroom home was built by brewery baron  Joseph Theurer in 1896. Wrigley went on to build several homes around the country, one of which now serves as the headquarters of the Tournament of Roses organization in Pasadena, California.

[Images: Casino Building on Avalon Bay, Catalina Island, visitlongbeach.com; Catalina Island, crow bead via flickr;
Hotel Metropole, riptheskull via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]

Wrigley's largest land investment was also in southern California, an island located about 22 miles
southwest of the Los Angeles coast. He was a shareholder in the Santa Catalina Island Company in 1919, when he bought out the rest of the investors, and became the sole owner of the 75 square mile island. The town of Avalon had already been established as a tourist attraction, with a pier and the large Hotel Metropole, when Wrigley took possession. He continued subdividing Avalon, selling lots for housing, and built a family home on a bluff with a view. Wrigley added the Art Deco Casino building in 1929, and made Catalina the winter home of his Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Upon his death in 1932, the entire Wrigley estate was inherited by Jr's son Philip and daughter
Dorothy. In 1972, the members of the family established the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, dedicated to the conservation and preservation of the island. On February 15, 1975, Philip K. Wrigley and his wife Helen, along with his sister, deeded the remaining 42,135 acres of Company holdings to the Conservancy, protecting the island interior and 48 miles of coastline in perpetuity.

There may be a time when the Wrigley name no longer fronts the entrance of the Michigan Avenue headquarters. But the plaque on the Lincoln Park house will always bear the Theurer-Wrigley name, because of its status as a National Trust and Chicago City Landmark. And, though Catalina isn't named Wrigley, it will survive as a nature preserve, because of the money generated on a young man's hunch that people would buy lots of chewing gum.