Cookie Factory Lofts is proud to follow in the footsteps of a sweet Richmond legacy. Even though the name gives it away, we still thought it was important to share the rich history your new home is best known for…making cookies!
A Richmond landmark for over 80 years, the original cookie factory tower was built in 1927 as the new headquarters and main production plant for the Southern Biscuit Company (formally known as Southern Biscuit Works). The building’s architectural façade, iconic water tower, and brightly lit sign made it an easily recognizable part of the city’s industrial hub.
The baking magic happened on the 5th and 6th floors of the main tower. Raw ingredients were lifted to the top floor, formed into cookies and crackers that were then baked in the two double-story brick ovens. The baking trays were continuously rotated with a large crank wheel outside the oven walls. The cookies and crackers were then lowered to the basement where they were cooled and packed for shipping.
Southern Biscuit Company is remembered for producing a variety of nationally-recognized crackers and, of course, cookies! In 1939, the company became the first officially licensed baker of the legendary Girl Scout cookies, a pretty sweet job! Around this time, Southern Biscuit Company changed its branding to “Famous Foods of Virginia” (FFV for short), the name is still visible on the 1-1/2 story “Home of FFV Cookies and Crackers” sign on the roof. The company’s massive success producing Girl Scout cookies allowed it to add on to the original single 6-story tower several times throughout the 1940s and 1950s, creating the complex for your new home - Cookie Factory Lofts.
Over time, company development and mergers led to the additional name change to Interbake Foods/FFV. During the 1980s, Interbake Foods was the largest producer of chocolate ice cream sandwich wafers, by some reports generating 640,000 cookies per hour! As a whole, the company was at one time the third largest producer of cookies and crackers in North America.
Interbake Foods relocated their headquarters in 2006 and the building remained vacant until 2013 when a developer’s vision was put in motion to turn the walls which used to hold the intoxicating aroma of cookies into walls where people could create homes.
Living in a building that is officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places is definitely a privilege for our residents. We are so proud to be a part of such fond Richmond history and are very excited to share that history with you! We hope you find our loft homes as special as the cookies that were once made here.