Swann & Co.

Swann & Co. was a chemical and pharmaceutical research company founded in 1936 by Theodore Swann, who had sold off his interest in the Swann Chemical Company to the Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Company the previous year.

Swann purchased property at 2nd Avenue South and 32nd Street in Lakeview and commissioned a two-story limestone-clad building in a stripped Classical style, similar to the recently-opened Jefferson County Courthouse.

Swann and his co-directors, H. B. Glass and J. W. LaMaistre researched means of organically synthesizing terpene derivitaves, phenols and pharmaceutical compounds. Some of their operations extended into the adjacent one-story industrial building at 3205-3211 2nd Avenue South.

Swann closed the operation amidst personal financial difficulties in 1945. The business and its offices were acquired by the Vulcan Chemical Company.

References

• Griffith, Edward J. & Carolyn Green Satterfield (1999) The Triumphs and Troubles of Theodore Swann. Montgomery: Black Belt Press ISBN 1880216574
• Nelson, Linda (December 8, 2015) "North Lakeview Industrial District" National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form