SHADE LEAF BUILDING

The Shade Leaf Building in Quincy stands as one of the most direct physical connections to the city’s era as the center of America’s fine cigar wrapper tobacco industry. Originally built by the Owl Cigar Company to produce commercial cigars under the brand names of White Owl and Robert Burns, this brick building was at the heart of a labor force of approximately 500 workers in the 1890s — a majority of them Alsatian German immigrants whose specialized skills were instrumental in developing Gadsden County’s tobacco industry.

In a development that would prove transformative for the entire region, these Alsatian workers recognized the gray clay found while digging a well on the property as Fuller’s Earth — a filtration and catalyst material. This discovery effectively launched a second major industry in Gadsden County. In 1948, the building became the Woodward Leaf Tobacco Company.

Purchased and extensively renovated in 1978, the Shade Leaf Building today houses a cabinet/furniture business, four residential apartments, studios, and office space — a successful adaptive reuse that preserves the building’s industrial heritage while serving contemporary needs and remaining one of Quincy’s most historically layered commercial properties.