Facebook and Amazon are so big they’re creating their own company towns — here’s the 200-year evolution

In Menlo Park, California, Facebook plans to build a new campus with 1,500 residences, a walkable retail district, a grocery store, and a hotel for its employees. Meanwhile, Amazon recently announced that it will build a second headquarters that could effectively turn the chosen city into a company town — much like what happened to Seattle when the online retail giant came to Seattle in the late 1990s. Dubbed HQ2, approximately 50,000 employees will work there.

Since the 19th century, companies have built company towns across the United States — municipalities where they own large percentages of the housing, stores, schools, churches, roads, and parks. In these towns, the corporation is also often the largest employer.

More modern company towns, like Hershey, Pennsylvania (named after famed chocolatier Milton Hershey's candy corporation), gave residents say in what the town prioritized.

Since then, the concept of the company town has evolved. Some have similar tactics to early company towns, while other companies

Lowell, Massachusetts by the Merrimack Manufacturing Company (1823)

Many historians consider Lowell, Massachusetts to be the first company town in the US.

In the early 19th century, Waltham, Massachusetts.

A few years after Lowell's death in 1823, a group of his associates founded the town of Lowell (about 20 miles north of Waltham) in his name and a series of textile mills under a new company name (the Merrimack Manufacturing Company). As Smithsonian notes, they recruited mostly young, single women from rural areas to work in the factories (many of whom participated in strikes due to poor working conditions). The workers lived in boardinghouses and attended church, both built by Merrimack.

Steinway Village, New York City by Legendary Steinway & Sons pianos (1870)

Much of present-day Astoria, Queens in New York City started as Steinway Village, a company town developed by the piano company Steinway & Sons.

Scotia, California by Pacific Lumber Company (1883)

Though Pacific Lumber Company did not found Scotia, California, the company established its headquarters there and maintained all of the town's housing from the early 1880s to the mid-1980s.

Over that time period, the company built 275 homes rented by employees, along with a hotel, post office, several churches, and a shopping center. In 1985, Pacific Lumber's longtime owners sold their business, and

Hershey, Pennsylvania by The Hershey Company (1909)

In the early 20th century, Milton Hershey started building what would become the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing pla nt.

Around 1909, he also started constructing a town around it for employees, with streets appropriately named

Marktown, Indiana by The Mark Manufacturing Company (1917)

The Mark Manufacturing Company built Marktown for its steel workers in 1917.

Eagle Mountain, California by Kaiser Steel Corporation (1948)

In 1948, Kaiser Steel Corporation (led by Henry J. Kaiser) founded the company town of Eagle Mountain, California. Today, it is a ghost town.

Kaiser built over 400 homes, as well as several tennis courts, schools, an auditorium, a park, a shopping center, a swimming pool, a bowling alley, a grocery store, a post office, a medical clinic, and nearly a dozen churches. At its peak, Eagle Mountain housed over 4,000 people.

The town produced iron ore until the 1970s, when the mining industry started to decline.

Irvine, California by Irvine Company (1960s)

Before the Irvine Company masterplanned this town for 50,000 people in the late 1960s, it was a large swath of farmland owned by the prominent California landowner James Irvine.

When it began, Irvine was not a traditional company town, since most residents did not work at the Irvine Company, a real estate developer. By 1970, the town had a population of 10,000.

Today, over 260,000 people live in Irvine — home to a University of California campus and dozens of headquarters for different companies.

Table Rock, Wyoming by Colorado Interstate Gas (late 1970s)

Now a ghost town, Table Rock, Wyoming was founded by Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) company town in the late 1970s.

Built near the company's natural gas processing plant, Table Rock featured three- and four-bedroom homes, where employees and their families lived for free. It was a small development with just 55 homes and a community center.

Around 2000, Table Rock began to decline, after El Paso Corporation

There are two main types of modern company towns. The first: A corporation builds a campus with a huge footprint in an existing town or city.

In the past few decades, a number of corporations, including IBM, Google, Amazon, and GM, have built campuses with huge footprints in towns and cities across the US. These companies often becoming an area's largest employer, changing how it functions.

In Seattle, the home of Amazon's headquarters since the late 1990s, the online retailer has effectively turned the city into a company town.

"The Seattle Times reported in August 2017. "

Amazon has a domineering presence in the city, where longtime residents have complained of rising traffic, soaring rent, and constant construction since the e-commerce giant moved in. The presence of Amazon is so huge in Seattle that it has also spurred the openings of restaurants and bars that benefit from the headquarters' lunchtime and happy-hour crowds, as well as new bus lines for Amazon interns.

The ecommerce giant may turn another (undetermined) city into a company town when it builds a second headquarters that will staff 50,000 employees.

The second: A corporation builds employee housing and public infrastructure.

Facebook is one of the few companies in recent years to continue the legacy of the traditional company town, where the corporation master-plans a new community for its employees to work and live in.

By 2021, Facebook will complete the first phase of Willow Park, a corporate campus that will include 1,500 housing units, retail, a hotel, and grassy plazas in Menlo Park, California.

According to The Times, the development will be between two majority-Hispanic communities, Belle Haven and the city of East Palo Alto. Out of the 1,500 units, Facebook has agreed with the city to offer 225 at below-market rates, but the company's employees will live in most of the housing.

In total, construction of the 56-acre site is expected to last a decade.

Relatedly, Google is spending $30 million and partnering with the modular-home startup Factory OS to build 300 units of pre-fab housing for employees in Mountain View, California.

Facebook and Amazon are so big they’re creating their own company towns — here’s the 200-year evolution

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