Blue Bell Creameries Factory & Country Store

Founded in 1907, Blue Bell Creameries began as the Brenham Creamery Company, a dairy farmers' cooperative association based in Washington County, Texas. Initially, the company made butter, but it found greater success when it began making ice cream a few years later. In 1930, the name of the company was officially changed to Blue Bell Creameries, in honor of a Texas wildflower, the bluebell. The historic factory, which once housed the American Cotton Gin Manufacturing Plant in the late 1800s, is currently open for public tours. A country store and ice cream parlor are also located on site. Blue Bell Creameries came under intense scrutiny in 2015 due to a listeria outbreak at its production facilities. After paying a $17.25 million criminal penalty, the company was allowed to continue its operations.

On a summer day in 1907, a group of local businessmen began to manufacture butter from the extra milk produced by the cows that belonged to dairy farmers in a local co-operative association. They converted an abandoned American Cotton Gin Manufacturing Plant into their company headquarters and factory. A few years later, the newly-founded Brenham Creamery Company also began to make ice cream. The first few batches were handmade in a wooden tub filled with ice, and nearby shop owners would travel from miles away to purchase a tub of ice cream for the weekend. In an era before electricity, ice cream was a novelty. As word spread, the company began to deliver its tubs of ice cream by horse and buggy to neighborhood shops and residents in the area.

In 1930, the Brenham Creamery Company decided to change its name to the Blue Bell Creamery, in the hopes of creating a brand identity with a more regional flavor. The name was chosen in honor of the bluebell (Eustoma grandiflorum), a wildflower that is commonly found in the rolling pastures of Texas during the springtime. During the 1930s, additions to the Blue Bell Creameries factory building were completed in the Art Moderne style. The style features a strong linear emphasis with curved edges, glass blocks, and sleek lines. Due to the success of its ice cream products, after 1958, the Blue Bell Creamery ceased making butter altogether, and it began to focus solely on making ice cream. The company continued to grow slowly but steadily, and by 1980 its distribution had expanded beyond Texas. Eventually, Blue Bell Ice Cream became available for sale in twenty-two states.

The Blue Bell Creameries Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Its main production facility remains based at the historic headquarters in Brenham, Texas, with secondary production facility in Sylacauga, Alabama, and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The Texas and Alabama sites are available for public tours, with a country store and ice cream parlor also located at each site. The company's brand emphasizes its historic roots in the Texas hill country, and its mascot is still a dairy cow named Belle. For select holidays, specially-themed ice cream flavors are rolled out, and in addition to making ice cream, Blue Bell Creameries also currently produces sherbet and other frozen deserts.

However, the company's operations came under intense scrutiny in 2015 due to a listeriosis outbreak at its production facilities. Lysteria monocytogenes is a potentially fatal pathogen that can cause complications for vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women, newborns, and the elderly. A consumer safety and legal compliance investigation revealed that Blue Bell Creameries did not issue a recall to remove its products from store shelves, even after contamination was discovered. After the investigation, the company was forced to pay more than $17 million in criminal penalties for shipping contaminated products. According to a 2020 press release by the U.S. Department of Justice, this was the largest-ever criminal penalty following a conviction in any food safety case.

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