1920

In 1920, an entire industrial village sprung to life at 110 route de Crémieu in Villeurbanne. At least fifteen separate buildings were constructed on the SFPA’s vast patch of land, SFPA being the acronym used by the company when it ceased operating as “Établissements Gattefossé” at the end of the war. Each building had a very distinct function. There was one devoted to synthetic fragrances, another served as a packing facility, a third functioned as a warehouse for raw essential oils, and there were several manufacturing and laboratory pavilions, workshops, two residential buildings and even a water tower!

The decision to separate the facility into separate entities was made for one key reason: to prevent fire spreading. The disaster of 1906 was always in the back of René-Maurice’s mind as it turned the inside of the “factory” (then a facility built on the land of the Montchat family home) into a blazing inferno.

As a result, he vehemently promoted the concept of an industrial site organized into “pavilions”, an architectural design applied elsewhere for its clear ability to contain fire, which was susceptible to spread. The architect Tony Garnier had thought the same when he designed a “garden city for the sick” in the Grange-Blanche district of Lyon, subsequently named the Édouard Herriot hospital*.

One of the laboratories of the SFPA factory in Villeurbanne, in 1920. On the left, Jean Gattefossé.

The SFPA botanical garden, which was planted with clary sage, was completely experimental. It was a nursery of carefully selected plant varieties sown over two hectares of land, and new essence flowers were grown there, ready for testing.

*Construction began in 1913 but the hospital did not open until 1933.