BALTIMORE CITY, Md. — The Domino Sugar sign has lit up Baltimore's Inner Harbor for 75 years, becoming one of the city's most recognizable landmarks — and the refinery beneath it has been part of the city's identity for even longer.
"You see the sign, and you just feel at home, you're like I'm here, I'm home, I'm in Baltimore," Bryanna Goncalves said.
For Colin Vogel, who grew up in South Baltimore, it's more.
Domino Sugars sign celebrates 75 years lighting up Baltimore's Inner Harbor
"Truly like a beacon of the city and a beacon of hope," Vogel said.
Peter O'Malley, Vice President of Corporate Relations for ASR Group, which operates the refinery, described what the sign means to those who pass through the city.
"You know, Baltimore's welcome sign, Baltimore's night light, something that was always familiar to the people who lived here and travelers that went through," O'Malley said.
The Domino Sugar refinery has operated at Locust Point since 1922, but the sign — designed by Artkraft Strauss, known for its work in Times Square — came nearly three decades later.
"Architectural renderings for the refinery before it was built had a sign on it, but it wasn't until 29 years later that they put it up," O'Malley said. "It was made up of 650 neon tubes, and the sign was in pretty good condition up there for about 70 years."
The lights have only gone dark twice in the sign's history — once during the energy crisis of the 1970s, and again in 2021 when the neon tubes were replaced with LEDs. O'Malley said that was the only change made to the structure.
"[We] made sure that we could match exactly the original architecture of the sign," O'Malley said. "What makes the sign special is that it's always been here, it's a constant in a city that's always changing."
Many businesses have come and gone, but for more than a century, they've been bringing in raw sugar from around the world, refining and packaging it for stores right here in Baltimore.
"The smell of sugar in the air was just, I'd go up on the roof and just sit there. Yeah, when it was brown sugar, or they got molasses deliveries," the Vogels said. "You can't believe the amount of work that goes into making just one packet."
O'Malley said the operation under the sign remains a major economic engine for Baltimore.
"This is a vibrant employment center that makes about 6 million pounds of sugar a day and employs 600 people at great wages under that sign," O'Malley said.
To mark the 75th anniversary, Domino Sugar launched an online quiz testing how well people know the landmark; many of the answers are in this article (sorry). Did you know the O's on the sign are 20 feet tall, and when the Orioles are in the playoffs, they are the only letters that remain lit?
"Every year is really a celebration of this place of manufacturing in Baltimore, of the vibrancy of the port of Baltimore; that's what we celebrate every year," O'Malley said.
Come July, they'll be celebrating America's 250th milestone with special packaging.
"Along with our traditional blue and yellow domino bag, we have the red, white and blue symbols of our nation," O'Malley said. "I think Domino sugar is really part of the American story."
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