The small coastal city of Lomita, California had an unlikely role in the history of baseball cards. While not known as a hotbed for the sport of baseball, Lomita was home to one of the earliest and most prolific producers of baseball cards in the early 20th century.
In 1909, the Fleming-Spicer Company was founded in Lomita by brothers Edwin and Harold Fleming. The brothers had emigrated from England in the late 1800s and started their business producing paper goods and packaging materials. In the early 1910s, they saw an opportunity in the growing market for collectible trade cards found in cigarette and candy packages.
One of the first sets of cards Fleming-Spicer produced was for the American Caramel Company in 1911. Known as the 1911-12 Sweet Caporal cigarette cards, they featured individual photographs of players from the National League and American League on the front. The back contained statistics and brief biographies. These early baseball cards were a huge success and helped drive sales of the candy and tobacco products they were included with.
Seeing the popularity of baseball cards, Fleming-Spicer decided to produce sets exclusively featuring players and teams. In 1912, they created the first modern baseball card set – the famous T206 series. Named for the tobacco product they were packaged with, the T206 set featured stars like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson. The cards had color illustrations on the front and player stats on the back. Over the next few years, Fleming-Spicer would produce several different series of the popular T206 cards, featuring variations in the images and player information.
The T206 cards were an immediate hit and helped establish baseball cards as a mainstream collectible. Fleming-Spicer’s operation in Lomita quickly grew to accommodate the booming demand. At its peak in the late 1910s, the company employed over 200 people in its factory and offices located just off Lomita Boulevard. Local residents would often see delivery trucks loaded with cases of the new baseball card sets departing for distribution around the country.
In addition to the landmark T206 set, Fleming-Spicer produced many other notable early 20th century baseball card series. From 1913-1915 they created the famous E90 and E91 sets. These featured individual photographs on the fronts and were distributed by the American Caramel and Ehret companies. In 1915, they began producing the even more coveted E95 set under the same distributors.
As baseball’s popularity continued to rise in the 1920s, so did demand for collectible cards. Fleming-Spicer kept up, creating sets like the 1924 Candy Stripe Gum and 1925 Cracker Jack cards. One of their most iconic productions was the 1933 Goudey Gum Company set, known for its beautifully detailed artwork on the fronts. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx were some of the superstars featured.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Fleming-Spicer factory in Lomita was a busy hub of baseball card production. At its height, the company employed over 300 workers printing, cutting, sorting and packaging the cards. The surrounding community had also grown, with many Fleming-Spicer employees and their families living in the tidy neighborhoods just west of the factory. Local merchants did a booming business catering to the baseball card workers.
The golden age of baseball cards in Lomita came to an end in the late 1930s. As the country entered World War II, Fleming-Spicer like many manufacturers shifted production to support the war effort. Card stock and other raw materials were diverted to more essential goods. The company downsized its Lomita operations significantly.
After the war, baseball cards regained some popularity. But Fleming-Spicer never returned card production to its pre-war levels in Lomita. Competition from larger manufacturers like Topps diminished the company’s market share. In 1953, Fleming-Spicer sold its remaining baseball card division. The factory in Lomita was shut down permanently a few years later.
While Lomita is no longer a hub for baseball cards, the city takes pride in its role in their early history. A small museum displays memorabilia from the Fleming-Spicer factory and some of the rare cards they produced. For a brief but influential period over 30 years, this small coastal community helped fuel America’s passion for the sport of baseball through the cards that captured our imagination. Lomita’s legacy lives on in the hands of collectors around the world who treasure the early sets that started it all.
