George Washington (inventor)

George Constant Louis Washington was a Belgian-born American inventor and businessman. He is best remembered for his invention of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it. He arrived in the New York area in 1897 and dabbled in several technical fields before hitting upon instant coffee manufacture during a sojourn in Central America in 1906 or 1907.

About George Washington (inventor) in brief

George Constant Louis Washington was a Belgian-born American inventor and businessman. He is best remembered for his invention of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it. An emigrant from his native Belgium, he arrived in the New York area in 1897 and dabbled in several technical fields before hitting upon instant coffee manufacture during a sojourn in Central America in 1906 or 1907. He began selling his coffee in 1909 and founded a company to manufacture it in 1910. Based in New York and New Jersey, his company prospered and became an important military supplier during World War I. The success of his company made Washington wealthy, and he lived in a mansion in Brooklyn and then moved to a country estate in New Jersey in 1927. Washington’s company was sold to American Home Products in 1943, shortly before his death. Though the coffee brand was discontinued by 1961, Washington’s name is still used today in the product G. Washington’s Seasoning & Broth. A number of accounts claim a relation to U.S. President George Washington, but this is not clearly explained. The Washingtons’ arrival in the United States on a ship from Antwerp, Belgium, on October 6, 1896, was recorded at Ellis Island. In December 1895, Washington married Angeline Céline Virginie Van Nieuwenhuyse, also from Belgium.

The US Census of 1900 records that Lina, like her husband, had English and Belgian ancestry. At this time, they lived in New Brighton on Staten Island, but his company, George Washington Lighting Company, was based in nearby Jersey City. This business was abandoned with the maturation of incandescent light bulb technology. At least six siblings in the family also settled in different parts of the US and Central America. The Washington Lodge was later known as \”Washington Lodge\”, on a 40-acre waterfront estate at 287 South Country Road in Brookhaven, New York, near Bellport in Suffolk County. In 1950, the estate was divided and sold to the Catholic Brothers of the Marist Brothers Community Schools. The Lodge was leased to Marist School in 1960, and beginning in September 1960, it was used as a summer school during the school year. In 1959, an attempt was made to have the estate rezoned so that it could be used for a children’s camp. In January 1938, Washington continued to own his estate until it was sold in January 1959. The estate was then sold to Nathan Edelstein, and it was then operated as a hotel and restaurant, and began to have a large wedding receptions there in September 1970. The lodge was later sold to Murray Wunderlich in 1950.

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