The partially-demolished complex at the corner of 35th and Ashland was once the home to the Wrigley Company, one of the world's largest chewing gum manufacturers. The Wrigley Company has been an important member of Chicago's candy industry since the late 19th century.

The Wrigley Company's origins lie with William Wrigley, Jr., who moved to Chicago from Philadelphia in 1891. He started offering chewing gum to customers while working as a household goods salesman in Chicago. Wrigley’s customers went wild for his gum, and it soon became his best-selling product. His chewing gum sales were so promising that he partnered with Chicago's Zeno Manufacturing Company to make and sell gum full-time.

The venture was successful and the two companies merged into the William Wrigley Jr. Company in 1910. Wrigley built a brand new office building (the tallest in Chicago at the time) at 400 N. Michigan Avenue in 1921, the same year that he purchased majority ownership of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The Cubs’ north-side stadium was renamed Wrigley Field a few years later. Wrigley also helped finance Balaban and Katz, one of the most important companies in the early years of Chicago’s movie industry.

The Wrigley Company was one of the first tenants to move into Chicago's Central Manufacturing District (CMD). Their manufacturing operations remained in the CMD from 1911 until 2006, when the Wrigley Company moved Chicago production to their new Global Innovation Center building on Goose Island. The company’s historic factory complex at 35th and Ashland in the CMD was partially torn down in 2014.

The William Wrigley Jr. Company became a subsidiary of the Mars Corporation in 2008.

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