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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Leroy factory of Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, founded in 1842 in Paris by Louis-Isidore Leroy, is a major player in the wallpaper industry thanks to its technical innovations. In 1912, after the expropriation of its Parisian premises, the company established itself on a vast plot of land in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, where architect Paul Friesé built a modern factory with a working-class city. The factory, requisitioned during the Second World War, was bombarded allied in 1944 before closing permanently in 1982, marking the end of an industrial era.

The centrepiece of the site was the 26-colour machine, presented at the Universal Exhibition of 1878. Made in 1877, this revolutionary machine, capable of printing in 26 simultaneous shades, propelled Leroy to the world's leading edge. Ranked a historic monument in 2003, it symbolizes the company's technical excellence. After its closure, the factory power plant (1913-1914), with its steam machinery, was protected in 1986 and 2006 for its industrial heritage.

In the 2000s, the municipality acquired the site to rehabilitate it in a cultural space. Inaugurated in 2011 under the name The 26 Colors, the place today celebrates Leroy's artistic and technical heritage. The artist Pierre-Laurent Baeschlin, a collaborator of the years 1925-1930, illustrates the link between the factory and creation, while the brand Isidore Leroy reborn in 2016, perpetuating its prestige.

The Leroy factory embodies both the rise of French industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, the upheavals of world wars, and the heritage conversion of the wastelands. Its history combines innovation, worker memory and preservation, making it a unique testimony of the Ile-de-France industrial.

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