Re: Mystery photo
Posted by:
James Merrick (IP Logged)
Date: February 09, 2004 12:12PM
<HTML>Per,
David is correct - all the Stanley factory buildings were located in Watertown, Massachusetts, on the border with Newton. He is also correct (and I was wrong) in pointing out that the building in your photo was NOT the concrete factory building that still stands at 44 Hunt Street. I spent quite a bit of time looking at your photo and comparing it with other interior and exterior photos which we have of the SMCC buildings, and I realized that the windows don't match up with the concrete building. The windows do match up with those in the Old Hickory Wheel factory - this was the original factory, originally used by the Stanleys' neighbor, Sterling Elliott, for the construction of bicycles and racing sulkies until the mid-1890s. The Stanleys bought the empty building in the early spring of 1899 and began tooling up for production. Locomobile purchased the building and expanded it, using it for production until 1901. The Stanleys bought the facility back and resumed production there - virtually all pre-coffin-nose Stanleys (and Watertown-made Locomobiles) were made in that building. It later housed the Testing Room - a photograph of which was published in Bulb Horn back in the 1940s, and Fred Marriott's Repair Department. The building was torn down in the late 1920s to make way for a new highway (and some sources say that the Steam Vehicle Corporation of America decided to relocate operations to Allentown, Pa., because of the taking of this building).
We would like to add your photo to the new Stanley history book coming out this spring, with your permission. We would also like to use the Mathieson & Ernst Stanley advertisement as an illustration in the book as well.
Jim Merrick</HTML>