| Additional Information: | Situated at the southwest corner of S. 62nd and W. Burnham streets, this five-building industrial complex includes a brick forge shop (1916, circa 1920; AHI#145681) with a saw-tooth window roof along S. 62nd Street; a two-story, brick office/shipping building (1916, circa 1920, 1942, 1966; AHI#1456832) with large, replacement windows at the corner of S. 62nd and Burnham; a Contemporary-style factory building (1941; AHI#145683) that is largely sheathed with glass located to the southwest, and; a 1929/1941 factory building (AHI#145684) sheathed with brick and glass located to the southwest of the aforementioned factory and adjacent to a set of railroad tracks. The remaining two buildings were not photographically accessible and consist of a maintenance building situated to the rear of the office/shipping structure and a boiler house.
Incorporated in 1916, the John Obenberger Forge Company purchased the subject parcel of land that same year. The first officers were John Obenberger, president and treasurer; Theodore Trecker, vice-president; and Carl Velguth, secretary. Construction of the original portion of the plant commenced in August 1916 and the first forging was completed in October. The plant increased in size over the next four years. In 1920, the new buildings were described in a newspaper article "25 x 175, 100 x 330 (the forge shop), 100 x 80 (the power house) and a shipping building (126 x 70)," while, the property's original building was noted as 100 x 100 feet in size. In the 1920s, the Unit Corporation acquired Obenberger. In 1928, the Unit Corporation reorganized into three divisions with two of them operating on the subject parcel. These were the Unit Drop Forge Company and the Universal Power Shovel Company. In 1937, the Unit Corporation reorganized as the Fuller Manufacturing Company and divested itself of the Universal Power Shovel Company. Unit Drop Forge remained a division of either the Fuller Corporation or the Eaton Corporation until a group of investors took over the plant in 1979 and started the Unit Drop Forge Company, Inc. Meanwhile, the Universal Power Shovel Company continued its independent operations at the site. In 1941, the company built a modernistic, glass-walled factory as well as additions to other structures. It changed its name to the Unit Crane & Shovel Corporation in 1956 and moved all of its operations to New Berlin in 1967. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Building Permits (factory building) 18 July 1929, (factory addition) 7 March 1941, (factory addition) 9 May 1941, (factory building) 2 October 1941, (office addition) 21 August 1942, (2nd floor office addition) 13 October 1966; Sanborn Fire Insurance Map - West Allis, Wis. (1927; 1927, updated to 1951).
"Forge Company Enlarge Plant" Uncited newspaper article, (1920); "Obenberger Forge Co." West Allis (WI) Press, (1918); "The John Obenberger Forge Company," Evening Wisconsin, 13 May 1918; All three articles located in Business Binders - O, Located at WAHS; "Unit Forging: 80th Anniversary Open House September 19, 1998", Page 15, Booklet located in Business - U binder, Located at WAHS; Universal Power Shovel Company History gleaned from www.constructioncollector.com. |
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