Property Record
1500 N PARKER DR
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Parker Pen Company’s Arrow Park Plant |
|---|---|
| Other Name: | Parker Pen Co. Facctory |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 87860 |
| Location (Address): | 1500 N PARKER DR |
|---|---|
| County: | Rock |
| City: | Janesville |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 3 |
| Range: | 12 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 24 |
| Quarter Section: | SW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19752024 |
| Historic Use: | industrial bldg/manufacturing facility |
| Architectural Style: | Contemporary |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
|---|---|
| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | The Parker Pen Company’s Arrow Park plant was constructed in 1952 and is a two-story, Contemporary industrial building with a flat roof. It is situated on the corner of North Parker Drive and Black Bridge Road and is set back from the roadway. A grassy lawn with a planting bed and Arrow Park sign and a valet drive with parking separates the building from the sidewalk that runs along North Parker Drive. North of the building is a grassy area with scattered mature trees and concrete sidewalk through it. South of the building is a large parking lot. To the rear (east) of the building is a wooded area that separates it from a railroad corridor. The building has a concrete foundation and is clad in a Roman bond brick veneer. The front (west) facade is divided into three sections. The center section is the largest and is two stories with a second-story overhang. Recessed entrances are on either side of the center section and consist of aluminum-frame glass-door units with transoms and a fixed sidelights. They are accessed by concrete stairs with metal railings. Continuous bands of fixed ribbon metal windows run across each story on this section. A metal sign reading “Panoramic” (the current occupant) is centrally located between the second-story windows. The north and south sections are similar and each feature the Arrow Park logo and a band of continuous fixed ribbon metal windows that run across the facade and wrap around the side elevations. On both side elevations, the band of ribbon windows do not continue, leaving only a brick veneer for the remaining elevation. With the exception of a removed smokestack and altered signage, the building appears largely unaltered. The Parker Pen Company was a luxury pen manufacturer founded in Janesville in 1888 by George S. Parker. Over the following decades the company gained a reputation of being a maker of high-quality pens, which led to the steady growth of the business into an internationally recognized brand. Originally operating out of an East Milwaukee Street building that it shared with the Gazette Publishing Company (nonextant), the company sought to expand. In the 1940s it purchased land north of downtown at the edge of the city limits and planned to build a new factory; however, it was delayed for several years due to World War II. Work on the new factory started in 1951, and operations began in October 1952. Within a year the company decided to move all manufacturing operations to the subject building, leaving only the headquarters in the original downtown building. The company held a citywide contest to name the new factory, and Arrow Park was selected. A great portion of Janesville’s economy and employment were directly related to the factory’s operation. The company continued to operate and grow into the 1980s, when an economic downturn led to it being purchased by European investors in 1986, who then sold the downtown building and moved the company headquarters to London. After a series of acquisitions, Rubbermaid owned the Parker Pen Company and shut down the Janesville factory in 2009. The Panoramic Company, a plastic fabrication company that was once (but is no longer) owned by the Parker Pen Company, and Community Connections, a social services organization, now operate out the building. |
|---|---|
| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |