| Additional Information: | This industrial facility is comprised of a number of periods of construction, starting in 1926 and continuing through at least 1956. The street side (west) elevation exhibits three distinct sections, the southernmost flat-roof section (post-1949) rises two stories and features two bands of factory sash windows that wrap around the building. The wall space in between the windows and above the second story is sheathed with metal. The building’s central, two-story section (1926 to circa 1950) is very distinct and dominated by a masonry façade that terminates with a castellated parapet. First-floor openings are round-arched examples while second-story windows are rectangular, the majority of which have been infilled and/or downsized with modern fenestration. The building’s original raised monitor roof windows have been covered with metal. The final portion of the facility is comprised of a one-story, concrete-and-glass office wing (1956) that fronts a two-story, concrete factory wing to the rear.
Butler Bin Company was established in 1922 by Morgan Butler of Waukesha. Born in New York on 6 March 1887, he graduated from New York University with a degree in civil engineering and came to Waukesha in 1908. After two years with The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company, he was elected to the position of city engineer, which he held until 1914. The following year, he married Mary Broadhurst of Waukesha. While working as a paving contractor in Wisconsin and Michigan, Butler established the Butler Bin Company. He served as company president until 1964, and served as chairman of the board until his death in 1965. In 1928, he was elected mayor, a position he served until 1932 and, beginning in 1937, he sat on the School Board for twenty-six years, serving as president for seventeen of those years. Locally, he was also a director of the Waukesha Motor Company.
Waukesha’s Butler Bin Company was a sheet metal works that made stainless steel storage bins associated with the concrete business. Although originally located on the south side of Lincoln Avenue and next-door to the Butler Construction Company (his contracting firm), a new $20,000 factory building measuring 75’ x 180’ was begun along Blackstone Avenue in 1926. Within less than a year, a one-story, 25’ x 180’ addition was erected at a cost of $4,000. Additions followed in 1929, 1930, 1945, 1946, 1950 and 1956. During the war, the firm’s bins for concrete mixers played a prominent role in the construction of army and navy buildings and airports in the United States. As of February 1943, with male help scarce, the firm was identified as having hired a female welder and female crane operator, with more to be employed in the future. Following Butler’s death in 1965, Butler Bin remained in the subject building through 1980, albeit under two successive names: Butler Equipment Company and Portec, Inc. (a Butler Division). As of 1981, the facility was utilized as a manufacturing plant for Spancrete Industries (established in 1946), the larger facility of which was until 2011 located at 1600 E. Main Street in Waukesha. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Sanborn Map Company, Fire Insurance map of “Waukesha, Wis.” (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1929); “Waukesha, Wis.,” 1929 (updated to 1949).
“Morgan Butler Funeral to Be on Monday,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, 15 May 1965; James Goadby Gregory, ed., The History of Southeastern Wisconsin: A History of Old Milwaukee County, 4 vols. (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1932), 3/568-569; Waukesha City Directory, 1925, 1967-1982.
Please note that this Butler Bin Company was in no way affiliated with the Butler Bin Company of Kansas City, which manufactured grain bins.
Original permit for 945 Blackstone Avenue, 7 May 1926; Permit for steel and glass addition, 21 September 1927; Permit for steel and brick addition (40’ x 150’), 3 December 1929, est. cost, $4,000; Permit for steel and concrete addition (80’ x 100’), 12 September 1930, est. cost, $20,000; Permit for office remodel, 22 June 1945; Permit for addition (54’ x 25’), est. cost, $2,000; Permit for new office building, 29 July 1950, est. cost, $25,000; Permit for new office building, 16 April 1956, est. cost, $10,000; Eschweiler & Eschweiler, “Butler Bin Company alterations,” 25 May and 12 July 1950, Plans on file at the Wisconsin Architectural Archive. Milwaukee Public (Central) Library, Milwaukee, WI; “Butler Bin Co. Is Kept Busy,” The Milwaukee Journal, 28 February 1943; “Spancrete Permanently Closes Waukesha Plant,” The Daily Reporter, 4 April 2011, Available online at http://dailyreporter.com, Accessed June 2014. |
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