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11700 W CAPITOL DR

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Property Record

11700 W CAPITOL DR

Historic Name:
A.O. SMITH PROPELLER FACTORY

Other Name:
HARLEY DAVIDSON

Reference Number:
233306

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Property Location

Location (Address)

11700 W CAPITOL DR

County

Milwaukee

City/Village

Wauwatosa

Township

Unincorporated community

Town

Range

Direction

Section

Quarter Section

Quarter Quarter Section

Property Features

Year Built

1942

Additions

1947, 1958, 1973, 1983

Survey Date

2016

Historic Use

industrial bldg/manufacturing facility

Architectural Style

Astylistic Utilitarian Building

Structural System

Wall Material

Brick

Architect

Other Buildings On Site

Demolished

No

Demolished Date

Additional Comments

A.O. Smith Company was incorporated in 1904 as a producer of automobile frames and proceeded to become the largest producer of automobile and airplane frames and water heaters in the United States during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. They also produced small motors and metal farm silos. During World War II, the company played a large part in wartime manufacturing including establishing a large propeller manufacturing plant in what would become Wauwatosa in 1942. After the end of the war the plant was no longer needed and was sold to Harley-Davidson Motor Company in 1947 as the main machine shop site for the Milwaukee based motorcycle manufacturer. Harley Davidson expanded and renovated the plant numerous times in 1958, 1973, 1984, and 1997. In 2012, much of the former manufacturing plant was sold to U-Haul Self-Storage.

Bibliographic References

‘History,’ A.O. Smith website. <www.aosmith.com/About/History/> accessed January 27, 2017. “Urban spelunking: Uncovering a WWII "Easter egg," On Milwaukee website. <onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/lost-ww2-propeller-uncovered.html> accessed January 18, 2017. Mead & Hunt. Milwaukee Industrial Properties Intensive Survey. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society, 2016.

National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings

National/State Register Listing Name

Not Listed

National Register Listing Date

State Register Listing Date

Contributing

industrial bldg/manufacturing facility Astylistic Utilitarian Building

Milwaukee
County

Wauwatosa
Community

1940-1949
Decade

National and State Register Listing

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Attribution

For a credit line: Wisconsin Historical Society, Creator, Title, Unique Identifier.

The Unique Identifier can be found at the top or bottom of the page for each item. The name of a downloaded file is NOT the unique identifier.

For bibliographic citations please consult the UW-Madison Libraries Citation Research Guide to ensure compliance with appropriate style guidelines.

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Photographs

Manufacturing Automobile Frames, 1954

1954

Workers at the A.O. Smith Corporation in Milwaukee assembling frames for Cadillac automobiles. In 1902 Arthur O. Smith, son of the company's founder, produced the first pressed steel automobile fra...

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