| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation.
City of Green Bay, Wisconsin - Architectural and Historical Intensive Survey Report Phase 1 - 2021
Photo code #2: BR-FRV C/2A, 7/11, 75BR-20/2,3
One of the buildings on the site was built as an automobile showroom with decorative terra cotta plaques depicting automobiles used as pilaster capitals for the flush brick pilasters which terminate each end of the first floor of the principal facade.
The whole of the building including all windows and doors has been modified and a third story which is not indicated on the 1957 Sanborn-Perris map was probably added after that date. The old cornice line is still visible where the newer and older bricks meet above the second floor windows.
The Northwest Engineering Co. is located on a 15 1/2 acre site along the Fox River. Its facilities include 426,000 square feet of floor area. Ten building masses are located on the industrial site, of which nine are estimated to have been built by the early 1950s. The oldest industrial buildings, estimated to have been constructed about the time of World War I, lie on the plant site's east side near the Fox River (identified on map as building masses numbers 6 and 9). Existing in this area are a machine shop, tool crib, electrical shop, boiler room and structural shop. Several small, connected buildings, mostly 1-3 stories with gable and flat roofs and some of brick construction, exist here and are adjoined to larger, newer facilities on two, three or all four sides.
Another building, a three-story, rectangular, concrete block facility maesuring about 150' x 100' -- identified as the west machine shop (#4 on map) -- was built between 1917 and 1934, the years for which fire insurance maps are available. In the 1934 map it is listed as a two-story concrete warehouse with concrete floor, steel truss roof and steel columns. A third floor appears to have been added on at a later date.
The remainder of the older Northwest buildings (building masses numbers 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8) are estimated to have been built between 1934 and the early 1950s when the company engaged in a major building expansion program. Included here are: a cab shop (#1), which is a two-story brick building, and a final assembly building (#2), of similar construction; a two-story concrete block and metal building adjacent to the west machine shop and identified as the chair shed (#5); a two-story brick and metal building which appears to accomodate, at least partially, stock rooms and plate burning (#7); and a one to two-story structural shop with metal facade, extending along the Fox River (#8).
In addition, a three-story brick building (#3) which houses the offices/shipping/receiving/lab and built in 1916 formerly housed a Chrysler automobile distributorship (see photo 7/11).
The Northwest Engineering Co. was incorporated in 1921 as the successor to the Hartman-Greiling Co., which manufactured boats for the U.S. Navy during World War I. A company advertisement in 1977 indicates the Northwest company began operations in a "small machine shop" apparently used earlier by the Hartman firm. Northwest began making industrial cranes, one model of which was said to have "revolutionized the construction industry." The company early on began making gasoline-powered equipment; prior to that cranes were mainly steam-powered. By 1934, the steam shovel, crane and ditch digger-making operations employed more than 400 men. Northwest distributes its products internationally including South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and claims to have more shovel cranes in operation world-wide than any other company. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A.) Abrahams, Paul P. Industrial Survey of Brown County, Industrial Sites Historical Industrial Survey. Unpublished manuscript on file, Historic Preservation Division, Wisconsin Historical Society of Wisconsin.
(B.) Sanborn maps.
(C.) Berness-Schober Associates, Inc. Archives Stick #668.
(D.) Timothy S. Smith, director of markenting communications for Northwest, interviewed by Bill Meindl, 01/05/1981.
(E.) Advertisement for Northwest Engineering Co., GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE, May 29, 1977, Heritage Hill Historical Edition, p. H-8.
(F.) Sanborn Insurance Map of Green Bay, 1907 (updated 1934), Sanborn Map Co., New York, NY, October, 1934, p. 66.
(G.) "Heavy Industries Here are Fully Optimistic," GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE, Aug. 3, 1957, Greater Green Bay Progress Edition, p. B-4.
(H.) Cornerstone on northwest corner of office/ shipping/ receiving/ lab building.
(I.) "50 Years of Leadership! A Glance Back!" MATERIAL HANDLING ILLUSTRATED, first quarter-1971, Anniversary Issue, published by Northwest Engineering Co., 135 S. La Salle St., Chicago, IL (former company headquarters), p. 3.
(J.) "Shovels," Northwest Engineering Co. Brocheure (#CB-10M 476), published by Northwest Engineering Co., P.O. Box 1009, Green Bay, WI, p. 3. |
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