Property Record
624-700 FRANKLIN ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Manitowoc Boiler Works |
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| Other Name: | White Westinghouse Mfg. |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 57839 |
| Location (Address): | 624-700 FRANKLIN ST |
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| County: | Manitowoc |
| City: | Manitowoc |
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| Year Built: | 1893 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1985 |
| Historic Use: | warehouse |
| Architectural Style: | Astylistic Utilitarian Building |
| Structural System: | Unknown |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | Yes |
| Demolished Date: | 0 |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | This industrial complex features a series of three, long gable roofed buildings of varying heights. These buildings all feature slightly arched window openings which have been boarded in. A very large, one story, concrete block addition is found on the east end of the complex. The original portions of this industrial complex (brick, gable roofed sections) date from 1893 when William Hess built this plant as the Manitowoc Steam Boiler Works. The Steam Boiler Work was successful, however, in 1908, Hess indicated a desire to sell the Company. Eelias Gunnell, C.C. West, and L.E. Geer, founders of the Manitowoc Dry Dock Company in 1902, purchased the plant, renaming it the Manitowoc Boiler Works. The company had originally built marine boilers. The new owners added numerous other types of heavy metal fabricating. The acquisition of the Boiler Works gave Gunnell, West and Geer the capability to equip the vessels they were building. In 1916, the Boiler Works was merged as a part of the new Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. Following World War I, the Boiler Workds diversified its products to survive in a depressed economy and inthe late 1920's specialized in paper industry products. The last of the giant marine boilers was built in 1936 for the tanker RED CROWN. Towards the ed of World War II, the Navy placed an order for munitions boxes with Manitowoc Shipbuilding which afforded the company the opportunity to retool the plant for post-war machine shop work and, in 1945, the Boiler Works (now renamed the Manitowoc Equipment Works) began manufacturing upright freezers for the other companies such as Westinghouse. The Equipment Works continued to manufacture upright freezers and commercial supermarket freezer cases until 1966 when Kelvinator, a Division of the American Motors Company, leased the plant to produce refrigerators. In 1973, Kelvinator purchased the plant and still operates it under its new parent company White Westinghouse. Though altered over the years, the Manitowoc Boiler Works plant is locally significant as one of the few relatively intact industrial complexes renamining which represent that period in the history of the City when Manitowoc was a major producer of marine supplies. 2020: No longer extant. Date of demolition unknown. |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. The Manitowoc Company, Inc., "Maitowoc: 75 Years of Growth and Diversification, 1902-1977" Manitowoc, 1977, pp. 6-7, 18, 30-31. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |