Lehigh Avenue and American Street, Philadelphia PA 19133
(northeast corner, west to Philip Street)
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
The building still standing
here was erected in 1879 to house the American Machine
Works. 1
It reached from
American to Philip Street along Lehigh, and went back six
bays into the block. A small extension on Philip
Street housed the boiler, engine, and japanning
(lacquering) rooms on the upper floors. Owned by a
corporation, the company produced fluting machines and
fancy hardware. It preceded by a few years Thomas
Devlin's National Hardware and Malleable Iron Works built
in 1881 across the North Pennsylvania Railroad tracks to
the west. 2
Devlin's was
still operating in 1925, but the American Machine Company
building was occupied by North Brothers manufacturing as
early as 1892. 3
A 1908 depiction of North Brothers in a souvenir
publication on the founding of Philadelphia showed many
additional buildings, sheds, and engine stacks.
4
Their main
products were Lightning Gem, Blizzard and Crown ice cream
freezers, and various screw drivers and drills. They
still made fluting and plaiting machines, and added
Christmas tree holders.
In 1916 North Brothers employed 414 people, the number
dropped in 1940 to 345, but increased again by 1943 to
375 employees. 5
Today the complex
is listed as the Charles Benjamin Building and is
utilized as a recycling center.
Update May
2007 (by
Torben Jenk):
Demolished. Replaced by a retail shopping
center.
1 Hexamer General Survey #1522 (1880) "The
American Machine Co.'s Works."
2 Hexamer General Survey #1640 (1882)
"National Hardware and Malleable Iron Works, Thomas
Devlin & Co."
Hexamer General Survey #2665 (1893)
"National Hardware and Malleable Iron Works, Thomas
Devlin & Co."
3 Bromley, 1925; and
William H. Boyd's Son, Boyd's Business Directory for
the City of Philadelphia, (Philadelphia, 1892), p.
503.
4 William W.
Matos, Philadelphia,
Its Founding and Development,
1683-1908, (Philadelphia, 1908).
5 Department of Labor and
Industry, Pennsylvania, 1916, p. 1305; and Chamber of
Commerce and Board of Trade, Philadelphia, p.
86.