Note: The following is a republished excerpt from the Lockwood Hardware Manufacturing Company’s Lockwood – The story of its past, the basis for its future. Published in 1953, and based almost entirely off of literature produced for Lockwood’s 1952 sales convention, it recounts the history of the Lockwood Hardware Manufacturing Company from 1834 until 1952.
By 1953, the Lockwood Hardware Manufacturing Company, then a division of the Independent Lock Company with both being headquartered in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, fielded branch offices in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and Selma, Alabama along with five manufacturing plants in Fitchburg and one in Selma.
We have made no changes to this excerpt and what you see is exactly how it was printed in 1953, albeit in a different medium.
Chapter Seven, The Lockwood Hardware Manufacturing Company 1946 to 1949
IN 1946, with the end of the war, Lockwood activities gradually returned to peace-time production. The huge back log of projected building made it obvious the building industry was entering a period of lush business. With this in mind, Lockwood began to strengthen its fence.
Pin Tumbler Assembly.
First it produced an up-to-date catalog presenting a new approach to the listing of builders’ finishing hardware. Next it embarked on a program of advertising in trade and architectural magazines with which hundreds of thousands of readers are now quite familiar. Realizing that because of the pent up demand for new schools and hospitals, as well as for other types of buildings, there would be many places where architects could not secure the advice and assistance of a hardware consultant, Lockwood created another “first” when it published a condensed issue in Sweet’s Architectural File in 1946. This practice has since been repeated in each annual edition of Sweet’s and has been extremely effective in familiarizing architects with the Lockwood line.
Other steps were taken to improve the sales position. New men were trained and added to the sales force. Customer’s men were invited to the plant and put through a vigorous training program specializing in contract work. At the same time, the program of product development was being stepped up further at an ever increasing pace. The “5100” Series of mortise stepped up at an ever increase pace. The “5100” Series of mortise cylinder locks was revamped with improvements. Changes and improvements were made in the tubular lock line and Lockwood’s first venture in the cylindrical lock field came about with the producing of the Sherbrooke Design Key ‘n Knob lock sets.
George Washington University Hospital, Washington, D. C.
Dallas Morning News, Dallas Texas. Outstanding modern plant in the newspaper publishing field.
By the latter part of this period, the work spent in developing contract dealers was indeed becoming fruitful and from all parts of the country results were being felt. Such outstanding jobs as the following were entered during this period:
BULL SHOALS DAM, Mountain Home, Arkansas
BANK OF AMERICA BUILDINGS, Los Angeles, California
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV. HOSPITAL, Washington, D. C.
ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE TOLL BUILDING AND DIAL BUILDING, Chicago, Illinois
ADMINISTRATION AND ENGINEERING BUILDING, STANDARD OIL COMPANY, Whiting, Indiana
ST. JOSEPH MERCY HOSPITAL, Dubuque, Iowa
DRUM CASTLE APARTMENTS, Baltimore, Maryland
TUFTS COLLEGE MEDICAL AND DENTAL SCHOOL, Boston, Massachusetts
VETERANS’ ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL, Omaha, Nebraska
VETERANS’ ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL, Manchester, New Hampshire
STATLER HALL – CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, New York
AMSTERDAM HOUSES – MARCY HOUSES, New York, New York
MANHATTAN APARTMENTS, New York, New York
RIVERGATE APARTMENTS, New York, New York
SUTTON TERRACE APARTMENTS, New York, New York
SISTERS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD BUILDINGS, Wickliffe, Ohio
U.S. VETERANS’ HOSPITAL, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
PERMANENT HOUSING U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY PLANT, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
DALLAS, MORNING NEWS BUILDING, Dallas, Texas
PEN ARCADIAN HOSPITAL, Tripolis, Greece
CARACAS HOTEL, Caracas, Venezuela
MILITARY SCHOOL AND ACADEMY, Caracas, Venezuela
It was during this period that the program of re-hardwaring the Statel Hotels was undertaken. All hotels in the Statler chain were completed re-equipped with new locks, of the same type so successfully used on the Washington Statler, with the exception of the one at Buffalo, which was not included, because of a contemplated change. This was the largest hotel re-hardware program of this type ever undertaken and involved some ten thousand locks. It was during this program Lockwood was called upon to add certain special features to the function of the lock to give additional security and safety. Lockwood completely fulfilled all requests of the Statler Hotel Corporation and again met the challenge where others had failed.
Lockwood Hardware was being exported to South America, where one of the outstanding projects as a Military academy for the Venezuelian Government; to Europe and the Middle East where thousands of Lockwood products were used on the huge Arabian American Oil Company development, to Bah Rein, Saudi Arabia; to Toronto, Canada and Canberra, Australia, where Lockwood supplied the hardware for the new embassy buildings during this period.
