In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

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INDUSTRIAL SPRING STEEL John J. Maguire, Sr., immigrated to the United States from Leitrim, Ireland, in the early 1900s. Upon arrival he lived with cousins on Rockland Street in Philadelphia. After graduating from Germantown High School, which closed in 2013 after ninetynine years of educating local Philadelphia students, Maguire’s life in steel began. worked around the clock to support the war effort by producing armor plate, guns, and field artillery pieces. Maguire next took a sales position with the Edgar T. Ward Steel Company at Cedar and Westmoreland Streets in Philadelphia. It was here that Maguire met and married Margaret Gaughan in 1939. He was one of 2,200 male employees during the first four decades of the twentieth century who forged steel at the Midvale- Heppenstall steel plant in Nicetown. During World War II, the workforce ballooned to more than 8,000, including women, who Maguire advanced his career in the steel business when he was offered, and accepted, an outside sales position with the Hill- Chase Steel Company. Shortly after, on July 1, 1936, Maguire and three partners founded Steel Distributors, Inc. at Tioga IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBERTY 142
and Salmon Streets. The company would later relocate to Cedar and Westmoreland Streets in 1952 when Maguire purchased the former Edgar T. Ward Steel Company building. By this time, Maguire and Margaret were the parents of a son, John, Jr. It was during this time that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Robert Lee “Bobby” Thomason was hired as a salesman for Steel Distributors, Inc. The six foot, one inch Thomason was a three-time Pro-Bowler who, in 1953, became the first Philadelphia Eagles quarterback to pass for more than 400 yards during a game. It was not uncommon for kids from the neighborhood to knock on the door of the plant and ask if Bobby could come out and throw the football with them. He was always more than willing to oblige. Thomason’s teammates Jack Hinkle and Ben Kish worked for competitors in the Philadelphia area. In 1961, John, Jr., graduated from Villanova University and its School of Business. Following in his father’s footsteps, he entered the steel industry as an inside salesman at Steel Distributors, Inc. He later moved to outside sales. During the Vietnam War the federal government purchased aluminum from Steel Distributors, Inc. that was given to the Vietnamese to build houses in exchange for information to aid the United States during the war. A costly war spanning nearly twenty years, the Vietnam War between North Vietnam and South Vietnam took the lives of more than 50,000 American members of the military as the United States was an ally of South Vietnam. In 1976 the company was sold to Creusot- Loire and merged with the Horace T. Potts Company. Creusot-Loire was France’s largest privately owned engineering conglomerate, created by the merger of three steel and engineering groups. The merge resulted in the relocation to the Potts Company location at D Street and Erie Avenue. With the family retaining ownership of the Steel Distributors, Inc. building and grounds, John, Jr., was responsible for its maintenance until the building sold. The neighborhood kids, along with John, Jr.’s four sons, used the vacant lot adjacent to the building as a baseball field. To ensure the grass was always trimmed, John, Jr., instituted a rule that each player must make one lap with the lawn mower before taking his turn at bat. John, Jr., remained with Creusot-Loire as an outside salesman until 1982 when he resigned to take a position with Pennsylvania Steel Company. Just four years later, John, Jr., had the opportunity to purchase Industrial Spring Steel, located at 7345 Milnor Street. Like his father, he too owned a steel company. His role moved from a salesman to a sales representative. His salary now was based on sales results. He sold Industrial Spring Steel in 2013 to friendly competitor Lapham-Hickey Steel, headquartered in Chicago. John, Jr., remained with Lapham- Hickey as a sales representative, retaining fifteen of his accounts. Today Industrial Spring Steel is located at 2656 Salmon Street in Philadelphia and continues to service companies with an extensive steel inventory and exceptional customer service. Stock includes cold rolled annealed, tempered, and blue polished steel and Industrial Spring Steel’s capabilities include edging and cutting to the customer’s specifications for their individual needs. Products made possible by Industrial Spring Steel range from blades for doctor’s scalpels to gun mechanisms and valves. There is no job too large or too small. @ Opposite: Steel Distributors, Inc. rulers were distributed to customers and vendors. With measurements up to fourteen inches and the original telephone exchanges and numbers on the front; the back of the ruler featured both decimal and gauge equivalents. Above: In 2013, John Maguire, Jr., (left) a Villanova University 1961 graduate, sold Industrial Spring Steel to Lapham-Hickey Steel. Brian Hickey, general manager at Lapham-Hickey, graduated from Villanova University in 2001. PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA 143
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IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBER
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IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBER
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CONTENTS 4 FOREWORD 6 ACKNOWLEDGEME
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@ Michael A. Nutter, Former Mayor,
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For the historical images that enli
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This is a history of manufacturing
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While other manufacturing centers w
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@ Above: Workers at Midvale Steel p
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aircraft that dates to the earliest
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would hold into the early nineteent
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technology, transportation, and com
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age had joined the Religious Societ
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Philadelphians lived in the city’
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“and many boats, which are useful
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Quaker merchant Thomas Masters purc
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INDUSTRY INVENTORS Manufacturers in
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Quaker upbringing. Known as the “
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MAKING A CASE FOR AMERICAN MANUFACT
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up cotton manufacturing operations
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After receiving a patent for the en
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The Globe Mill on the Cohocksink Cr
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@ Opposite: Detail from 1849 map sh
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of the town’s total population. S
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On a positive note, a group of Fran
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factories with a powerful energy so
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and flagship for Commodore Matthew
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@ Left: Penn Steam Engine & Boiler
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Garrett & Eastwick Locomotive Works
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seen. The episode brought Hagner co
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United States, the nation’s de-fa
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The turn of the twentieth century p
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in various categories at the Centen
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makers, 20 stove manufacturers, 12
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and lace, in which Kensington manuf
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through exploitation of their worke
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@ Left: Yard locomotives at Midvale
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among the largest in the world at t
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factory nearby. This became the lar
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she writes of the sad circumstances
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@ Clockwise, starting from the top:
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BEER AND TOBACCO Beer making contin
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MILK AND ICE CREAM Like any major c
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the Philadelphia Phillies. Located
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and a half later from a city of man
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After major cutbacks in the auto in
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into countless lunchboxes throughou
Page 93 and 94: hangar space in 1980 at Northeast P
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Page 101 and 102: BOOKS AND ARTICLES Bridenbaugh, Car
Page 103 and 104: Sutcliffe, Andrea J. Steam: The Unt
Page 105 and 106: Penrose, Bartholomew & Thomas shipy
Page 107 and 108: PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA H
Page 109 and 110: @ Left: An early Kingsbury advertis
Page 111 and 112: PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA 1
Page 113 and 114: Aerodynamics. The name DeVal was a
Page 115 and 116: packaging and shipping; and nondest
Page 117 and 118: Another step in product advancement
Page 119 and 120: PHILLY CASE From the basement of a
Page 121 and 122: Under Yost’s direction, The Rowla
Page 123 and 124: The story of Tioga Pipe is a classi
Page 125 and 126: neighborhood. The increased product
Page 127 and 128: Humphrys is one of the oldest manuf
Page 129 and 130: The Doherty brothers realized, to s
Page 131 and 132: Centrally located off the Pennsylva
Page 133 and 134: Jersey and Delaware. Outgrowing the
Page 135 and 136: Philadelphia is famous for its appr
Page 137 and 138: injection molded plastic to enter t
Page 139 and 140: had expanded from smaller pieces fo
Page 141 and 142: for many years and they know the fi
Page 143: furnace as well as a custom flame h
Page 147 and 148: The company capitalized on the stra
Page 149 and 150: discharges. The supercapacitors are
Page 151 and 152: products that are custom designed t
Page 153 and 154: Today manufacturing matters, now mo
Page 155: LEADERSHIP SPONSORS Historical Publ
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