Robert that is great! the 1930 census has him listed as a Shoe Factory Superintendent. 1920 he was a Foreman and the factory, By 1940 he moved to MO and was a shoe factory foreman in St Louis dying in 1943
Correct! He was moved as the superintendent to the new Caruthersville plant in the mid-1930s during the strikes that were happening. After that he bounced around a bit before landing back in St Louis. I've done a complete history on him and he was a fascinating study!@@AnnHinrichs-j8z
My maternal grandfather was a machine repairman in a factory that made all kinds of pins, etc. here in southern CT. I saw some pictures in a book showing people in that factory running machines, and it brought a lump to my throat thinking that my grandfather had probably worked on those machines.
This photo looks like a car my great-grandfather had in a photo when my mother was one. 1927 My great granparents lived in Charleston. He worked for a dairy. They built a house (small) on Lincoln. It still stands across the newer Richie/Lawyer Florist Shop. That business was sold in the early 1970s. My great-grandparents' home was small Craftman's home. It still retains its same look. I was born in Charleston but now live in AZ.Several years ago when I was in town visiting with relatives, my daughter and I took photos of the Brown Shoe Co. I understand the both my grandmother and some other relatives worked there in the 1940s.
Chris, this was awesome! I love the history! The treeing department might be where they use shoe trees to form the shoes or retain the shoe form. That is my best guess. Look up shoe tree to understand what I’m talking about.
Now this is an awesome video. I love the history of old buildings. Our town was built because of the railroad, I was lucky enough to be able to work in the old building that was the entrance. Walking around the shops with one of the best historians of this railroad as he had been born & raised in this area & had worked there for years, I adored that man. He was so kind & nice & we actually became friends. The B & N railroad had left sometime in the 80's so it really wasn't well kept but to me it was a diamond. I remember sitting at my desk one morning & it had snowed & things were melting & to my utter surprise a panel piece of the ceiling fell on my desk right where I was working, lol. There was no harm done to myself at all, maybe because I was back away from that area at that moment. The funny thing is, it wasn't hard to clean up. I & some other employees were sure there had to be black mold up there but of course it was denied. Once again it sits pretty much empty & would cost a huge fortune to restore it back to its wonderful self. It truly is a magnificent relic here & it's really a shame that it's not put to good use anymore.
Sounds like a close call, the surrounding towns especially Sullivan a few miles away were a real nexus for the railroad, a chokepoint so to speak with more intersections than almost anywhere in the country.
Lasts are molds of feet so you can make different sizes and widths. All the hyper bespoke shoe and boot places make custom lasts of their clients feet so they can reorder footwear without requiring another fitting. 38:16 Those rails are where the walking/biking path is across the road The photos you like and want to display, you should consider those metal/ aluminum type prints. Will last for ages.
YEah, I really want to make some big pieces to hang up in the building as a tribute to the workers. I think I remember that the path was a railroad but I guess I had forgotten about that.
Old man here! I wore Buster Brown shoes, I was born in 1953,....and I just turned 70, a few weeks ago. I was born and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, which was a major steel producing town, later aluminum too. Raw iron ore, was shipped via Lake Erie, down to Cleveland.
I remember the Buster Brown shoe store as a kid late 70’s early 80’s and I remember they were too expensive for my parents with 4 kids who outgrew shoes too fast.. I remember they were all well made leather!
A few people have mentioned they were too expensive. To me they looked mass produced in the photos but I guess that just speaks to the quality they were putting out.
Chris, Great pictures! A real time capsule. The trenchcoat you refer to is a heavy duty shop coat that foreman sometimes wear. I have a couple of the more modern ones I wear when working in my little machine shop. If you are wearing a nicer shirt and trousers, they help keep them clean.
OMG Loved these photos! I love your commentary on individuals. I wonder how many hearts Casanova broke. LOL At the same time I wonder how many met and married their spouse while working there. I agree some did look like some tough characters. My Dad wore those caps and so does my hubby. Love seeing the machinery - those big fans and shoe racks. I bet many of us had Buster Brown shoes at some point in our lives. We had a Buster Brown shoe store which I thought was cool, from the days when you had your foot measured and someone put the shoes on your foot to make sure they were perfect. Thanks for sharing all of this.
wow, cool story. I think the building and company was such a big part of the town, people met there, and got married and started families for sure. Really fun to think about.
Weird thought but I’ve always wondered.. where did the workers use the restroom before the addition of the restrooms… I know built in plumbing didn’t become common in the US until the 1930’s.. so did they have outhouses?! If so.. there’s a really awesome channel called “bellow the plains” run by a couple young guys who travel the Midwest and unearth old outhouse pits (they aren’t gross like they once were) and find all sorts of relics, artifacts and bottles… they are a pretty good sized channel and could unearth more pieces of history from the building! Just an idea!!
@@chuxmix65I love those guys so much!! It’s amazing how they can tell the type bottle and age almost instantly! There might be historical references to whether they had outhouses and where they’d be located. I’m always amazed by how many neat things were thrown into the pits!
This is an awesome presentation! It's many years ago, but I have seen this building. My ancestral family home is the Vandalia/Mulberry Grove area. Several of my distant relatives had a connection with Florsheim Shoes. It would be really neat to know if any of them worked in your factory.
Well I wouldn't know, but I would add that almost every town around the had one of these factories, and they were major employers so it is likely that at one of them someone in your family worked at one or another..
What a wonderful job you have done with the history of this building so interesting plus I had no idea how big it was until I saw the picture of the building itself.Granny from Australia ❤
There were tracks on both sides of that building North and South. Also an early days there were businesses across the street and across the tracks to the South such as cafes and small markets. They were theirs for the shoe factories custom.
Thats really interesting. I did find a set of tracks that are buried on the back property. It looks like it crossed the 3 acres that are part of the building land. I wonder if the entire length of those rails are still buried. Need to get a metal doctor TH-cam channel to come figure it out.
So very interesting, Chris. History is not only important, but can be very interesting as well. As you'd mentioned, a few of those photos blown up and possibly touched up would make wonderful decor in various places in that building. Can't wait for the next video!
Incredible photos. I love old group photos. My favorites that I own are my grandfather’s graduating class from John Marshall Law School standing on the steps of the state capitol building in Springfield, IL in 1929 and a a 1928 photo of the winners of a Montana State First Aid competition. I’ve stared at those faces for hours wondering what happened to them all. Especially my grandfather’s photo since it was taken two months before the start of the Great Depression.
wow, I have one of my grandpa a few years after the depression where he is on the high school basketball team with the rest of the boys. it was a school of like 75 people but I love to look at that one, of him as a young person.
That would be a future goal. After the place is cleaned up and well lit. It would help for comparing against the photos to pin down where they were taken.
My Pop owned a roofing company, he began working for his dad's company, in 1930, and eventually he took over operations. He worked in the main office, and a lot the equipment was still in use, through the late 1970s. I see time cards on a desk, a postal scale, manual typewriters, and large desktop adding machines, that may have operated by coil springs and not electricity. On the left side of the room by the windows is an early "calculator",...( that thing with many push buttons) kind of computer for that period of time,.....it performed higher level mathematics. It too could have been powered by coil springs, or electrical assist. A hand crank on the "desk top" adding machines, was often the power source,...they were also electric. My Pop had a check printing machine, to pay vendors, and employees. Those kind of offices were cold in the winter and often too hot, because of the radiators, which had minimal temperature controls,....basically just: on and off, with little fine tuning. The tall ceiling rooms were difficult to heat and cool. Small electric fans provided some minimal air movement & circulation. Windows could be opened in the Summer.
The long line shafts were pretty cool with all those belts running the equipment. Especially at the size of that factory as you know they were super long. Ashame something like that doesn't still exist. Would have looked amazing to see in 2024.
I could spent hours looking at pictures like this, if Buster Brown shoes was still in business today, all the people in a current photo would be of Chinese decent in a building in China, Sad but true.
Chris I grew up in a town that was not that much different from Charlestown. I love how you have been able to get to know more about your factory and you are preserving a bit of history in the process. Its sad that other bb factries have been torn down. Looking forward to next week.
thank you Janice. I am going to do some with a scrapbook from the editor of the paper who wrote about the building, and also some newspaper clippings that are very eye opening and entertaining.
Bow ties were the fashion of that period of time, but they may have been worn for "safety" reasons,....because they wouldn't get snagged by moving parts on machinery or become soiled by dyes, or other factory grime. As they didn't dangle down onto soiled surfaces.
Hey Chris, great photos, hopefully someone who has more information about the building will see the videos and get in touch. I did try and search online for more information, but mostly it only brings up the St. Louis Brown Shoe factory, which is now sadly gone. Not many left now.
yeah, and there are are tons of obituaries saying people worked there which makes sorting through it slow. but a viewer actually sent me a huge amount of info and clippings and research they did. So that will be fun to use as video content. Some of the stories are shocking and super eye opening and funny too.
In those years 1900s to 1930s & beyond, most likely there were radiators, along the exterior walls beneath the windows. These factories often had boilers in their basements, that produced steam heat and often it powered the equipment, too. The pulley systems at the ceiling, ran the sewing machines, polishing machines, material shears. There had to have been vats for dying the leather, unless they bought that from a supplier, pre-dyed. Early factories often produced their own electricity, from coal fired steam engine power plants. Earlier yet, steam was used to power machinery. There would have been a main steam engine in the basement, that powered the equipment running pulleys connected to leather belts. If it was the 1930s, electricity was purchased from the city, and it ran electric motors connected to pulleys and leather belts.
Chris, there were RR tracks to the north of the building. I think those were the Nickle Plate tracks that are now bike path, so the building was sandwiched in between 2 sets of tracks.
That is so interesting, I vaguely remember the tracks but that may be a figment of my imagination and they were removed earlier. There is also the remnants of a track that actually crossed the property behind the building as well. I wonder if those rails are still buried because the part that I noticed is just barely visible and the tracks are embedded in the ground.
After a quick google search, treeing is when they add accessories to the mostly finished shoes. I’m guessing that would include things like straps and buckles.
what a cool set of images. In some of the images you can see the electric motor in the middle which drove the main drive shaft the length of the building. those safety cages were around the individual machines since the drive belt would always be moving and the cage would prevent folks from inadvertently getting caught in it. The lasting dept. would have been the area where the leather upper was fit over the last (a piece of wood shaped like a foot for each shoe size) which forms the upper into the beginnings of a shoe shape.
Nice, thank you. You have educated me. Much appreciated. The machinery is so awesome. I just love industrial design and engineering from back in the day.
What a great video! Thank you! Doing then and now photos for the locations that you can positively identify would be fun! The thing that I notice in the 1930 photos? Men wore hats. Lots of hats! What a great archive! Growing up in New England in the seventies and eighties BB was still a brand that advertised. Do you know when shoe production ended in your building?
Cyd in MD. Wonderful old photos. I'm a real fan of old photos and you have some beauties. Do you know what the factory did during WWII? Did they continue to makes shoes or was it called to do duty during the war?
interesting question. I really need to look that up. I do know their products were leather not metal so they may not have been affected, but maybe they made boots. I will look into it.
Hi Chris. I'm loving this video! I noticed one worker standing all the way on the on the left in the photo you make note that no one is wearing "denim" so this group may be the braintrust of the company. The gentleman is the only one wearing a windbreaker type jacket. This gentleman can also be seen in this same jacket when you make mention the "time card slot box." Notice this gentleman's left lifted arm in both photos.
Amazing!! I love these photos so much!! It would be so neat if anyone recognized anyone in these photos and could share stories about them… the mysterious photo @ 13:13 my guess ..it looks like it was on the first floor on the side closest to the train tracks by looking at the lighting…it’s very bright on the right side then falls darker on the left side… seems the 2nd and 3rd floors are well lit from every angle. 25:44 On this mystery photo.. could this possibly be the room you guys pressure washed? It reminds me of that room since it’s got the brick walls similar to that room 🤔 or maybe it was in the dance hall building? So cool!! It would be awesome to match the photos location with modern day and retake a photo as it is today!
I think it could be if the current walls were added later. Those doors might be behind some paneling. Have you seen the guy on TH-cam shorts that can identify the location of any photo anywhere in the world? Your deduction reminds me of his channel.
I agree with you saying that based on the first and third photographs, which are predominantly women and then the group of elderly males. My immediate thought was that the majority of Young Miles have been called up and that the women have come in to fill the vacancies.
Yeah, could be, but at this particular point the war hadn't started yet. So even if not, by the time the war did, I am sure there was an even bigger differential.
I am under the impression that walls had to have been removed. it is also possible that somebody gave the gaeneology department a phtoto from the mattoon plant. or it got mixed in. Hopefully I'll solve the mystery.
These photos were slightly before the war but once it started I be the ratio was even. higher. I wonder if they made shoes or something else during the war effort.
A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts come in many styles and sizes, depending on the exact job they are designed for.
Do the windows still have that flip out section in them? One thing I noticed was the are no obese people and very few overweight people and amost everyone, regardless of age, looks fit and healthy. Take a picture of a large group of a manufacturing workgroup now and I don't think you'd find the same weight levels now. Of course, no fast food then, no convenience food, no GMOs. I'll bet a lot of these people still had gardens at home.
Home cooking, local farm grown produce and their pigs, chickens and beef weren’t full of hormones and antibiotics that have harmed us. They really do look very healthy.. despite the fact that they are working in an environment full of asbestos and lead paint…
@@Jennifermcintyre Asbestos is safe until it starts to break down and release fibers into the air to be breathed in or ingested. Lead paint is safe until it starts breaking down or it is eaten. Just being around a wall or column painted with lead paint or having ceiling panels of asbestos or pipes covered in it is generally safe. It's the deterioration that makes it unsafe. This was all relatively new at the time. Later it might have caused some problems.
@@justnana2256 yes true. Poor Chris is having to tackle the break down of these substances and mitigating their dangers in their current form. My father in law died from mesothelioma and actually had asbestos in his lungs decades later but he installed the sprinkler systems that had asbestos somehow involved with them.
@@Jennifermcintyre I get it. My cousin died barely out of her teens from the same. Though everything was looked into it was never found where she encountered the asbestos. Her parents, younger brother and classmates of this small town were never affected. It's still a mystery and I've done a lot of research on it.
Charlie Sheen and Paul Rudd are time travellers? WOW! lol Maybe you should try to contact Chigg, from Aquachigger to do some metal detecting...he'll know of many others that would participate I'd think. Love old commercial street scenes, and interior industrial/commercial scenes.
yeah, I have been looking into the detecting channels. I was thinking about reaching out to adventure archaeology. I wonder if Chigg is near enough, I think he is midwest right?
Here is an idea for the factory dedicate a section for a fabulous polish restaurant and I will come down once a month from the nw suburbs of Chicago!!!
Oh man, it would be a cool place for something like that some day. But I gotta say you probably have enough of those up in Chicago with so many Polish people there!
times were so much different. at only 50 I can think about how much they have changed since I was a kid. I remember live before VCRs, then came pagers, computers, internet. Today it's increasing at breakneck speed.
I did hear that. Shocking! I heard that the rent was several/high thousands. If my building was up to code already it would be a perfect place for them. Maybe someday soon.
@@coldwarmercantile I overheard someone say in the store ( right after he had talked to the lady at the desk), that they were going to charge them $6000./mo. Sounds like the landlord might be related to Scrooge. The charity is HIS pocket!!!
That picture you don't know where it's at with 3 doors/windows in the background, is in front of the big room with the devider wall before all the masonite walls were built
Regarding your second, or third photograph for the Tree department. The Tree, smooths out the leather of the shoe or boot being made, it is probably used after the first part of the item is prepared using the “last” . A bit of a contradiction in terminology and process is found a few read the last sentence above!
In the "snazzy dresser's" photo (24:32) the gentleman with the gimpy left arm is in the photo (first row, third from left). He must have been someone of importance for the Brown Shoe Company.
![[안방1열 풀캠4K] 베이비몬스터 'DRIP' (BABYMONSTER FullCam)│@SBS Inkigayo 241110](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AQ4RIghEvUs/mqdefault.jpg)
The "trenchcoat" guy was my wife's great-grandfather, Joseph Servey. He was the superintendent of the plant during the 1920s and 30s.
Robert that is great! the 1930 census has him listed as a Shoe Factory Superintendent. 1920 he was a Foreman and the factory, By 1940 he moved to MO and was a shoe factory foreman in St Louis dying in 1943
Correct! He was moved as the superintendent to the new Caruthersville plant in the mid-1930s during the strikes that were happening. After that he bounced around a bit before landing back in St Louis. I've done a complete history on him and he was a fascinating study!@@AnnHinrichs-j8z
amazing info! Love it!
My maternal grandfather was a machine repairman in a factory that made all kinds of pins, etc. here in southern CT. I saw some pictures in a book showing people in that factory running machines, and it brought a lump to my throat thinking that my grandfather had probably worked on those machines.
Wow. I know the feeling, my grandfather was a GIANT in my life too.
One of my favorite videos so far. The important thing here is you are not only preserving history, but sharing it as well.
thanks, that part of the fun. Sharing it.
This photo looks like a car my great-grandfather had in a photo when my mother was one. 1927 My great granparents lived in Charleston. He worked for a dairy. They built a house (small) on Lincoln. It still stands across the newer Richie/Lawyer Florist Shop. That business was sold in the early 1970s. My great-grandparents' home was small Craftman's home. It still retains its same look. I was born in Charleston but now live in AZ.Several years ago when I was in town visiting with relatives, my daughter and I took photos of the Brown Shoe Co. I understand the both my grandmother and some other relatives worked there in the 1940s.
Wow, love this kind of story! I will pay special attention to that house next time I go by!
Absolutly fasinating video! Loved it.
Thanks, there are some newspaper clippings/stories coming soon. and they are quite eye opening and some are even funny. Stay tuned.
@@coldwarmercantile Look forward to seeing that. 🙂✌️
Chris, this was awesome! I love the history! The treeing department might be where they use shoe trees to form the shoes or retain the shoe form. That is my best guess. Look up shoe tree to understand what I’m talking about.
That sound right. Like horse saddles have wood trees/forms. Interesting. I am going to google image search it.
Fantastic!...I love old photos that chronicle history. I am fascinated with the Industrial revolution in the USA.
Thanks Dave!
Awesome! Great pictures!
thanks, I have more coming!
The kneeling man on the lower left is my grandfather, Elmer Schnorf.
Oh wow, Thats really cool. do you mean the outdoor photo? Thanks so much!
Now this is an awesome video. I love the history of old buildings. Our town was built because of the railroad, I was lucky enough to be able to work in the old building that was the entrance. Walking around the shops with one of the best historians of this railroad as he had been born & raised in this area & had worked there for years, I adored that man. He was so kind & nice & we actually became friends. The B & N railroad had left sometime in the 80's so it really wasn't well kept but to me it was a diamond. I remember sitting at my desk one morning & it had snowed & things were melting & to my utter surprise a panel piece of the ceiling fell on my desk right where I was working, lol. There was no harm done to myself at all, maybe because I was back away from that area at that moment. The funny thing is, it wasn't hard to clean up. I & some other employees were sure there had to be black mold up there but of course it was denied. Once again it sits pretty much empty & would cost a huge fortune to restore it back to its wonderful self. It truly is a magnificent relic here & it's really a shame that it's not put to good use anymore.
Sounds like a close call, the surrounding towns especially Sullivan a few miles away were a real nexus for the railroad, a chokepoint so to speak with more intersections than almost anywhere in the country.
great photos Chris📷
Thanks Alan!
Lasts are molds of feet so you can make different sizes and widths. All the hyper bespoke shoe and boot places make custom lasts of their clients feet so they can reorder footwear without requiring another fitting.
38:16 Those rails are where the walking/biking path is across the road
The photos you like and want to display, you should consider those metal/ aluminum type prints. Will last for ages.
YEah, I really want to make some big pieces to hang up in the building as a tribute to the workers. I think I remember that the path was a railroad but I guess I had forgotten about that.
Old man here! I wore Buster Brown shoes, I was born in 1953,....and I just turned 70, a few weeks ago. I was born and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, which was a major steel producing town, later aluminum too. Raw iron ore, was shipped via Lake Erie, down to Cleveland.
I remember the Buster Brown shoe store as a kid late 70’s early 80’s and I remember they were too expensive for my parents with 4 kids who outgrew shoes too fast.. I remember they were all well made leather!
A few people have mentioned they were too expensive. To me they looked mass produced in the photos but I guess that just speaks to the quality they were putting out.
Chris, Great pictures! A real time capsule.
The trenchcoat you refer to is a heavy duty shop coat that foreman sometimes wear.
I have a couple of the more modern ones I wear when working in my little machine shop. If you are wearing a nicer shirt and trousers, they help keep them clean.
Nice, interesting they are for the foreman or supervisor or whatever. I love old American workwear. I have a few jackets collected myself.
OMG Loved these photos! I love your commentary on individuals. I wonder how many hearts Casanova broke. LOL At the same time I wonder how many met and married their spouse while working there. I agree some did look like some tough characters. My Dad wore those caps and so does my hubby. Love seeing the machinery - those big fans and shoe racks. I bet many of us had Buster Brown shoes at some point in our lives. We had a Buster Brown shoe store which I thought was cool, from the days when you had your foot measured and someone put the shoes on your foot to make sure they were perfect.
Thanks for sharing all of this.
wow, cool story. I think the building and company was such a big part of the town, people met there, and got married and started families for sure. Really fun to think about.
Weird thought but I’ve always wondered.. where did the workers use the restroom before the addition of the restrooms… I know built in plumbing didn’t become common in the US until the 1930’s.. so did they have outhouses?! If so.. there’s a really awesome channel called “bellow the plains” run by a couple young guys who travel the Midwest and unearth old outhouse pits (they aren’t gross like they once were) and find all sorts of relics, artifacts and bottles… they are a pretty good sized channel and could unearth more pieces of history from the building! Just an idea!!
Below the Plains would be a great channel for Chris to contact!
@@chuxmix65I love those guys so much!! It’s amazing how they can tell the type bottle and age almost instantly! There might be historical references to whether they had outhouses and where they’d be located. I’m always amazed by how many neat things were thrown into the pits!
wow, that is interesting. you sure know a lot of unique channels. I will check the photos and see if I can find any outhouses.
The guys with the bowties were the bosses favorites. That's when the term Brown nose was coined 😅
You should do standup! Here all week! Thanks for a laugh!
This is an awesome presentation! It's many years ago, but I have seen this building. My ancestral family home is the Vandalia/Mulberry Grove area. Several of my distant relatives had a connection with Florsheim Shoes. It would be really neat to know if any of them worked in your factory.
Well I wouldn't know, but I would add that almost every town around the had one of these factories, and they were major employers so it is likely that at one of them someone in your family worked at one or another..
What a wonderful job you have done with the history of this building so interesting plus I had no idea how big it was until I saw the picture of the building itself.Granny from Australia ❤
There were tracks on both sides of that building North and South. Also an early days there were businesses across the street and across the tracks to the South such as cafes and small markets. They were theirs for the shoe factories custom.
Yeah, it's 66,000 square feet. So it is pretty overwhelming when you are inside! thanks of the comment.
Thats really interesting. I did find a set of tracks that are buried on the back property. It looks like it crossed the 3 acres that are part of the building land. I wonder if the entire length of those rails are still buried. Need to get a metal doctor TH-cam channel to come figure it out.
So very interesting, Chris. History is not only important, but can be very interesting as well. As you'd mentioned, a few of those photos blown up and possibly touched up would make wonderful decor in various places in that building. Can't wait for the next video!
Love it! Great collection of old photos. Since you own it now, it gives you a new perspective of an old building.
Yeah, it really does, and it gives me a better sense of the true history which is amazing!
Treeing was a form of sizing the shoes. Shoe tree was for stretching the shoe i think
Nice! Thank you!
Incredible photos. I love old group photos. My favorites that I own are my grandfather’s graduating class from John Marshall Law School standing on the steps of the state capitol building in Springfield, IL in 1929 and a a 1928 photo of the winners of a Montana State First Aid competition. I’ve stared at those faces for hours wondering what happened to them all. Especially my grandfather’s photo since it was taken two months before the start of the Great Depression.
wow, I have one of my grandpa a few years after the depression where he is on the high school basketball team with the rest of the boys. it was a school of like 75 people but I love to look at that one, of him as a young person.
How about taking a current picture from each exact position now, to show the differences. Also great for posterity.
That would be a future goal. After the place is cleaned up and well lit. It would help for comparing against the photos to pin down where they were taken.
Great pictures Chris! On a side note, you can't help but notice the near total lack of obesity at a time before processed and fast food.
Whenever I find vintage clothing in a thrift store it is always too small. I guess thats why.
My Pop owned a roofing company, he began working for his dad's company, in 1930, and eventually he took over operations. He worked in the main office, and a lot the equipment was still in use, through the late 1970s. I see time cards on a desk, a postal scale, manual typewriters, and large desktop adding machines, that may have operated by coil springs and not electricity. On the left side of the room by the windows is an early "calculator",...( that thing with many push buttons) kind of computer for that period of time,.....it performed higher level mathematics. It too could have been powered by coil springs, or electrical assist. A hand crank on the "desk top" adding machines, was often the power source,...they were also electric.
My Pop had a check printing machine, to pay vendors, and employees. Those kind of offices were cold in the winter and often too hot, because of the radiators, which had minimal temperature controls,....basically just: on and off, with little fine tuning. The tall ceiling rooms were difficult to heat and cool. Small electric fans provided some minimal air movement & circulation. Windows could be opened in the Summer.
The long line shafts were pretty cool with all those belts running the equipment. Especially at the size of that factory as you know they were super long. Ashame something like that doesn't still exist. Would have looked amazing to see in 2024.
Oh man it would be cool. Museum worthy for sure. People had so much ingenuity and competence then.
That was awesome to see all those pictures.Looking forward to seeing the next set of pictures!
Thanks, John. I have some article clippings too which are entertaining and some are funny even.
I could spent hours looking at pictures like this, if Buster Brown shoes was still in business today, all the people in a current photo would be of Chinese decent in a building in China, Sad but true.
Yeah, they were bought out and have gone overseas. I think the new company still owns the trademark but they are under a different name now.
I just love the lore of this place. It has a deep history.
Hey! Me too. It really helps me connect to the place. I could look at the pics for hours!
Chris I grew up in a town that was not that much different from Charlestown. I love how you have been able to get to know more about your factory and you are preserving a bit of history in the process. Its sad that other bb factries have been torn down. Looking forward to next week.
I would really like to do a survey of how many still exist. I wonder where I could find that info since they were all across the country.
@@coldwarmercantile I am sure if you put it to your homepage after mentioning it here would be interesting.
I absolutely loved this video !!! 💖💖💖
thank you Janice. I am going to do some with a scrapbook from the editor of the paper who wrote about the building, and also some newspaper clippings that are very eye opening and entertaining.
Bow ties were the fashion of that period of time, but they may have been worn for "safety" reasons,....because they wouldn't get snagged by moving parts on machinery or become soiled by dyes, or other factory grime. As they didn't dangle down onto soiled surfaces.
Hey Chris, great photos, hopefully someone who has more information about the building will see the videos and get in touch. I did try and search online for more information, but mostly it only brings up the St. Louis Brown Shoe factory, which is now sadly gone. Not many left now.
yeah, and there are are tons of obituaries saying people worked there which makes sorting through it slow. but a viewer actually sent me a huge amount of info and clippings and research they did. So that will be fun to use as video content. Some of the stories are shocking and super eye opening and funny too.
Remember when I said I had something for you??? I have 2 of the shoe racks. We need to get together. They are sitting outside here. Great photos.
Wow!! That’s amazing!! I’m sure Chris is going to be stoked to see them!!
Are you local to the area? I would be interested in them for sure. Not to resell, just have int he building!
forgive me if you already mentioned where you are. there are so many comments. But I am starting to recognize regulars like you an Jennifer.
I am in Oakland. @@coldwarmercantile
Hi, I'll be in Charleston starting Friday. You can email me at coldwarmercantile@gmail.com maybe you can stop by I'll show you the place.@@tete7958
In those years 1900s to 1930s & beyond, most likely there were radiators, along the exterior walls beneath the windows. These factories often had boilers in their basements, that produced steam heat and often it powered the equipment, too. The pulley systems at the ceiling, ran the sewing machines, polishing machines, material shears. There had to have been vats for dying the leather, unless they bought that from a supplier, pre-dyed.
Early factories often produced their own electricity, from coal fired steam engine power plants. Earlier yet, steam was used to power machinery. There would have been a main steam engine in the basement, that powered the equipment running pulleys connected to leather belts. If it was the 1930s, electricity was purchased from the city, and it ran electric motors connected to pulleys and leather belts.
Nice info to zero in on the dates and changes. Thanks!
Eastern Illinois University was founded in 1895 so the picture of the float was taken in 1945.
OOH, right at before the end of the war. Interesting. I wish there was photos of the crowds around the parade.
Interesting photos!
Thanks Mark. I thought so too. Soon I'll post some of the newspaper clippings, some of them are pretty funny.
Chris, there were RR tracks to the north of the building. I think those were the Nickle Plate tracks that are now bike path, so the building was sandwiched in between 2 sets of tracks.
That is so interesting, I vaguely remember the tracks but that may be a figment of my imagination and they were removed earlier. There is also the remnants of a track that actually crossed the property behind the building as well. I wonder if those rails are still buried because the part that I noticed is just barely visible and the tracks are embedded in the ground.
After a quick google search, treeing is when they add accessories to the mostly finished shoes. I’m guessing that would include things like straps and buckles.
Lasting is attaching the uppers to the soles.
Fitting is preparing the sole.
Super educational comment. Now I know. Thanks so much!
what a cool set of images. In some of the images you can see the electric motor in the middle which drove the main drive shaft the length of the building. those safety cages were around the individual machines since the drive belt would always be moving and the cage would prevent folks from inadvertently getting caught in it. The lasting dept. would have been the area where the leather upper was fit over the last (a piece of wood shaped like a foot for each shoe size) which forms the upper into the beginnings of a shoe shape.
Nice, thank you. You have educated me. Much appreciated. The machinery is so awesome. I just love industrial design and engineering from back in the day.
I think the picture with the time card slots was taken in the boiler room - the separate building
Could have been, I wonder if there were multiple timecard holders because there were definitely more people working there than slots in that piece.
What a great video! Thank you!
Doing then and now photos for the locations that you can positively identify would be fun!
The thing that I notice in the 1930 photos? Men wore hats. Lots of hats!
What a great archive!
Growing up in New England in the seventies and eighties BB was still a brand that advertised.
Do you know when shoe production ended in your building?
Oh yeah thats a good idea. I will try to make a video like that this spring!
Btw, first thing I noticed was no broken windows
Oh, those windows! don't remind me! haha, nice to see.
Maybe a new “dance hall”!! ? 😊
That would be cool! haha,
The mustang is early 1970s, maybe 1973
I wondered about that. Nice. I was almost born!
Fitting was probably done over wooden forms shaped like feet in every size they offered.
Cyd in MD. Wonderful old photos. I'm a real fan of old photos and you have some beauties. Do you know what the factory did during WWII? Did they continue to makes shoes or was it called to do duty during the war?
interesting question. I really need to look that up. I do know their products were leather not metal so they may not have been affected, but maybe they made boots. I will look into it.
Hi Chris. I'm loving this video! I noticed one worker standing all the way on the on the left in the photo you make note that no one is wearing "denim" so this group may be the braintrust of the company. The gentleman is the only one wearing a windbreaker type jacket. This gentleman can also be seen in this same jacket when you make mention the "time card slot box." Notice this gentleman's left lifted arm in both photos.
Amazing!! I love these photos so much!! It would be so neat if anyone recognized anyone in these photos and could share stories about them… the mysterious photo @ 13:13 my guess ..it looks like it was on the first floor on the side closest to the train tracks by looking at the lighting…it’s very bright on the right side then falls darker on the left side… seems the 2nd and 3rd floors are well lit from every angle. 25:44 On this mystery photo.. could this possibly be the room you guys pressure washed? It reminds me of that room since it’s got the brick walls similar to that room 🤔 or maybe it was in the dance hall building? So cool!! It would be awesome to match the photos location with modern day and retake a photo as it is today!
I think it could be if the current walls were added later. Those doors might be behind some paneling. Have you seen the guy on TH-cam shorts that can identify the location of any photo anywhere in the world? Your deduction reminds me of his channel.
I agree with you saying that based on the first and third photographs, which are predominantly women and then the group of elderly males. My immediate thought was that the majority of Young Miles have been called up and that the women have come in to fill the vacancies.
Yeah, could be, but at this particular point the war hadn't started yet. So even if not, by the time the war did, I am sure there was an even bigger differential.
Love the history
I could look at the pics for hours.
Could the accounting department been in the additional /annex as the wall behind them has a bricked up window
I am under the impression that walls had to have been removed. it is also possible that somebody gave the gaeneology department a phtoto from the mattoon plant. or it got mixed in. Hopefully I'll solve the mystery.
Maybe mostly women because the young men were at war? So awesome to look through these with you. Thanks for sharing.
These photos were slightly before the war but once it started I be the ratio was even. higher. I wonder if they made shoes or something else during the war effort.
To me the group at 24:10 look like sales reps.
Yeah, now that you mention it, they could be. Interesting.
A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts come in many styles and sizes, depending on the exact job they are designed for.
Thank you miss Virgina. I am going to do an image search based on this info.
Do the windows still have that flip out section in them? One thing I noticed was the are no obese people and very few overweight people and amost everyone, regardless of age, looks fit and healthy. Take a picture of a large group of a manufacturing workgroup now and I don't think you'd find the same weight levels now. Of course, no fast food then, no convenience food, no GMOs. I'll bet a lot of these people still had gardens at home.
Home cooking, local farm grown produce and their pigs, chickens and beef weren’t full of hormones and antibiotics that have harmed us. They really do look very healthy.. despite the fact that they are working in an environment full of asbestos and lead paint…
@@Jennifermcintyre Asbestos is safe until it starts to break down and release fibers into the air to be breathed in or ingested. Lead paint is safe until it starts breaking down or it is eaten. Just being around a wall or column painted with lead paint or having ceiling panels of asbestos or pipes covered in it is generally safe. It's the deterioration that makes it unsafe. This was all relatively new at the time. Later it might have caused some problems.
@@justnana2256 yes true. Poor Chris is having to tackle the break down of these substances and mitigating their dangers in their current form. My father in law died from mesothelioma and actually had asbestos in his lungs decades later but he installed the sprinkler systems that had asbestos somehow involved with them.
@@Jennifermcintyre I get it. My cousin died barely out of her teens from the same. Though everything was looked into it was never found where she encountered the asbestos. Her parents, younger brother and classmates of this small town were never affected. It's still a mystery and I've done a lot of research on it.
@@justnana2256 yikes! That’s terrible!! 😥 poor girl! You really don’t hear of young people getting or dying from it! Thankfully!
Charlie Sheen and Paul Rudd are time travellers? WOW! lol Maybe you should try to contact Chigg, from Aquachigger to do some metal detecting...he'll know of many others that would participate I'd think. Love old commercial street scenes, and interior industrial/commercial scenes.
yeah, I have been looking into the detecting channels. I was thinking about reaching out to adventure archaeology. I wonder if Chigg is near enough, I think he is midwest right?
Chigg seems to travel some significant distances, he’s come up to Ontario, so I doubt it would be a stretch for him to come there.
@@coldwarmercantile He lives in Virginia, I think.
Quarter Hoarders!
Yeah the guys from Quarter Hoarder are awesome. Super knowledgeable and great personalities!
is that a channel I should check out?
Yes! Good for metal detecting.@@coldwarmercantile
Here is an idea for the factory dedicate a section for a fabulous polish restaurant and I will come down once a month from the nw suburbs of Chicago!!!
Oh man, it would be a cool place for something like that some day. But I gotta say you probably have enough of those up in Chicago with so many Polish people there!
Grandpa tell me about the good ol’days when men was men and boys was boys
times were so much different. at only 50 I can think about how much they have changed since I was a kid. I remember live before VCRs, then came pagers, computers, internet. Today it's increasing at breakneck speed.
All the equipment looks to be belt-driven. Where were the motors located?
hi Sue, I think at the end of the floor. Someone mentioned you can see one in the distance. I need to go back and look.
The picture of the guy in the trench coat,,,, what is the guy behind him doing, lol
haha, no I am going to have to go and look. you got my curiosity up.
Have you heard that "Restore" - here in Charleston, is closing its doors in March?
I did hear that. Shocking! I heard that the rent was several/high thousands. If my building was up to code already it would be a perfect place for them. Maybe someday soon.
@@coldwarmercantile I overheard someone say in the store ( right after he had talked to the lady at the desk), that they were going to charge them $6000./mo. Sounds like the landlord might be related to Scrooge. The charity is HIS pocket!!!
That picture you don't know where it's at with 3 doors/windows in the background, is in front of the big room with the devider wall before all the masonite walls were built
Lab or trench coat - you are correct: trench coat
Regarding your second, or third photograph for the Tree department.
The Tree, smooths out the leather of the shoe or boot being made, it is probably used after the first part of the item is prepared using the “last” .
A bit of a contradiction in terminology and process is found a few read the last sentence above!
Wow, neat information. Thanks again! I am learning more all the time.
Those doors in those screens are to access the window latches not for smoking
That sign says no smoking
Because Women are better seamstress on the sowing machines and smaller hands than the guys and they pay attention to detail!
There you have it! mystery solved!!!
Differently coal fired.
Wouldn't think they would remove a brick wall
In the "snazzy dresser's" photo (24:32) the gentleman with the gimpy left arm is in the photo (first row, third from left). He must have been someone of importance for the Brown Shoe Company.
Looks way better without bathrooms building
the sign was visible then
Look at the line shaft
Need a new video I’m going through withdrawals where are you man?
Working on it Miss Sara!
I am assuming a lot from your TH-cam name. correct me if I am wrong.
If these pictures are frome the 40's, then the women were there because the men were at war
most of them are from early 30s. But I am sure that was the case in the 40s. Likely much higher percentage even.
Casanova is hustlin' a pregnant lady on his left, or so it may seem by her dress.
haha, I didn't notice that part. I'll have to go back and look now.
Didn't George warren brown use Genovese money for kickstart? Read the was in ny a lot for meetings
Don't know. Hadn't heard that.