Water tower from old Crane plant still stands. Click to enlarge.
photo by Harmon Jolley
When I was growing up in St. Elmo, many of our neighbors worked at one of the large manufacturers in south Chattanooga. The businesses offered a variety of entry-level jobs, and a chance to rise within the organization.
Chattanooga Medicine Company, now called Chattem, remains a larger employer today. Other firms have disappeared from the local economy - Wheland Foundry, Chattanooga Glass, Scholze Tannery, and Southern Saddlery. At Thirty-third Street and Alton Park Boulevard for many years was the Crane Company, manufacturer of plumbing fixtures and valves.
The local history of the Crane Company can be traced to two entrepreneurs. John T. Cahill, who had moved with his parents to Chattanooga before the Civil War, established the Cahill Iron Works. His enterprise began on Railroad Avenue (now Broad Street) and soon moved into a larger operation at Thirteenth and Chestnut streets. Cahill's Southern Beauty plumbing fixtures were installed in many homes and businesses.
In 1855, the same year that Mr. Cahill was born, brothers Richard T. and Charles Crane founded the R.T. Crane Brass and Bell Foundry in Chicago. According to the "Encyclopedia of Chicago," the Cranes manufactured and sold brass goods and plumbing supplies. Among its first contracts was the installation of steam heat in public buildings in Cook County. The new company was soon distributing its goods throughout the country.
On January 24, 1922 the Chattanooga Time reported that the Crane Company would acquire the title of the Cahill Iron Works and Mutual Enameling company. A new Crane subsidiary was formed - the Crane Enameling company. A plant in Alton Park had just been constructed as a joint venture of Crane and Cahill. The Chattanooga Times reported that officials from the Crane Company were feted with a luncheon at the Mountain City club, and that several local dignitaries offered "feliticious speeches" wishing good luck.
The Crane plant in Alton Park was enlarged in 1926 as part of a $500,000 expansion. Employment was projected to grow to more than 3,500 workers and a weekly payroll of $50,000. The June 27, 1926 Chattanooga Times reported that "so far as possible the Crane company is using local material in the work on the structure now under way, and it is stated that local contractors and local material will be used in the proposed development." The local Key-James Brick company provided some of the materials used in masonry.
Like many manufacturers throughout the United States, the local Crane plant switched to producing items for the military effort during World War II. Aided by the ability of manufacturers to make the quick changeover, the United States was able to defeat its enemies. The Chattanooga Times reported on February 6, 1944 that bathtub production would resume after a two-year shutdown. The article's headline read, "Crane Plant Looks Like Old Times as Tubs Come Off Assembly Lines." However, those bathtubs and other plumbing fixtures were not for use by ordinary citizens, and instead were destined for war housing projects across the country.
Crane expanded its local facility again in 1945, and added the production of cast iron radiators.
By 1962, the Chattanooga News-Free Press reported that output produced by the local Crane employees was used throughout the world. At its steel valve plant, added in 1959, products were manufactured for use spacecraft and atomic power plants.
A $2.8 million enamelware plant opened in 1970. However, the next fifteen years saw a decline in employment at Crane in Chattanooga. The Chattanooga Times reported on December 27, 1985 that the 49 employees at the Crane plant were told the sad news that the plant would be closed. Operations were being consolidated within the Crane organization. The article reported that some of the local employees would be offered jobs at Crane's facility in northwestern Arkansas.
Much of the site where Crane once produced a high-volume of plumbing fixtures and equipment has since been redeveloped. I drove by there recently, and could only identify the old Crane water tower as remaining.
Though the local Crane plant is long gone, its products are still in use. Crane was the first manufacturer to offer fixtures in colors other than white, so if yours are blue, yellow, peach or green, you just might have a Crane in your bathroom.
The Crane corporation still exists, though the company's Web site says that Crane no longer makes plumbing fixtures. Crane Co. spun off its U.S. plumbing business in 1984, and its remaining Canadian plumbing operations were sold in 2001.
If you or someone you know worked at the local Crane plant, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.