At the bottom of the Fenton lower-level stairs, on the left wall is a large photograph of a factory building. It was in a broken simple wooden frame that I was worried could be easily bumped into and broken. I asked our handy maintenance volunteer Rick to remove it from the frame and attach it to the wall. Since it was already adhered to a piece of particleboard, it was easy to cover it with a piece of plexiglass and screw it to the wall. I didn’t have a proper label for it.
I didn’t know what factory it was. As you can see it was surrounded by factories. As you can well imagine, I have a number of researchers with strong local history chops at my fingertips. At first I thought it was Harrison St., but realized it couldn’t be – the Chadakoin River ran behind the factory, so not Harrison St.
I sent a copy of the photo to Board President Tom Goodwill. He is our picture/postcard wizard. I also asked Trustee Paul Johnson what he thought. Both came back to me with solid proof that it was the Proto Tool factory of the 1950s. Tom’s mother had worked there so he recognized the office building, plus Weber-Knap on the left and Norquist Products on the far left. Paul picked out First Lutheran Church at the top of the photograph and followed Chandler Street down to the 583 Allen St. address.
J.P. Danielson built the factory at 583 Allen St. a few years after he sold his share in J.P. Danielson Co. to Karl Peterson. Peterson went on to start Crescent Tool in their original building at the corner of Harrison St. and Foote Ave.
Danielson sold his company to Plomb Tool (Los Angeles, CA) in 1947 who was in the process of rebranding to Proto Tool. Ironically both J.P. Danielson and Plomb Tool started in the same year, 1902, on opposite coasts. Stanley Tool acquired Proto Tool in 1964, however the Jamestown plant kept operating under “Proto Tool” until it closed in 1984.
Take a look at the black and white photo with the darker image of the Proto Tool factory then look at the colorized version mastered by Tom Goodwill.
