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Photo
1: When
a package was received from Larry Dawson, ExBeloiter, among other
things, it contained a set of photos showing the demolition of the Woods Building at the
Beloit Corporation site. One image that Larry sent titled "oldhouse.jpg"
caught our attention. It was an old house "buried in the
bricks and mortar of the Woods building.
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2: In a follow-up phone conversation with Larry he drew our attention to a photo named "oldhousenomore.jpg."
He reported that the house shown in Photo 1 above, stood in the demolished area.
Apparently the Iron Works simply built the building around it, perhaps
so they could continue using the house as the "main
office".
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Photo
3: Searching our archives, we found a photo that matched the hidden house.
The date of the photo is unknown but it was obvious it was pretty old. Note the
"car" tracks to the right of the photo. In the Beloit publication, Pioneers
Paper Machines, page 43, a News Item dated 1896 states, "A handsome and convenient office building has been built at the north of the big
shops". This quote and dating fits the time frame for this photo. The
house predates 1896.
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Photo
4: More searching revealed a photo of the same building posted earlier in
the Beloit History Project. The back of the photo had a note that this is the original Beloit office building and
a date of 1912. The man
standing at the rear of the automobile is Alonzo Aldrich. The note further
says the building still exists and is surrounded by newer buildings.
That's certainly confirmed by Photo 1 above. Studying Photo 1, it
appears there has been an addition to this building on the right side
and a window added to the original building. . Photo 4 unfortunately
does not show the right side of the building so it is unknown if the
addition was prior to 1912.
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Photo
5: This is an enlargement of the upper windows in the photo above. An
additional note on
the back of Photo 4 says that engineering drawings were put out
to dry from the upper windows. (probably hung on the iron brackets fastened below
the windows).
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Photo 6: The drawing room shown carries a date of 1912 and is probably on the upper floor of the main office. According to Pioneers Paper Machines, page 60s, (year 1912), "Total employees of the Iron Works were 225 with 4-5 draftsmen". The size of the workforce is remarkably small considering the Beloit Paper Machine List shows that the Iron Works produced 39 complete paper machines in the 5 years prior to 1912 in addition to their other products. |
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Alonzo Aldrich who was one of the original founders of the Beloit Iron Works after Merrill and Houston Iron Works went into receivership, had an office in the same building. Among his other duties he served as chief engineer. |
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