Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company
The Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, also known as the Belknap Hardware Company or simply Belknap Hardware, was at one time a leading American manufacturer of hardware goods and a major wholesale competitor of retail sales companies Sears, Roebuck, and Company and Montgomery Ward. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, Belknap excelled both in catalog sales and widespread distribution of its own name-brand manufactured products.[1]
Origins of the company
The company's founder William Burke Belknap the elder (1811–1884) was born in Brimfield, Massachusetts, the son of Morris Burke Belknap the elder (1780–1877) and Phoebe Locke Thompson Belknap (1788–1873) and is not to be confused with William Burke Belknap the younger (1885–1965) or William Burke Belknap Jr. The elder William Burke Belknap[2] started the company on the banks of the Ohio River in 1840. His father Morris Burke Belknap the elder[3] had earlier developed iron foundries and other related businesses in Massachusetts which influenced his son's founding of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company.[4][5] Morris Burke Belknap (1856–1910), also known as Morris B. Belknap or Col. Morris Belknap, was a vice president of Belknap Hardware. and was married to Lily Buckner., the daughter of Simon Bolivar Buckner.
Belknap Hardware's fame spread and the company was represented at the 8th Annual Convention of the Panhandle Hardware and Implement Association in Amarillo, Texas.
The company at height of its long success
The company became one of the nation's largest wholesale enterprises with nationally known quality brands, among which Blue Grass was the most readily recognizable. John Primble knives, developed by an employee of the company, became a Belknap brand with its own division, made in Louisville between 1947 and 1985 by the John Primble Belknap Hardware Co.[10][11] The Crusader manufacturing brand of Belknap included contractors' shovels, hammers, hatchets, axes, drawing knives, carpenters' pincers, planes, screw drivers, hand drills, wrecking bars, bit braces, auger bits, chisels, pliers, wrenches, tin snips, and tin ceilings.[12][13] Other popular Belknap manufactured products included rifles, guns, padlocks, lawn mowers, and bicycles. Belknap inventory in the vast warehouse spaces grew larger and larger, and the Belknap neon sign could be seen from miles away.[14]
The company's demise
The company was founded by Belknaps and managed predominantly by members of the Belknap family and their chosen successors until its demise in 1986 when, after over 140 years, it faced bankruptcy and was sold. Terrence Gallaher, editor-in-chief of Hardware Age said, "In the late '70's, Belknap's Board of Directors came to include a number of outsiders, men who weren't also company officers . . . . The new board saw an opportunity to appoint someone from outside as president. Up to that time, Belknap promoted top officers from within, and virtually all the men in top management had begun their careers on the road, carrying a catalog."[15]
The closing of Belknap has been called a tragedy of errors.[16] As early as 1909, the hardware company management sued a newspaper which incorrectly announced that Belknap Hardware was bankrupt.[17] The company was also known as W. B. Belknap from 1840 to 1860, W. B. Belknap & Co. from 1860 to 1880, W. B. Belknap and Co. Inc. from 1880 to 1907, and Belknap Hardware & Mfg. Co. from 1907 to 1986.[18][19]
On July 23, 1968, the
In 1923, the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Building was built at 101-23 East Main Street in Louisville's General Business District on the site of the second
Photographs of the actual demolition by explosion of a defunct Belknap building were used as promotional preview advertising for the 1993 film, Demolition Man.[citation needed]
The
A former home of members of the
References
- ^ Belknap, Inc. "Blue Grass Tools [Catalog]". Retrieved August 11, 2017.
{{cite web}}
:|first1=
has generic name (help) - ^ Belknap, William B, and Lafon Allen. Memorandum of the Family of Wm. B. Belknap. Place of publication not identified, 1936. Print. University of Louisville archives.
- ^ "Belknap Hardware & Mfg. Co. - Crayon History". Retrieved February 5, 2017.
- ^ "Belknap Hardware & Manufacturing Company Louisville Kentucky". Flickr - Photo Sharing!. February 22, 2009.
- ^ HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III, pp. 1154–56. [Full page photograph of Mr. Belknap included with bio.] [Jefferson Co.]
- ^ The Amarillo Globe-Times. Amarillo, Texas. February 3, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ Salisbury Evening Post,Salisbury, North Carolina.Friday, November 25, 1921. p. 7.
- ^ "Belknap Hardware & Mfg. Co. Warehouse".
- ^ "john primble pocket knives, john primble folding knives, john primble knives".
- ^ Leroy Roark (2005). "John Primble & Belknap Hardware". Archived from the original on October 1, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ "Steel ceilings suitable for school buildings, churches, store buildings, ware houses, residences". Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company. 1920. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
- ^ "CRUSADER - Reviews & Brand Information - BELKNAP HARDWARE & MANUFACTURING COMPANY LOUISVILLE , - Serial Number: 71360204". trademarkia.com.
- ^ "Belknap Hardware and MFG Co Louisville Kentucky 9". Flickr - Photo Sharing!. February 22, 2009.
- ^ Terrence Gallaher, Hardware Age. May 1986, p.7, pp.35-41.
- ^ "Details - Antique Padlocks". Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
- ^ The Inter Ocean, Chicago, Illinois, Sunday, May 23, 1909. p. 5
- ^ Belknap Hardware; Mfg. Co. & Louisville, Kentucky. "Belknap Hardware and Mfg. Co.; Louisville manufacturer in US".
- ^ Branden Klayko (October 4, 2010). "Lost Louisville: Belknap Warehouses". Broken Sidewalk.
- The Courier-Journal.
- ISBN 1-56898-451-0.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III, pp. 1153–54.
- ^ "Lincliff". OpenBuildings.
External links
- Belknap Hardware and Manf. Co. Bldg. (Louisville, Ky.) - UrbanUp
- John Primble & Belknap Hardware
- Belknap welcomes another century. Louisville, Kentucky: Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Co. 1940. p. 32.