Arnold, Schwinn & Company was established in Chicago in the last quarter of 1895. Over the years the company rented, purchased, and built several facilities in Chicago. This is the another post in a series of posts about head office and factory locations in Chicago. ( I have lost count of the number of posts on this topic.)

In 1901 Arnold, Schwinn & Company moved from downtown Chicago to the north west end of the city, where it had purchased the March-Davis Cycle Company. The first factory that the company built was adjacent to the former March-Davis location. As the company expanded new factories were built or purchased in this area of Chicago.

In the revised map and table seen below I have used information from Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Sanborn Map Company, Retrieved from the Library of Congress of the United States of America.

The map image is from Rand, McNally & Co 1910 so there are numbered avenues not names. This can be important when trying to understand the location of March-Davis Bicycle company, Plant No.1, and Plant No.2.

This map image is from 1910 with the street names of that period. Plant No. 1 and Plant No. 2 were built prior to the finalizing of street naming by the City of Chicago in 1913.

The March-Davis location corrected from my previous post. The location in the previous post was based on the street and avenue names used in March-Davis advertisements from 1895 to 1901. This plant was occupied by Arnold, Schwinn & Co. in 1901 – 02 while Plant No. 1 was being built. After plant No. 1 was built there were new occupants of the former March-Davis factory. I assume the Ignatz Schwinn sold the March-Davis factory, but I do not know this as a fact.

The size of the land area plant No. 1 has been greatly reduced. I had assumed incorrectly that Arnold, Schwinn & Company had owned the whole block between North 43rd and 44th Avenues. Over time more of the real estate around plant No. 1 was absorbed by the company.

Plant No. 2 was built by Weller Manufacturing Co. and not by Arnold, Schwinn & Co. My best guess is that Plant No. 2 was purchased by Arnold, Schwinn & Co. in the early 1960s and before 1965.