Arnold, Schwinn & Company was established in Chicago in the last quarter of the year 1895. Over the years the company rented, purchased, and built several facilities in Chicago. This is the ninth in a series of posts about head office and factory locations in Chicago. This is a new version of an earlier post which has been removed because it contained too many bad assumptions about the Kostner Avenue location. I do not want these bad assumptions to be propagated.

Previously I had assumed that the brick building on the south west corner of Cortland Street and Kostner Avenue was built in 1910 by Arnold, Schwinn & Co.. This assumption was entirely incorrect.

The block of land at the south west corner of Cortland Street and Kostner Avenue was purchased by Weller Manufacturing Co. in 1909 and a saw tooth roof building was built in 1910. The brick building at the corner was built in 1916. Here is a map and diagram:

(1918) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Sanborn Map Company, Vol. 21. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01790_040/.

Kostner Avenue residents

From Chicago Telephone directories, Sanborn Fire Insurnce maps, and company advertising as information sources it is possible to find who occupied the location at Kostner Avenue and Cortland Street.

Weller Mfg Co. moved out of Chicago in 1937. The company had occupied the saw tooth roof building at 1830 – 1832 N. Kostner Ave. and the brick building at 1956 N. Kostner Ave.

Sometime after 1945 General Steel Warehouse Co. Inc. occupied the address 1830 – 1832 N. Kostner Ave. This company supplied tools to hardware stores. This company moved its operation to Elk Grove, Illinois in 1964 or 1965.

From 1947 to 1953, Art-Crest Manufacturing resided at 1856 North Kostner Ave.. This company manufactured wrought iron and wooden novelties. I do not know how long Art-Crest Mfg. stayed at this location.

Arnold, Schwinn & Co. at Kostner Avenue?

I assume that Arnold, Schwinn & Co. purchased some of the real estate that was originally purchased by Weller Mfg in 1909. When and why did they purchase these buildings from the 1910s?

I do not know the answer to this question. This is the mystery that I would like to resolve.

Based on the best guess is that the date of purchase is the early 1960s.

Why? Again, my best guess is the need to increase manufacturing capacity.

The location is close to Plant No. 1. Richard Schwinn reports that there was an extension to the south end of the saw tooth roof building made in 1964 or 1965. This extension was to house large punch presses to manufacture parts for bicycles. The extension can be seen in aerial photographs.

In 1968, after the Kostner Ave acquisition, The Schwinn Bicycle Company manufactured over 1,000,000 bicycles in a single year for the first time. Could this have been done without moving parts manufacturing to Kostner Avenue?

Was Frank Wagner Schwinn involved in the purchase?

Frank W. Schwinn was ill in the 1960s and died in 1963. Because of his health he may not have been involved in any such purchase.

Good bye to Kostner Avenue

In 1983 the factory portion of Plant No. 2 was closed. The head office still remained. When the Schwinn Bicycle Co. became profitable in 1984 and 1985 a new head office space was leased in downtown Chicago. The Kostner avenue location was sold to a developer in 1986 and the property was developed for Life-Like Products of Chicago.