Building Description DeTamble Motors (Speed Changing Pulley), Anderson Indiana

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The DeTamble factory complex, located between East Lynn and Pitt Streets, originally contained at least three buildings: a main machine assembly shop, a powerhouse, and an office.

The brick and steel machine shop stands 160 by 61 feet. It was known to have housed a brass goods department with automatic and turret lathes on the east end and a central section which contained the engine manufacturing and machine shops. For most of its length the structure was single-story, although there was a small second story near the middle of the building which housed the pattern makers shop.

The powerhouse, north of the machine shop, measured 53 by 34 feet. It contained a 160 horsepower Skinner stationary engine which powered a generator that delivered electric power directly to various parts of the factory, making line shafts and belts unnecessary. Presumably, the powerhouse was part of a larger structure which contained an engine-testing room in its west section and running to the east were: the blacksmith shop, a boiler room, then the power plant, and a brass and aluminum shop in the extreme eastern portion of the building.

On the southwest corner of the lot stood a two-story brick office building. The first floor contained offices for DeTamble, the bookkeeper, stenographers and department heads. Drafting and sales offices were on the second floor.

The complex was enlarged as additions were added. On 20 September 1910, work was well advanced on a painting and upholstery department which probably was located to the east of the powerhouse. It was of galvanized sheeting, painted red, and was 30 by 80 feet. The central building, lay between the main plant and the powerhouse, and was probably added after DeTamble Motors left the building because there is no prior record of a central building.

A 1936 photograph shows the complex with the sign "Anderson Mattress Co."