Leather Harnesses, Straps, Collar Leather, Tanning Robes, Skins, and Pelts were made here

Haw Creek Leather Company, Columbus Indiana

Date added: May 23, 2024

Categories:
Indiana
Industrial

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In the early twentieth century, leather was an important material with a variety of uses. It was used to make harnesses, shoes, upholstery, luggage, belts, and many other products. The First World War contributed to the growth of the industry, as military demand for leather products increased. Leather continued to be in demand during the prosperous years of the 1920s. Markets for leather decreased during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but increased again in the late 1930s, with the beginning of the war in Europe.

After World War II, the use of leather steadily declined. Increased use of automobiles and tractors resulted in decreased use of horses. This meant that less leather was needed for saddles, harnesses, and bridles. Vinyl, a less expensive material to produce, came to be used more frequently than leather for automobile and furniture upholstery. The use of rubber was also increasing, and many shoe soles were made of that material instead of leather. The 1950s and 60s saw widespread closing of tanneries.

The Haw Creek Leather Company was started in 1910 by Ernest D. Snider and Ed L. Voelz. Since 1902, Snider had worked at the Mooney tannery, where he was secretary and treasurer. Voelz had started as an office boy at Mooney in 1904. Haw Creek Leather was first located in an old slaughterhouse on Sixth Street. This is now gone. In 1914, the east half of the present building on First Street was constructed. The west half was built in 1916.

Haw Creek Leather produced a variety of leather products during the years it was in business, including harnesses, straps, collar leather, tanning robes, skins, and pelts. During World War I, the company made artillery harnesses for military use. A 1937 study of local industry noted that the company had seven employees and produced pump leather and belt leather.

About 1927, Snider and Voelz started the Star Metal Manufacturing Company to produce metal furniture. This company was also located in the First Street Building. The venture appears to have been abandoned about 1936, but the tannery was continued. In 1955, the building was sold to Harold Brandenburger, who manufactured and sold metal office furniture here. This business closed in 1992. The building has been rehabilitated for office use.

The Haw Creek Leather Company building is one of a small number of historic industrial buildings remaining in Columbus. It is the one remaining representation of the tannery industry.

Columbus began as the seat and market center of an agricultural county. Early industries were limited to small grist and lumber mills, and black smith shops. As railroads were built through the town in the 1840s and 50s, a number of larger factories were built. One of the earliest of these was the W.W. Mooney tannery, which originated elsewhere in the county in 1837, and moved to Columbus in 1863.

Among other principal industries of the nineteenth century were B. Busch and Son Foundry and Machine Works (1865), Fehring Carriage Company (1869), Gent Flour Mill (1875), Reeves and Company, a manufacturer of agricultural implements (1875), Dunlap and Coats planing mill, (1878), Columbus Machine Works, (1880); the American Starch Company (1880), the Cerealine Manufacturing Company, maker of the first ready-to-eat cold cereal (1884); Reeves Pulley Company (1888), Orinoco Furniture Company (1890), Glanton Furniture Company (1891), and Columbus Handle and Tool (1891). Also present in nineteenth-century Columbus were smaller manufacturers of a number of products: carriages, harnesses, springs, doors and sash, staves and heading, brooms, leather, and shoes.

In addition to Haw Creek Leather Company, important twentieth-century industries included Lincoln Chair, Reliance Manufacturing, Arvin Industries, and Cummins Engine Company, all established in 1919; Golden Foundry (1924); Stadler Packing Company (1929); Vernco, a plastic components manufacturer (1932); Cosco, a furniture manufacturer (1935); Como Plastics (1946); and Sap's Foods (1946).

Of the industries named which originated in the nineteenth century, all are out of business with the exception of Reeves Pulley Company, which merged with Reliance Manufacturing in 1955. Some of the companies met their demise when their factories were destroyed by fire. For example, the American Starch Company building burned in 1890 and was never rebuilt. A similar fate befell Reeves and Company in 1926.

Economic hard times signaled the end of several of the companies. Cerealine Manufacturing closed during the Panic of 1893, and the Orinoco and Glanton furniture companies were victims of the Depression of the 1930s. All of the twentieth-century companies named are still operating, with the exception of Lincoln Chair, which also went out of business in the 1930s.

Building Description

The Haw Creek Leather Company building is located at the southwest corner of First and Washington Streets in Columbus. It is located just north of the old Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad. Historically, this was an industrial and working-class residential area one block south of the courthouse square. Today, there is a contemporary newspaper plant in the block to the north, and a contemporary city hall building in the block kitty-corner to the northeast. The parking lot for City Hall is in the block to the east. In the same block as Haw Creek Leather, to the west, is a one-story, brick, industrial building.

The building is a two-story, brick structure with a raised basement. The foundation is concrete. The building is square in plan and has a flat roof. The west half was built in 1914, and the east half was built in 1916. The north facade is eight bays wide. There are two doors on this side of the building, one in the center of each half. Each opening contains a set of original, double, paneled wood doors. These doors are no longer operable and have been covered over on the interior. Windows on this facade, and throughout the building, are double hung, wood, with six lights in each sash. Window openings are segmental-arched, and sills are concrete. Basement windows are single-sash, wood windows with six lights. Openings for these are also segmental-arched, and the sills are concrete. There is a corbeled brick cornice at the top of this facade and extending around the east and west sides of the building.

The east and west facades are very similar to the north facade. The east and west facades are each ten bays wide. On the east facade, in the third bay from the north, there is a door opening which is positioned lower than adjacent window openings. Before rehabilitation of the building, this opening had been partially bricked up, and filled with glass block. It has been re-opened and a new metal and glass door installed. The metal stair and awning at this entrance are new.

Extending from the south end of the west facade is a one-story high brick wall with three window openings. This wall is a remnant of the tannery's vat house. Another section of wall that extends from the center of the rear facade defines the original east wall of the vat house.

The rear facade is similar to the other facades in detailing. The basement is at ground level on this side of the building. A new glass and stucco, three-story stair tower has been added on the east half of the west half of this facade. On the roof, above the east side of this facade, is a wood penthouse for a former elevator.

Inside, the building has exposed brick walls and exposed wood ceilings. Floors are concrete on the basement level and wood on the first level. On both of these levels, the original floors have been carpeted, except in bathrooms, where tile has been installed, and in the main entry, which has new wood flooring. On the third floor, the original wood floor has a concrete finish. The building's original sprinkler system is intact.

Historically, the interior was generally open. A row of wood columns extends down the center of each half of the building on each floor. Some walls have been added to facilitate the building's new use as offices. For the most part, these are partial-height walls with glass above.

There is a stairway in the northwest corner of the east half of the building which runs between the first and second floors. This is a new stair, but is in the approximate location of the original stairway. There was originally an elevator in the southeast corner of the building. A new elevator has been installed in this corner. Wood workings for the old elevator have been retained and displayed in a small room next to the new elevator.