Leather billfolds and other products were made here until 1997
Amity Leather Products Company Factory, West Bend Wisconsin
- Categories:
- Wisconsin
- Industrial
- Textile Mill

The future city of West Bend received its first European-American settlers in 1846. They were drawn by the construction of a new, state-sponsored road running from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac, built in 1845. Byron Kilbourn, James Kneeland and Dr. Erastus B. Walcott supervised the construction of the road, which would cut the travel time between Milwaukee and Fond du Lac to two days. Kilbourn, Kneeland and Walcott realized that travelers would need a place to stop over, and purchased land adjacent to the road about half-way between Milwaukee and Fond du Lac. A portion of this land was platted as "West Bend" in January 1846, named for the nearby horse-shoe bend in the Milwaukee River. The same year, Dr. Walcott had a dam built on the Milwaukee River at West Bend, and erected a sawmill next to it. George Irish built the first frame house in West Bend using lumber cut at Walcott's sawmill. Irish operated the community's first hotel in his home. William Wightman opened the second hotel and tavern in the community in 1847. Other early settlers in the community of West Bend included E.N. Higgins, M.A.T. Farmer, Amos and Isaac Verbeck and their families.
Most of the early settlers in West Bend were Yankees from New England, New York and Pennsylvania. They were soon followed by German immigrants, most of whom came from the southwestern German states of Nassau, Hesse, the Rhineland, Pfaly, Baden, Wurtenburg, and Bavaria. By 1850, nearly half of the population of West Bend was German-born.
West Bend developed as an agricultural support community, incorporating as a village in 1868. In 1873, the Chicago and North Western Railway extended a line through West Bend, sparking economic growth in the village, and solidifying the village's role as a regional trading center.
By 1880, the village of West Bend had developed a thriving industrial sector that included a brewery, an agricultural implements factory (eventually known as the Gehl Brothers Manufacturing Company) and a stave factory. In 1885, West Bend incorporated as a city. In 1890, the City of West Bend had a population of 1,296. Many were of German origins.
West Bend grew steadily through the 1920s. The commercial industrial sector of the city continued to expand, and many new companies were organized during the period. Among these were the West Bend Bottling Company (established in 1892), the Krieger Collar and Harness Factory (founded in 1895), and the Enger Kress Company (begun in 1894). The latter was a leather factory that, by the 1920s, would become one of the largest producers of leather pocketbooks and wallets in the United States. In 1911, Bernhard C. Ziegler, S. F. Mayer and Andrew Pick founded what would become the West Bend Aluminum Company, an innovative manufacturer of frying pans and other products that would eventually be sold world-wide (and which continues to make kitchen appliances today, as the West Bend Company).
On September 29th, 1915, Robert H. Rolfs founded the Amity Leather Products Company in a small room on the second floor over William Peters' Store at 104 South Main Street (extant) in downtown West Bend. Rolfs (1888-19?) was born in Milwaukee although his mother's family, the Goetters, were among the early German settlers of West Bend. Rolfs graduated from West Bend High School. While still in high school, he worked first at the West Bend newspaper, where he is said to have gained an appreciation for the power of advertising. Upon leaving high school, Rolfs was employed at the Enger Kress Company in West Bend. Rolfs worked his way through a series of positions at Enger Kress, becoming very knowledgeable about the leather goods business in his eight years with that company.
In the small room on the second floor of Peters' Store, Rolfs and one employee made leather billfolds. Rolfs incorporated his company in February 1916, naming it "Amity" because "… fine leather goods are friendly possessions. They make the best of friendly gifts." The young company was very successful and grew to include 15 employees by 1917. That year, the Amity Leather Products Company moved to the third floor of the Hangartner Block at 130 North Main Street (extant) and opened a sales office in New York City. In 1918, the company expanded onto the first and second floors of the Hangartner Block. During World War I, Amity made leather jerkins for soldiers. After the war, the company grew rapidly, developing a national market. In 1924, the original section of the existing Amity Leather Products Company Factory was erected at 723 South Main Street. At that time, the company employed 178 (nearly all women). Amity launched a national advertising campaign with the slogan, "if it's stamped Amity it's leather." The campaign was so successful that a large addition was planned in 1929, including room for expansion. The first part of the addition was erected in 1929. Amity's sales increased through the Depression. In 1933, the factory was expanded in accordance with the 1929 plan. By the mid-1930s, the Amity Leather Products Company had become the largest manufacturer of leather billfolds in the country. West Bend's industrial sector remained vibrant during the Depression and included the White House Milk Company (producers of evaporated milk), the Enger Kress Company, Pick Manufacturing Company (makers of automotive products), Gehl Brothers Manufacturing (farm machinery manufacturers), West Bend Aluminum Company and Amity Leather Products Company.
In the late 1930s, the Amity Leather Products Company began making a new type of billfold (with pockets for cards, photos, and key), and added handbags and travel kits to their product line. During World War II, the Amity Leather Products Company made handbags for female military personnel. After the war, the company acquired a plant in Sturgeon Bay, moving its travel kit manufacturing operations there. In 1959, the office addition was attached to the south end of the factory in West Bend.
The Amity Leather Products Company continued to make billfolds in the factory in West Bend until 1996, when manufacturing operations were relocated overseas. In 1997, the parcel on which the building is located was divided in two, leaving the office addition and the factory on separate parcels. Stone House Development acquired the factory property in 2001 and will rehabilitate the structure as an apartment building.
The Amity Leather Products Company Factory is a fine example of a textile mill industrial loft. It is a long, narrow building of fire-resistive, masonry pilaster-and-panel mill construction (structural clay tile with timber and steel framing, brick finish and flat roof). The factory has other fire-resistive elements as well: the interior is exposed, and there is a water tank with sprinklers, the windows are metal industrial sash, there is no attic and the stairs and elevators are isolated either in a separate tower or a shaft enclosed in brick. The offices are either in the front facade tower, or on the fourth floor, isolated from the factory floors in that no manufacturing took place on the fourth floor. The exterior is a stylistic utilitarian, reflecting the engineer's aesthetic with its functional design and the pilasters framing the windows at the first floor. However, the front facade tower is enriched according to the architect's ideal of beauty: the tower with its stepped, Art Deco detailing is a very prominent feature the factory; and the entrance is emphasized with a white stone finish and classical ornamentation including a broad floral patera molding. Interestingly, the tower was designed by an architect, Fred Dolke, Junior, who concentrated the architectural flourishes on the front facade tower, while matching the rest of the 1929/1933 addition, which is predominantly manufacturing space, with the 1924 section. The 1924 section, which is almost all manufacturing space, conforms to the engineer's concept of beauty and was in fact designed by an engineering firm, Lockwood Greene, Engineers.
Building Description
The Amity Leather Products Company Factory is an utilitarian building with Art Deco features. As was characteristic of the "pilaster-and-panel mill construction" favored for industrial buildings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Amity Leather Products Company Factory is of brick-finished, structural clay tile with timber and steel-framing, trimmed with stone. The factory is set on a raised, poured concrete basement, which is partially finished with brick. The factory was erected in three sections. The north two-story section was designed by Lockwood Greene, Engineers, and built in 1924. The central (three-story) section, including the seven-story, Art Deco-influenced entrance tower, followed in 1929. The south two-story section, although planned in 1929, was not erected until 1933. Chicago architect Fred Dolke, Junior designed the 1929 and 1933 sections. The enclosed loading dock on the rear of the 1929 section was expanded post-1960. A low, one-story section attached to the south end at ground level connects the factory with a two-story office building (much altered). Both were built in 1959.
The Amity Leather Products Company Factory is located at 723 South Main Street, just south of West Bend's traditional downtown and in a neighborhood predominantly composed of early twentieth century, single-family houses. The factory stands on the east side of a busy, four-lane road, across the street from the old West Bend High School, a 1925 Collegiate Gothic structure that now houses Badger Middle School. A well-kept lawn with shrubs and mature trees provides a pleasant setting west (in front) and north of the factory. The 1959 connecting section and office building are attached to the south-facing facade of the factory. Parking lots and loading areas lie east of (behind) the factory.
The factory is rectangular in plan, with the long axis oriented north-south, parallel to South Main Street. The overall footprint of the 1924 through 1933 sections measures 350 feet (north-south) by 68 feet. The 1924 and 1933 sections are two stories tall, and flank the three-story, 1929 addition. On all sections, as well as on the tower, parapets with stone copings hide the flat, built-up roofs. The factory faces west.
The entrance tower dominates the west-facing (front) facade. The square tower projects from the center of the 1929 addition, rising the equivalent of seven stories. Multiple brick pilasters of varying height and width emphasize the verticality of the tower and give it a stepped, zig-zag, Art Deco appearance. The entrance is set at the base of the tower's west face and is composed of a pair of multi-pane doors with multi-pane transoms. The entrance is recessed in a monumental surround that has the appearance of smooth-faced, coursed, white stone. A broad molding embellished with a series of floral pattern frames the portal. On the inside face of the portal the date, 1929, has been carved. Narrow pilasters separate three metal hopper windows at each of the second, third and fourth floors of the tower. Narrow metal windows with white stone sills light the fifth and sixth stories. The north and south faces of the tower, as well as the east face above the roofline, match the west face of the tower, except that there are windows rather than doors on the first floor.
On either side of the tower, the west-facing facade of the three-story part of the factory displays two bays of windows on each floor. Horizontally oriented, multi-pane metal windows appear at ground level. Brick pilasters with stone caps frame the bays at the first story. Paired steel industrial sash with stone sills are found at the first and second stories. At the third story, each bay holds two, multi-pane, metal awning windows with continuous stone sills. The brick header lintels are accented with stone corner blocks.
On the west-facing (front) facade of the two-story sections, one-story brick pilasters with stone caps divide the west-facing (front) facade of the two-story sections into bays. Grouped, steel industrial sash with stone sills and brick header lintels fill each bay. At ground level, horizontally-oriented windows matching those in the three-story section are found. The bay at the north end of this facade (in the 1924 section) displays a very different fenestration pattern, with a column of single, multi-pane metal windows. These are offset from the first and second stories, showing that a staircase is located within.
Along the north-facing facade of the factory, the lot slopes down, setting the brick-finished basement above grade. At ground level, single and grouped industrial sash windows with stone sills are found. Toward the west end of the facade, there are two metal doors. The westernmost door is surmounted by a panel of decorative brick and tile, and set in a projecting surround. The surround has the appearance of smooth-faced, coursed stone and is enriched with simple, classical moldings. Just east of this entrance is the second door. The way in which the opening for this door abuts the window next to it suggests that this is an alteration and that the opening originally held a window. Six multi-pane metal awning windows are regularly distributed on the upper stories. The east end of the facade incorporates an elevator tower, which rises slightly above the roofline of the rest of the facade.
On the south-facing facade of the factory, the 1959 connecting section attaches at ground level. Above the 1959 section, the first and second stories of the 1933 addition can be seen. These display four bays of paired, industrial sash windows with brick header lintels and stone sills. Brick pilasters with stone caps frame the first story windows. Stone corner blocks enliven the second floor lintels.
The east-facing (rear) facade is finished with a plainer brick than the other facades. Due to the slope of the lot, the basement is above grade. A square, five-story tower projects from the center of the rear facade. Brick pilasters with stone caps rise to the third story of the tower. On the south face, the pilasters separate steel industrial sash windows. Smaller industrial sash windows appear on the north and east faces. An enclosed, flat-roofed loading dock with multiple garage doors wraps most of the way around the base of the tower; the south end postdates 1960. On the main block of the factory, brick pilasters articulate the facade from the ground to the top of the first floor. Grouped industrial sash are set between the pilasters, except that a door opens at the south end of the 1924 section and there is a larger door adjacent to the elevator. In the three-story section, metal, multi-pane windows are evenly distributed. A square, brick chimney marks where the 1924 and 1929 sections meet.
On the interior, the entrance tower houses a staircase and an elevator. The vestibule displays green and beige terrazzo floors and baseboards, exposed brick walls and plaster ceilings. The staircase is of the "quarter turn with landing" type in an open stairwell. It is metal and has terrazzo treads, metal posts and balusters, and a wood handrail. On the fifth floor of the tower are two rooms. One was originally a conference room, but later became a nurse's office. The other was designed for Robert H. Rolfs, the founder and president of the company, and has a private bathroom. The sixth floor gives access to the company's huge copper water tank, which provided water to the sprinkler system and is said to have been the biggest in West Bend when it was installed in 1929.
The ground floor is set at grade level on three sides, but is partially underground on the front facade. In all three sections it is predominantly open, except for the company vault and a boiler room (with a sheet metal-clad door). In the northwest corner is an enclosed brick stairhall, with a wooden, dogleg staircase. An elevator (dating from 1924) is located in the northeast corner. Another dogleg staircase is located in the rear tower, accessed through a door in the east (rear) wall of the 1929 addition. Adjacent doors lead to two small rooms also located in the tower. The ground floor exhibits poured concrete floors, exposed brick walls, concrete and steel piers (1929 and 1933 additions) and timber posts (1924 section, many are steel-reinforced) as well as exposed timber and steel beams.
Amity's leather products were manufactured on the second and third floors (which correspond to the first and second stories when looking at the exterior front facade). These spaces are also open, except that bathrooms were located in the north end (1924 section) between the elevator and the stair hall. The rear tower contains an enclosed staircase and two bathrooms at each of the second and third stories. As on the ground floor, the piers, posts, beams and walls are all exposed. The original wood flooring has been retained, except that there is some asphalt tile on the second floor.
The administrative offices of the Amity Leather Products Company originally occupied the fourth floor (which corresponds to the third story when looking at the exterior front facade). The floor was open initially. In 1943, the fourth floor was remodeled, creating a large enclosed office space with half-height wood walls and glass windows. Currently, the fourth floor has been partitioned to create additional offices.
Finishes include drywall, dropped acoustical tile ceilings and carpeting. Most of these changes date after 1996, when the Amity Leather Products Company closed this facility.
The two-story office building and the section that connects it with the factory are located at the south end of the complex.
The office building is two stories tall, exhibits a flat roof with a parapet, and rests on a raised, poured concrete basement. It is finished with brick set in vertical panels, which alternate with dark, fixed, single-pane windows in dark metal frames. The office building was remodeled to its current appearance circa 1975. The interior has also been substantially altered.
The connecting section is composed of a long, low, one-story addition that joins the factory and the office building at basement level. This section is of poured concrete construction, is partially-finished with brick and has a flat roof. Bands of metal, multi-pane, industrial sash appear in the connecting section, some inset with aluminum awning windows. The interior is intact and consists of an open plan with exposed finishes.

East (front) facade (2001)

Front entrance (2001)

East (front) facade of the 1924 section (2001)

East and north facades, 1924 section (2001)

South and east (front) facades (2001)

South and west (rear) facades (2001)

West (rear) facade, 1924 section (2001)

Vestibule in the entrance tower (2001)
