History Stewart-Warner

vacant stewart-warner headquarters building in chicago 1990



view of of stewart-warner plant, looking south. left or east chicago & north western s deering yard. track in foreground going through gate served stewart-warner. today area condos new street grid. 1990.



mid-1950s stewart-warner automotive instruments in hollywood panel

the company founded stewart & clark company in 1905 john k. stewart. speedometers used in ford model t. in 1912 john stewart joined edgar bassick make vehicle instruments , horns. bassick owned alemite co. , stewart had bought warner instrument company; name changed stewart-warner corporation. company started in chicago , built manufacturing plant on diversey parkway. building kept expanding , covered 1 million square feet (93,000 m²) , 6 floors. @ peak s-w employed 6000 people @ diversey complex. made radios , refrigerators, among other products, , produced ubiquitous zerk grease fitting, named after inventor, associated company. in last years of company s chicago factory, owned number of aging six-spindle brown & sharpe , new britain screw machines.

stewart-warner had other locations, including @ 2600 north pulaski in chicago, , in later years distribution center in elgin, illinois, located south of i-90 , east of rt. 25. company opened plant in harlow, essex, england in late 1950s, became european headquarters. stan hagerman director of uk plant, followed curtis w. van allen in 1960, later became vice president , general manager of international operations in chicago.

the diversey parkway complex site of both s-w s international headquarters , instrument & alemite manufacturing operations. alemite referred s-w s line of lubricating stations, , instruments referred speedometers , similar gauges. front faced diversey location of corporate offices, while rear manufacturing warehouse south of diversey. large employee cafeteria inside main building, included underground garage executives (including ceo bennett archambault, arrived each morning limousine) entrance off wolcott north of diversey. corporate archives housed in basement below main tower, , executive offices in top floors of tower. stewart-warner operated free shuttle van service employees commuted train , clybourn metra (c&nw) station. in 1981 s-w experienced labor strike @ chicago operations. elgin site taken on middleby corporation.

the main chicago plant , headquarters of stewart-warner along diversey parkway in chicago located in deering industrial area in chicago s lincoln park neighborhood. such, s-w served both chicago , north western railroad on north side, , both milwaukee road , c&nw on south end @ warehouse north of clybourn , east of wolcott. in later years s-w served c&nw off tracks along east side of s-w plant , parallel c&nw north line.

the company made heat exchangers starting in 1940s under south wind division, after then, became independent of parent. stewart-warner ranked 95th among united states corporations in value of world war ii military production contracts. stewart-warner name still in use, there no corporate link original s-w, , website hyphenated: http://www.stewart-warner.com.

stewart-warner manufacturer , distributor of scoreboards, beginning in 1966. scoreboards created , installed stewart-warner during 1960s , 1970s included @ nassau veterans memorial coliseum in uniondale, new york; atlanta–fulton county stadium; fenway park in boston, tiger stadium in detroit; exhibition stadium in toronto; los angeles memorial coliseum, anaheim stadium, arrowhead stadium , royals stadium in kansas city; aloha stadium in honolulu; giants stadium in east rutherford, new jersey; mcnichols sports arena , mile high stadium in denver; milwaukee county stadium in wisconsin; 3 rivers stadium in pittsburgh; veterans stadium , spectrum in philadelphia; busch stadium in st. louis; , capital centre in landover, maryland. latter featured first videoscreen in stadium or arena, telscreen. perhaps famously, stewart-warner supplied scoreboards 6 stadia hosted 1978 fifa world cup in argentina joint venture argentinian state company autotrol.

stewart-warner 7400 series integrated circuit

in 1963, stewart-warner established integrated circuit fabrication facility, stewart-warner microcircuits, in sunnyvale, california.

in mid-1980s, stewart-warner s scoreboard division sold off chicago company, white way sign, took on maintenance, upgrading , replacement of of these aforementioned scoreboards.

the last ceo of stewart-warner bennett archambault, died in 1996. appointed president , ceo in 1954.

on september 9, 1987, british tire & rubber btr plc entered agreement purchase stewart-warner. in 1989, new owner btr decided relocate operations juarez, mexico, , shut down chicago plant , offices, @ time still employed 700 workers. btr spun off stewart-warner instruments business company named stewart warner instruments corporation. in 1998 stewart-warner instruments corporation bought datcon instrument company of lancaster, pennsylvania (later renamed maxima technologies). maxima technologies acquired actuant inc., diversified multi-national industrial corporation in 2006, , renamed maximatecc. stewart warner headquartered in lancaster, , part of actuant s engineered solutions business segment.

on april 25, 1993, spectacular fire destroyed of empty s-w chicago headquarters , factory buildings. left demolished , replaced upscale condominiums on former s-w sites.