News article of interest to building preservationists and ......

[KB7DQH]

Lots of photos accompanying the article...

http://tonawanda-news.com/top_stories/x584481288/Wurlitzer-A-symbol-of-industry

February 6, 2012
Wurlitzer: A symbol of industry

By Danielle Haynes The Tonawanda News The Tonawanda News Mon Feb 06, 2012, 05:00 PM EST

One could say the creation and evolution of the Wurlitzer complex is reflective of the history of North Tonawanda itself.

The city's historic exports — lumber and carousels — begat a new purpose for its third famous contribution, the Wurlitzer organ, which came to provide the sound track that made all those go-rounds so merry.

The company made its name on a product at once artistic and whimsical and the building that housed the creation of these instruments was not just an ordinary bricks-and-mortar factory — the Wurlitzer building has itself a presence bespeaking the music created inside.

And just as the complex was shaped by the industry of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Wurlitzer building stands to face another alteration in the 21st. This time, though, the American institution prompting it isn't Alan Herschell's nostalgic carousel. It's the construction of a new Walmart.

The history

The Wurlitzer building, located at 908 Niagara Falls Blvd.,  exists because of the booming carousel industry in North Tonawanda. Carousels, manufactured by the Armitage Herschell Co. beginning in the 1870s, needed music and that music was found in the form of a barrel organ, explained Ned Schimminger, of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.

The Herschell company bought organs mostly from Europe, but decided to start manufacturing their own when it became clear a better profit was to be had after an increase in import tariffs.

In 1893, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Co. was formed and the first factory was built along the railroad tracks at the site of the current Wurlitzer Building — that structure, the so-called "white building," still exists in the rear section of the plant near where the tracks intersect with Niagara Falls Boulevard.

Eugene deKleist was brought in from Germany to run the company and within a decade, Schimminger said, the white building became The deKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., producing barrel organs, hurdy-gurdies, flute organs and military band organs.

Meanwhile, Franz "Rudolph" Wurlitzer was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, buying and selling musical instruments as part of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., founded in 1856.

Rudolph also came from Germany, the son of a man in the musical instruments business. He moved to America at the age of 22 because his father had planned to leave his company to his younger brother, according to an account in "North Tonawanda: The Lumber City," a book published by The North Tonawanda History Museum.

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. started selling deKleist instruments and eventually inspired deKleist to create a coin-operated tonophone — similar to a nickelodeon, or mechanical piano, explained Schimminger — which won a blue ribbon at the Pan-Am Exposition in Buffalo in 1901.

That invention was the forerunner to what millions of Americans associate with the Wurlitzer brand still today.

"It becomes the thing that all the bars and public houses around the country love because they make money off them," Schimminger said. "It's like the jukebox."

In 1908, Howard Wurlitzer, Rudolph's son and active head of the company, persuaded deKleist to sell his barrel organ business and the renamed Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Co. took over the white building, immediately setting about expanding the complex in size.

"Wurlitzer is starting to think about manufacturing, which saves them money, becoming (more) profitable," Schimminger said.

The Wurlitzers then acquired the Hope-Jones Organ Company in Elmira in 1910, expanding the company's range of organs — it could then build barrel and pipe organs.

"That purchase is the birth of the Mighty Wurlitzer," Schimminger said.

By the end of World War I, the Wurlitzer company was producing pipe organs, band organs for carousels, coin-operated pianos and harps. The North Tonawanda plant, building on its early history of barroom song, pioneered the creation of the modern jukebox in 1934.

According to the History Museum's book, "Wurlitzer was known world-wide as 'The Name that Means Music to Millions.' "

The company expanded to other parts of the country, with plants in Hot Springs, Miss.; Logan, Utah; Corinth, Miss.; DeKalb, Ill.; and even in Hullhorst, Germany.

Production eventually declined at the Wurlitzer plant and by the 1970s, only jukeboxes and electronic organs were being made there. Jukebox production was phased out in 1974 and the company that had once employed about 3,000 people dwindled to about 450. By 1975, all production was eliminated at the North Tonawanda plant and the remaining 200 employees were out of a job.

In 1978, Bill Irr Sr., who ran a plumbing, heating and air conditioning wholesale business, purchased the building along with two partners to house his showroom and offices. Tom Austen, Irr's son-in-law and current owner of the Wurltizer building, said there were plans to tear the building down after it had sat vacant for a few years.

"When they bought it, it was a mess," Austen said. "No one was in it for a couple years and water was coming in from the roof. It was desolate and he saved it."

Austen and his wife, Jane, bought the front portion of the building from Irr in 1992 — Irr still owns the one-story section. The 750,000-square-foot complex currently houses about 40 businesses, from a dog-training facility to lawyers offices and a medical billing company. About 350 people are employed at the complex.

"It's been a success story as far as bringing businesses to North Tonawanda," Austen said. And, he said, it's nice to keep the historic building a part of the community.

"Every day somebody comes in here saying 'my father used to work here, my grandfather, my grandmother,' " Austen said.

And it's not just former workers that flock to the factory; theater organ enthusiasts view not only the plant but the whole city as a mecca for their craft.

"If time is of the essence, they would rather go see the Wurlitzer building than Niagara Falls," Executive Director of the Riviera Theatre Frank Cannata said of the theater organists he brings in to perform at the theater.

During its heyday, customers interested in purchasing a theater organ from Wurlitzer were often taken to the Webster Street theater to take the Riviera's organ for a test drive.

"The artists that come in (today) just have that sense of history, they wonder 'who sat here at this console over the years?' " Cannata said. "Because of that and our location to the factory and the history of the Wurlitzer company and North Tonawanda, we draw talent from around the globe."

The building

The Wurlitzer building is actually more of a complex — multiple buildings and additions over time have created what is now a large enclosed space.

When she first drove up to the building, Jennifer Walkowski, architectural historian with Clinton Brown Company in Buffalo, said her first thought was: "Wow, what a magnificent and massive building that is." She said the building is typical of industrial structures built in the early part of the 20th century. The first "white building" was constructed in 1893, but by the 1910s, the place was expanding into what it is today. By 1924, the tower bearing the iconic, red Wurlitzer sign was built to house a 60,000-gallon water tank for reserve in case of fire. Austen said the building was added on to until the 1950s as more space was needed for production.

A notable aspect of the building, Walkowski said, is its use of reinforced concrete.

"Most of the more modern portions of the building are constructed of reinforced concrete, which was so handy because you have huge machinery coming in and out" of the factory, she said. "You can just do what you need to do and you're not going to have to build a new wall or huge addition."

The reinforced concrete allowed for larger interior spaces, and a more flexible use of the building, even to this day. Austen said the office and retail spaces are sized to meet his tenants' needs — walls can easily be put into a large open area to create two or more smaller ones.

Before reinforced concrete, most industrial buildings were constructed of brick with floors and columns made of wood.

"That was a huge fire risk," Walkowski said. "A theme of industrial architecture is preventing fires. It's so common for industrial buildings to catch on fire and destroy everything."

"The insurance company loves us," Austen laughed, when speaking of the concrete building.

The material allowed the use of interior columns to support the structure instead of the walls, so engineers were free to install larger windows. And larger windows meant more light and more ventilation for workers, Walkowski said.

There is no architect credited with the design of the Wurlitzer building, though the History Museum's book lists chief engineer C.N. Deverall as the designer for some of the buildings.

"Early industrial buildings — and even still today — are not really classified as high architecture like a church or school, so a lot of times they were built by engineers, or even earlier, 19th-century buildings were sometimes built by the owner of the building," Walkowski said.

"What's really interesting (about the Wurlitzer building) is it is a little more high designed. It looks sort of like a cathedral. Industrial architecture in general should be celebrated as the backbone of America. In the roaring '20s, everybody is full of optimism and pride and I think it's reflected in this building ... its not a sterile box," she added.

The drive up to the Wurlitzer plant adds to it's elegance, she said.

"The central tower and the fountains and the prominent drive in, it's really a celebration of the company, of the industry. It's very ceremonial, a very elegant treatment that typically I don't see in too many industrial buildings," Walkowski said.

"It's been given a very formal treatment like you would have in a grand home or a civic building ... an interesting contrast."

And it is that very promenade that is the focus of proposed changes thanks to its soon-to-be neighbor, Walmart.

Looking forward

The addition of a Super Walmart near the complex has prompted changes to the building's surrounding landscaping and parking.

The entrance to the store site and an accompanying traffic signal near the Wurlitzer complex entrance has necessitated the closing of the Wurlitzer entranceway from the boulevard.

"The (state Department of Transportation) basically said if this roadway's here," Austen said, pointing on a map to where the Walmart entrance from Niagara Falls Boulevard will be, "I can't have (my entrance) because of a traffic light."

The two entrances would be too close to one another on Niagara Falls Boulevard, he said. Under the new plans, the two buildings will essentially share one entrance, a drive that will go straight from the Boulevard to Walmart — Wurlitzer's drive will connect from the Walmart drive, north to the front entrance beneath the tower.

As part of that change, the two current parking strips that angle toward the front entrance will be replaced with grass. A new lot consisting of four rows of parking will be constructed across the front of the building. This part of the alteration was not mandated by the DOT.

Austen said he would consider the possibility of putting buildings in the spaces left open on either side of the new drive.

"This will be green," he said, pointing to the area on a map, "unless someone wants to put a building up like a bank or a restaurant."

Austen said, though, he wants to maintain as much of the historic quality of the building's landscaping as possible. He plans to refurbish the goldfish pond — goldfish and all — and fountain in front of the entrance, reuse some outdoor concrete columns and wrought-iron fencing and install old-fashioned lights along the slightly meandering drive up to the parking area.

"I think it is going to be gorgeous," Austen said.

But for generations of local residents who have taken a trip up that imposing drive, the news is rather sad.

"To me, part of the iconic look of that building is that entrance; the landscape design of it is fantastic," Schimminger said. "I don't know why they need to remove that, why they couldn't come up with a (different) design. You take that away and you're detracting from the building itself — it's a fantastic structure that should have those two diagonal strips that are just perfect."

For Walkowski, the current drive up to the Wurlitzer building — which is not listed on either the State or National Register of Historic Places — speaks to its history and design.

"Losing the historic formal entryway to the Wurlitzer building would be a shame. This entrance drive creates an axial approach to the main tower of the building, carefully controlling how the building was viewed as people entered up to it. This entry drive likely dates to the 1920s when other portions of the building were adapted and enlarged. This era also coincides with the rise in automobile useage. So you can imaging driving in your automobile up this formal drive, conducting business in the Wurlitzer building."

Contact features editor Danielle Haynes at 693-1000, ext. 4116

Eric
KB7DQH

[AnOrganCornucopia]

Wouldn't it be great, though, if space could be found in the building to bring a redundant Wurlitzer theatre organ 'home'. A communal space for all the office users to congregate in, a leisure facility for them and the wider community...

[diapason]

The oldest Wurlitzer in England is in the Congregation Church in Fore St., Beer, Devon.  It's used every Sunday for church services and at other times for theatre organ concerts.  The group restoring it have replaced much of the percussion which was 'lost' when it was originally installed in the church.

N