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Mitchell, Vance & Co.
| Name | Mitchell, Vance & Co. |
| Ortssitz | New York City |
| Straße | 24th and 25th Streets |
| Art des Unternehmens | Metallwarenfabrik |
| Anmerkungen | Fabrik und Gießerei: 24th und 25th Streets und Tenth Avenue; Warenräume: 836 und 838 Broadway. |
| Quellenangaben | [New Yorks great industries (1884) 96] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 1854 |
Gründung unter dem Namen "Mitchell, Bailey & Co.". John S. Mitchell übernimmt die Leitung. |
| 1860 |
Umbenennung aus "Mitchell, Bailey & Co." in "Mitchell, Vance & Co." |
| 1873 |
Die Partnerschaft von "Mitchell, Vance & Co." wird aufgelöst, und es wird eine Gesellschaft unter den Gesetzen des Staats New York gebildet. |
| 01.02.1875 |
Tod von John S. Mitchell. Charles Benedict wird zum Präsidenten gewählt, Samuel B. H. Vance zum Vizepräsidenten und Edgar M. Smith zum Sekretär und Finanzleiter |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| elektr. Beleuchtungsanlagen |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
Designers and Manufacturers of Artistic Gas and Electric Light Fixtures, Fine Clocks and Bronzes, and Ornamental Metal Work. |
| Gasbeleuchtungsanlagen |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
Designers and Manufacturers of Artistic Gas and Electric Light Fixtures, Fine Clocks and Bronzes, and Ornamental Metal Work. |
| Kunstartikel aus Metall |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
Designers and Manufacturers of Artistic Gas and Electric Light Fixtures, Fine Clocks and Bronzes, and Ornamental Metal Work. |
| Uhren |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
1884 |
[New Yorks great ind. (1884)] |
Designers and Manufacturers of Artistic Gas and Electric Light Fixtures, Fine Clocks and Bronzes, and Ornamental Metal Work. |
| ZEIT | 1884 |
| THEMA | Firmendarstellung |
| TEXT | The progress of civilization has been. marked by rapid advancement in improved methods of artificial illumination, until from the flaming torch of the savage we arrive at the grand culmination in the electric light of recent years. The setting from which the various classes of lights shed their brilliancy is an equally essential feature of progress, and one of direct interest to the public at large. A Dr. Clayton of England was the first to attempt, about 1736, to apply coal gas to the purposes of artificial illumination, but his experiments were upon a limited scale, and failed to elicit public attention. At length, however, Mr. Murdoch of Soho, London, instituted a series of practical experiments, and at Redruth, Cornwall, first successfully began the use of the gas light. In 1802 he applied it to light his manufactory in Soho, and from that date it constantly grew in favor and extended its field of usefulness. Quite a long interval elapsed, however, before the fixtures required for the use of the light attained that degree of beauty, convenience, and elegance, which now characterizes them. The public demand, however, for lamps, burners, chandeliers, and gas fixtures generally of a character worthy of the architectural developments of the age, and in keeping with the good taste manifest in every centre of prosperous growth, was recognized by several enterprising manufacturers, but by none in such a satisfactory manner and with such far reaching results as by the noted New York house of Mitchell, Vance & Co. Their position of absolute pre-eminence in the manufacture of chandeliers, gas fixtures, fine clocks, bronze ornaments, etc., is universally recognized throughout the country, and the house is in every way the representative of this department of industrial and art interests in the United States. The business was founded in 1854, under the name and style of Mitchell, Bailey & Co., the late Mr. John S. Mitchell being at the head of the organization. In 1860, ex-Mayor S. B. H. Vance, having been connected with the business from its inception, the firm became known as Mitchell, Vance & Co., which title has become justly familiar and1 respected throughout the length and breadth of the land. In 1873, the above co-partnership was dissolved and a corporation was formed under the laws of the state of New York, retaining the old name and style, and carrying on the now immense business upon the same broad scale of energy and intelligent enterprise. After the regretted decease of Mr. John S. Mitchell on February 1st, 1875, Mr. Charles Benedict was elected President, Mr. Samuel B. H. Vance was chosen Vice-President, and Mr. Edgar M. Smith, Secretary and Treasurer, while the Trustees were as follows: Messrs. Charles Benedict, Edward A. Mitchell, Samuel B. H. Vance, Dennis C. Wilcor, and Edgar M. Smith. The officers in 1884 are: President, Mr. Dennis C. Wilcox; Vice-President, Mr. Samuel B. H. Vance; Treasurer, Mr. Edgar M. Smith; Secretary, Mr. Charles S. Bonnor. The extended reputation of these gentlemen for honorable business methods, and unflagging efforts at advancement and progress in every branch of their immense establishment, insures for them universal respect and esteem, and right here let us say. that the same vigorous enterprise and application of their trained talents, where most required, is seen in their new departure in their magnificent electroliers and electric light fixtures, gen-orally the same as in regard to gas. In both the grand divisions of the business they now hold the lead, and unquestionably stand in the foreground in all that concerns their branch of affort. Their immense manufactory is unusually eligibly and centrally located on 24th and 25th Streets and Tenth Avenue, and embraces a series of extensive four and five-story buildings specially erected for the purposes of the firm's business, and possessing facilities and conveniences that are to be found nowhere else; the internal fittings both as regards motive power, machinery and appliances from the foundry and moulding shop up. to the designing and art decorating departments, ar« absolutely unsurpassed on the continent, while the same-remark applies to their force of six hundred workmen, comprising as it does the best trained talent and skill of Europe and America. Here they manufacture in original styles every description of electroliers, chandeliers, electric and gas fixtures, fine clocks and bronzes, and all objects of decorative art in metal necessary for the furnishing or embellishment of public and private buildings. Their showrooms, salesrooms, and offices occupy the. entire six-story double building, Nos. 838 and 838 Broadway, fronting fifty feet thereon, and extending back one-hundred and fifty feet in depth, and sixty feet on 13th Street. The amount of floor space in the establishment is thus enormous, and yet it is none too large for the immense stock here gathered together, and which forms the best exposition of their lines of goods ever presented to a discerning public. The showrooms make a most magnificent display, and which is a great attraction both to citizens and visitors to the city. No other house in th& world has its equal, while in the qualities of modern adaptability and true art, the firm possesses facilities as. regards designing and manufacture admittedly nowhere else to be found. Artists, native and foreign, are constantly employed in designing and modelling subjects to-be produced in both real and imitation bronze; as also in all ornamental and elegant styles of gas and electric? light fixtures. The electric light has become such a factor of importance in the civilized world, that it will be of much-interest in this historical review, and be giving credit where it is due, to make reference to the great enterprise of Mitchell, Vance & Co., being the first, as it is the leading house to enter the field of electric lighting, and plan and bring out multifarious and beautiful designs for electric light fixtures of every description. They were-the firm to which Edison first turned during his Menlc-Park experiments and they promptly supplied him and his company wit their first permanent fixtures. They early foresaw the mighty development of the electric light, and put their establishment in readiness to meet the demand, and the public at once recognizing this genuine: spirit of enterprise left their orders, and this branch of their business has naturally developed to proportions of magnitude, as they manufacture lamps and fixtures for all the incandescent systems operated in this country, also combination fixtures for both gas and electric light. They fitted up the first private residence lit by the incandescent system, that of Mr. J. Hood Wright, of Drexel, Morgan & Co., and from that time on have had a series of orders for their superior art fixtures for the electric light, among other mansions so supplied beingr those of Mr. J. W. Doane of Chicago, the Messrs. Keith, Mr. Marshall Field, of Chicago, the Bemis & McAvoy Brewery of Chicago. For gas and electricity, the Murray Hill Hotel and the Hoffman House, of New York, the Samuel Crupples Woodenware Co., for their new headquarters in Cincinnati, the Bridgeport, Ct., Metallic Cartridge Company, the Minneapolis Opera House (United States system); while they manufacture the fixtures for the Rocky Mountain Electric Light Company, etc., and export fixtures to South America and elsewhere. One of their largest contracts in the new field of lighting is that to supply the immense Dakota Flats in Eighth Avenue, facing Central Park, a block of twenty-seven houses on 73rd Street, and another large apartment house at Ninth Avenue aud 73rd Street, all belonging to the Edward Clark estate. In the Dakota Flat house alone, there we fifty suits of apartments, ranging from three to sixteen rooms, which will give some idea of the magnitude of the contract. The firm's designs are on the combination system of electricity and gas, so that each one can be turned on at will. The Edison light has been adopted by the estate, and Mitchell, Vance & Co. supply fixtures for between six thousand and seven thousand lights. The designs are most beautiful and novel and are well worthy a close inspection. The firm have also fitted all lie fixtures in the Manhattan Storage & Warehouse Company, 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. In this immense fire-proof structure there is nothing but brick and iron, and in harmony with this the electroliers are all of wrought iron, hammered at the forge and producing the most artistic effects. Another avenue of the company's enterprise is on board our magnificent floating palaces. The splendid steamer "Pilgrim" was fitted up by them with nine hundred and twelve electric lamps, including two beautiful electroliers ornamental in the highest degree, and shedding a radiance through the main saloons, as grateful as it is effective at night. They also make a speciality of these fixtures for our finest stores, show windows, etc., and have lately fitted up Park & Tilford's new building facing Central Park Plaza at 59th Street. The firm has entered the field of electric light with the same honorable motives impelling it as in the line of gas fixtures, and the future before it is one of an ever widening demand, with unlimited scope as to designs, and freedom of limitations as to the positions and settings of the fixtures, so as to attain the best artistic effects and the most practical of results. In gas fixtures, the firm's fame is world wide, both for the drawing-room, library, and all parts of a private mansion; for ecclesiastical purposes, theatres, hotels, etc., and they have the best line of trade in the country both wholesale and retail. They have been awarded the highest premium and medal at the American Institute and other fairs. The firm is justly celebrated for its fine bronze and marble clocks and bronze ornaments, exceedingly beautiful in design and which have received the highest award wherever exhibited. In the line of high art bronze work for all decorative purposes, the firm has an unrivalled reputation, the finest specimens of this kind of work ever produced in this country being designed and manufactured by it for the Masonic Temple in Sixth Avenue; the firm also made the gas fixtures for it, con-suiting all the chief sources of art, and bringing to their aid the best talent and the widest experience, and their success in this case, so universally conceded by all, was the appropriate result of long and careful study, and special practical acquaintance with the lighting of public halls, and the decoration of fixtures for Masonic lodges. In addition to the thousands of private residences, both in New York and throughout all the cities of the country which were specially supplied with gas fixtures, etc., we may name the Masonic Temple, Western Union Telegraph building, Coal & Iron Exchange, Tribune building. Equitable Life Insurance Company building, Boston; Illinois State House; Buffalo Court House; Boston City Hall; Booth's late theatre, also the Grand Opera House, the former Park Theatre, Lyceum, San Francisco Opera House, numerous theatres and academies of music throughout the country; Windsor Hotel, Astor House, Grand Hotel, Gilsey House, Grand Central Hotel, St. Denis Hotrel, Westminster, Rossmor, Grand Union, Glanham and Hotel Royal; the Grand Pacific Hotel and Palmer House of Chicago; Lord & Taylor's, and a hundred others of the city's finest stores; St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church, Trinity Chapel, and scores of our finest places of workmanship. Limits of space prevent our giving further, but sufficient has been said to demonstrate the leading position the great house of Mitchell, Vance i Co. permanently retains -in its branches of manufacture. Mr. Dennis C. Wilcox, the esteemed president of the company, is too widely known to require extended comment at our hands; he is or.e of New York's representative manufacturers and woruuly presides over the enormous interests of his company. The vice-president, Mr. Samuel B. H. Vance, is not only an active and practical business man, but one whose public spirited efforts have done much for the community at large. Both as a member and president of the Board of Aldermen, and as the mayor of the city, Mr. Vance has steadily adhered to those principles of right and justice, which have placed his immense establishment where it is to-day. The treasurer, Mr. Edgar M. Smith, is a popular, enterprising member of the commercial community, and ably discharges the responsible duties devolving upon him. Mr. Charles S. Bonnor, the secretary of the company, is an energetic and hard working gentleman, well versed in the performance of the onerous duties which he performs, and as widely known for his talents as for the honorable- manner in which he attends to all the company's interests. Still ha the early prune of manhood, he has already achieved a substantial success with bright prospects before him in the near future. The firm does a wholesale trade extending all over the United States and into foreign countries, and is directly represented all over by its staff of salesmen. The business of Mitchell, Vance & Co. is justly not only a source of pride to every citizen of New York, but also the entire country at large, while the officers of the company, educated to their calling, are well qualified to attend to it in all its branches and with a due regard to the interests of their numerous customers. |
| QUELLE | [New Yorks great industries (1884) 96] |
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