John Stephenson Plant Redux

I received a fascinating series of e-mails recently from Fred Cassel, a Captain and 25-year veteran of the Linden Fire Department of Linden, New Jersey.  He had read my blog post (click here) from two years ago on the John Stephenson Car Company plant in Elizabeth, which borders Linden.  He had quite a bit of information on the plant that I didn't have - not least of which was the fact that the plant isn't actually in Elizabeth!  Though Stephenson billed themselves as being an Elizabeth company, their plant was always just over the city line in Linden.

But that's not all.  Captain Cassel has been researching the Stephenson plant for a book he plans to write on the history of the facility and sent me information on its history.  Built in 1896, the plant in Linden replaced Stephenson's earlier facility on 27th Street in New York City that the company - not to mention the cars themselves - had outgrown.  For over two decades, until Stephenson closed down in 1917, the plant turned out streetcars and interurban cars like our own car 36.

When electric car production shut down, the Standard Aircraft Company took over the large complex and virtually overnight converted it into one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturing facilities.  Handley-Page O/400 bombers, among the largest in the world at the time with a 100' wingspan, were produced here during the Great War.  After the war ended, Standard Aircraft shut down and the factory was sold to the Simmons Mattress Company.  Simmons owned it for decades, until within the past 20 years or so, until it was sold.  Currently there are a few different companies occupying various parts of the old plant.

How can you help, you ask?  Contact me at fullparallel at wideopenwest dot com if you've got any photos, maps, diagrams, paperwork or information on the Stephenson facility.  It would go a long way towards fleshing out the Linden plant's first two decades of history.  Any information is appreciated!

Captain Cassel also sent me a number of interesting photos of the plant that were taken within the past year or two.  All photos are by Fred Cassel and may not be reproduced without permission.  The first looks down an alley behind the original varnish shop (near left) with a building called the "print shop" further down on the left.  To the right is a large structure built during the plant's aircraft days.

Here we are inside the varnish shop, which was the largest building in the original plant and incorporated the electrical shop located at the far end of the building.  IRM's car 36 was almost certainly in this building at some point in early 1903.

Inside one of the other original buildings, possibly the "print shop" building.  Note the bricked-over windows; originally there were open spaces and/or transfer tables between the different buildings, but these have largely been filled in with other structures since Stephenson quit.

And a shot of the outside of the old mill shop, presumably where much of the woodworking for the interurban cars built by Stephenson was done.  Just south of the mill shop was a large yard for outdoor storage of wood. 

Below is the erecting shop, again, likely the brief home to our own car 36.  Those dormers have seen better days!

And finally, a shot of some old electrical panel in the building.  Captain Cassel reports that there is virtually nothing recognizable left over from its days as an electric car production facility.

The feature most commonly associated with the facility by people in the area is the large structure below, partly because of its height and partly because it's just off the on-ramp for the Goethels Bridge to Staten Island.  This building was built in 1917 for assembling O/400 bombers, which were too big to be assembled anywhere else in the plant, and was an open-air roofed structure until Simmons enclosed it and put in a second floor.