Buried Treasures No. 2: Williamson Bros. Company

The Road Records Search Files at the City Plans Unit of the Philadelphia Streets Department include a fascinating array of historical material. Years ago I tried to convince the staff of this office to give this collection to City Archives, where it could be cataloged and preserved, but they want to keep it in the office since they still occasionally use the files when researching the histories of various streets.

One item in the files was a page from the catalog of the Williamson Bros. Company, then located at the corner of Cumberland Street and Aramingo Avenue in North Philadelphia.

Hoisting Engines, Williamson Bros. Company. Engineers – Founders – Machinists. Established 1866. “The hoist with the perfect drum mechanism.” Main office and Works: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Cumberland Street and Aramingo Avenue. Hoisting Engine Department. Catalog C 1. The illustration below, was attached to this cover, serving as the catalog frontispiece. (City Plans Unit, Philadelphia Department of Streets, Road Record Search Files, Folder W)

The full catalog would certainly be interesting to see today, but the engraving that was the frontispiece, attached to the cover, was what mainly interested the person who preserved it, and that’s all I found in the files. I love the picture’s tissue paper overlay, which names of all the various buildings in the plant. I also appreciate that the artist places the complex at the center of larger landscape, with the rest of Philadelphia (identified by the tower of City Hall) receding into the background.

Williamson Bros., with buildings identified.
Williamson Bros., with the tissue paper folded back.

The cover of the catalog has no date, but based on my map research (see below), the item dates from sometime between 1895, when the plant was closer to Delaware River, at Salmon and York streets, and 1910, by which time the plant had moved a few blocks inland to a bigger complex near Aramingo Avenue.

Perseverance Iron Works of the Williamson Bros., in its first and smaller complex, shown in a detail from a Hexamer General Survey. (Greater Philadelphia Geohistory Network of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia / Free Library of Philadelphia)

I also found several advertisements for the company, in professional journals of the early 20th century, and probably could have found many more. According to one of the ads, Williamson steering engines were used on “practically the ENTIRE U.S. NAVY and more than a thousand ships of the Merchant Marine.”

Marine Engineering, Feb. 1904
Marine Engineering, Dec. 1904
American Marine Engineer, Jan. 1907

This billhead, dated February 17, 1877, was offered on eBay on January 25, 2024. I didn’t buy it, but I did borrow the picture of it. This was the first location of the company, before it moved to the Aramingo Avenue location pictured above.

Perseverance Iron Works, corner Richmond and York Streets. Williamson Bros., engineers and boilermakers, manufacturers of marine and stationary engines and boilers, hoisting engines and power hoists, with single and double drums, and either frictional or ordinary gearing; also, shafting, gearing, and general machine, blacksmith and boiler work. Iron and brass cocks and valves always on hand. (eBay, January 25, 2024)
American Engineering Co. (Foundry and machine shop), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1913. By the time this plan was made, American Engineering Company owned what had been the Williamson Bros. plant. (Associated Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies / Hagley Museum and Library)

This following series of maps shows the progression from the earlier location, to the new location, to the shopping center today.

FEEDBACK