Heywood-Wakefield Building

[wanswheel]

 

Brick and Clay Record, June 1, 1913

FIREPROOF HOME FOR FURNITURE COMPANY

Large Quantities of Clay Products Used in Heywood-Wakefield Co.’s New York Home

The fireproof building, illustrated herewith, was constructed in eleven months from the date of starting the excavation until the building was finished complete. It was designed by Lee & Hewitt, New York architects, and contains seven and one-half acres of floor space. Construction of the building required 3,500 tons of structural steel, 75,000 bull-nose brick, 49,000 Shawmut paving brick for the 34th street front, 76,000 O.W. Ketcham's rough brick for the 33rd street front, all laid in Flemish bond; 11,000 enamel brick, 38,000 pavers in the driveway, 2,860,000 common brick in the walls and stairway enclosures and 35,000 square feet of six-inch terra cotta partitions. The building occupies a plot 100 by 200, extending through from West 34th street to West 33rd street, the twelve stories and basement being occupied entirely by the Heywood Bros. & Wakefield Co., a branch of which is located in Chicago. 

Poor’s Manual of Industrials 1916

HEYWOOD BROTHERS AND WAKEFIELD COMPANY. – Incorporated March 17, 1897, in New Jersey, as a consolidation of Heywood Bros. & Co., Gardner, Mass., Heywood & Morrill Rattan Co., Chicago, Ill., and the Wakefield Rattan Co., Wakefield, Mass. Company manufactures cane and wood seat chairs, baby carriages, car seats, school furniture, and all kinds of reed and rattan furniture. Plants located in Chicago, San Francisco and Gardner and Wakefield, Mass.

Moody’s Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities 1922

HEYWOOD-WAKEFIELD CO. – Inc. Feb. 8, 1921, in Mass.; successor by reorganization to Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Co.; also at time of incorporation acquired the business and assets of the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. of Menominee, Mich. Business of the company is the manufacture and sale of reed and fibre furniture, cane and wood seat chairs, car seatings, children's carriages, school furniture, opera chairs, etc. Plants are located at Gardner, Wakefield and Erving, Mass.; Chicago, Menominee, Mich., Portland, Ore. and Orillia, Ontario, warehouses at New York, Buffalo, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. Company has sales agencies in all the large cities of the United States.

https://archive.org/stream/completedcentury00heyw#page/104/mode/2up

 

   

  

Thanks to Canada Southern http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/home.htm

 

Heywood-Wakefield water tower on the right.

  

 

  

  

 

The Daily Railway Age, June 22, 1900

HEYWOOD BROTHERS & WAKEFIELD COMPANY. There is nothing so conducive to the comfort of passengers on a railway train as a comfortable seat. The Wheeler car seat which is made by the Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company of Wakefield, Mass. is a development of the walkover type of seat, elegant in appearance, luxuriously comfortable, strong and easy to work. It has a high corrugated back and is made with or without locks. There are few parts to this seat and the mechanism is simple. The working parts are so arranged that when the seat is in position for use they are almost entirely below the top of the seat cushion and completely out of the way. This feature gives the greatest possible seating space and the cushions and backs can be very easily removed for cleaning. The Bushnell turnover seat and the Henry walkover are types that are very popular on account of their simplicity, durability and comfort. The latter seat has an adjustable foot rest which permits of plenty of space for packages, although the stationary foot rest is equipped, if desired. For street car service the Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company have for several years past made a specialty of reversible seats. In their catalogue they invite special attention to the Wheeler No. 42, which is especially designed for street cars. A feature of this seat is that it has no projecting side arms which in view of the usual cramped width of street cars adds greatly to the comfort of passengers. The manufacturers state that they have studied to make this seat as light as possible consistent with the strength necessary and that it is handsome in appearance.  

 

 

  

[daveklepper]

A  VERY HEARTY THANK YOU

[NP Eddie]

This brochure is priceless!!

Railway seats are seldom mentioned, but if you are on a trip, they are valuable for the passengers comfort.

Ed Burns

[Deggesty]

In my copy of a reproduction of the 1851 American Railway Guide, there is an advertisement, on page 150, placed by The American Chair Company, which promotes "Warren's Rail Road Car Seats." It extols the "gentle elastic action" of the springs in the seats, and mentions "Every person who sits in a Railroad Car (on the common seats) for even two hours, feels, to use a common but trite expression, 'as if his bones were pounded in a bag.'"

There are many other advertisements, including several for Piano Fortes, and one for fireproof paint. Inside the cover, Kalmbach Publishing Company has a caveat: "We must warn against writing to advertisers herein as a satisfactory reply cannot be guaranteed. For this please accept our most humble apologies."

This was printed in 1948.

[wanswheel]

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=6440714

[wanswheel]

Heywood-Wakefield Building probably won’t survive.  JPMorgan Chase wants it down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/nyregion/jpmorgan-chase-seeks-incentives-to-build-new-headquarters-in-manhattan.html?_r=0

[Deggesty]

Mike, I may have missed this in the various posts, but what is the current use (if any) of the Heywood-Wakefield Building?

[wanswheel]

Johnny, it's nowadays known as the Coach Building, headquarters of Coach, Inc.

http://www.gcomfort.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1027&idCbldId=9

http://www.coach.com/online/handbags/genWCM-10551-10051-en-/Coach_US/CompanyInformation/InvestorRelations/CompanyProfile-

Mike

[Deggesty]

Thanks, Mike. If Chase really wants it, I hope they are willing to make in it profitable for Coach to move. So long as the building is in use, and it suits the current user, why should the user want to change?

[wanswheel]

Johnny, the Heywood-Wakefield Building was sold to Related Companies, one of the developers of Hudson Yards, the real-estate project on the land that was the New York Central 30th Street Yard. In 2011, Coach, Inc. signed up to become the first major tenant, and in 2015 will move to the first skyscraper (10 Hudson Yards), at the northwest corner of 10th Ave. and W. 30th St., exactly where Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural train approached the Hudson River Railroad station at the southeast corner.

http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/office/10-hudson-yards/availabilities

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thlc/15122229910/

Mike

[wanswheel]

Heywood-Wakefield’s new next-door neighbor, a subway station, opens September 13.

The left arrow points to

Arriving subway riders ascending the escalator will look up and see the west wall of the Heywood-Wakefield Building. Perhaps one in a thousand will remember the building once overlooked the New York Central 30th Street Yard.

http://web.mta.info/capital/no7_alt.html

[NorthWest]

I seem to say this a lot, but thank you, wanswheel, for this. I don't know how long it took you to find these things and put them together (probably a long time), but they add greatly to this forum and its discussions. Thank you, and please keep it up.

Fascinating building that I never really knew existed. I do hope it survives, as it is a beautiful structure even without its great history.

[wanswheel]

Thanks North West!  I went in the building once, hoping for a view from a high window.  They wouldn’t let me past the lobby. Here’s the new subway station looking north, H-W on the right.

http://gothamist.com/2015/09/13/7_train_hudson_yards.php#photo-1

[NorthWest]

The building is rendered in 3-D on Google Earth, and pretty well at that.

[M636C]

I travelled to high school and later to university (ten years in all) in suburban electric trains (in Sydney NSW Australia) fitted with Heywood Wakefield walkover seats arranged 2+3 across the aisle. They had green leather upholstery (later green vinyl). Each seat back had the company name on a cast plate on the aisle side which probably included the NYC address along with numerous patent numbers.

M636C

[wanswheel]

M636C, thanks for posting your hopefully comfortable long memory of HW train seats. I could've ridden that train perhaps, but didn't, during 6 days R&R in Sydney in May 1968. Beautiful city.

[M636C]

wanswheel

M636C, thanks for posting your hopefully comfortable long memory of HW train seats. I could've ridden that train perhaps, but didn't, during 6 days R&R in Sydney in May 1968. Beautiful city.

 

We had many US servicemen visit during the Vietnam War.

 

I ended up showing a couple of sailors around points of railfan interest in 1969. I was picked as a guide since I was in a short-lived ROTC scheme and had an ID card and access to the Naval Base where their cruiser was docked. I think they enjoyed it.

 

There may be a couple of cars still running with the H-W seats. The earliest stainless steel double deck cars had them, but a few preserved 1920s cars with H-W seats are still around.

 

I think I fell asleep on evening trips home quite a few times, so the seats were comfortable enough.

 

M636C

[wanswheel]

I won’t say you’re a typical Aussie to be so welcoming to Americans, but everywhere in Sydney the people were great! Planeload of Army got there via Darwin, where dark beer drank warm was had.

[NorthWest]

While in New York, I took a few minutes to study this elegant edifice, with the looming towers of Hudson Yards sprouting about it. Excuse the rain on the lens, as it was really pouring. I hope it survives.

EDIT: due to photobucket deciding to charge for third party hosting, I've been forced to delete these images.

[NorthWest]

They just don't build things like that anymore...

Thanks wanswheel for bringing this to my attention via this thread.

[wanswheel]

North West, thanks for the photos and for taking the trouble. The building is doomed.  50 Hudson Yards will take its place.

http://www.archdaily.com/801155/foster-plus-partners-plans-for-50-hudson-yards-in-new-york-unveiled

[NorthWest]

Oh no and oh well. Thanks.