In 1909, real estate auctioneer Fred Wardell of Detroit, Michigan, acquired several patents for emerging vacuum cleaner technology and started up The Eureka Vacuum Cleaner Company. In 1910 he incorporated the company in Michigan. By 1913 Eureka’s cleaners came in six different models with a multitude of attachments for walls, upholstery, and bare floors. The cleaners were sold to the public through two distributors, one handling accounts to the east of an imaginary line through Detroit, and the other handling accounts to the west.
Eureka manufactured 2,000 vacuum cleaners a day by 1919. Demand for the cleaners grew through the 1920s.
In 1919, the firm of Beckett & Akitt, designed a factory for the company located on a 3.5-acre site at the corner of Holden Street and Hamilton Avenue in downtown Detroit. At the time it was called the largest vacuum cleaner factory in the world. It is now the location of Lodge Freeway service drive. By 1931, it was pumping out 2,000 cleaners a day. During WWII the factory went into war production of gas masks for our soldiers.
By 1946, the company was distributing its vacuum cleaners through 5,500 dealers, with 55 distributors, 12 of them company owned. By 1947, those numbers had increased to 8,500 dealers and 9,000 retailers. Burritt began to spend heavily on national advertising, a practice that had lapsed in the 1930s. The company had a net worth of over $6 million that year. In the fiscal year ending June 1947, sales totaled $21 million, with profits of $1 million. Oil burners accounted for approximately one third of sales and profits; however, there was almost no overlap in the production and distribution of the merged companies. In an attempt to broaden its array of consumer goods and enlarge its distribution network, Eureka-Williams bought the Chicago-based National Stamping & Electric Works in 1946 for $640,000. The company made electric toasters, irons, and other appliances under the “White Cross” label, with sales of $500,000 a year. The following year, it came out with a line of electric disposal units, the Dispos-O-Matic.
Due to the construction of Lodge Freeway, in late 1955 the company purchased the Meadows Manufacturing Company plant from Thor Corporation for $450,000. The plant, located south of Bell Street and west of Hannah Street on Bloomington Illinois' southeast side, consisted of two buildings with aggregate floor area of 180,000 square feet had been used from its inception in 1920 to the mid-1950s to manufacture conventional wringer clothes washers under brand names such as Meadow Lark and Select-a-Speed. During the Korean War it also produced 16mm shells.
Even with wider distribution and national advertising, Eureka consistently ran behind Hoover. In vacuum cleaner circles a battle raged between the proponents of the canister-type cleaner and the upright models. Eureka sidestepped the issue by selling both, and an assortment of attachments, in the “Eureka Home Cleaning System,” which in 1947 sold for the hefty sum of $144.95 (which would be just under $2000 in Dec. 2022). This concept allowed Eureka to sell two cleaners per sale instead of one.
Eureka celebrated its 50th anniversary year in 1959, the year in which Feldmann announced his intention to merge Eureka-Williams with National Union Electric Corporation, a heating and air-conditioning manufacturer of which Feldmann was both chairman and president. At the time of the merger Eureka-Williams was described as manufacturing vacuum cleaners, oil burners, school furniture, aircraft generators, hydraulic motors, starters and inverters, and thermal batteries at plants in Bloomington and Canastota, New York. Feldmann took Eureka private and it became a division of National Union.
Eureka-Williams fared well with National Union, playing the part of the steady and conservative manufacturer in a rather idiosyncratic company. By 1971, Eureka-Williams accounted for 40 to 50 percent of National Union’s sales and profits, and National Union reported that vacuum cleaner volume had climbed for the 12th consecutive year.
In 1973, Eureka-Williams purchased 38 acres of land in north Normal, Illinois and built a warehouse and motor department building at 1201 E. Bell Street. After AB Electrolux of Sweden purchased National Union Electric Company, a 50,000 square foot addition was built at the Bloomington plant plus a 210,000 square foot warehouse plant in Normal.
Later, in an attempt to cut production costs, Eureka began to move vacuum-cleaner production out of Bloomington. It first opened a plant to make uprights in El Paso, Texas, in 1983 and another in Juarez, Mexico, in 1984. Both these plants grew substantially over the next seven years.
Eureka’s 75th anniversary year, 1984, was said by the company to be its best sales year ever. Eureka reported that sales had increased 211 percent over the previous decade, five times faster than the industry average.
In 1989, a major reorganization effort saw hundreds of employees laid off at its Bloomington facilities as recession rippled through the economy.
In 1990, Eureka announced that it was moving production of upright cleaners completely to El Paso. The manufacture and assembly of canisters were consequently consolidated at its plant at Normal, Illinois, while headquarters and other manufacturing operations remained at Bloomington at 807 N. Main Street. Eureka reported that it spent $2.2 million restructuring its plants in Illinois.
By the mid-1990s, Eureka held steady at its perennial number two position in the vacuum cleaner market, but had rebounded from losses in market share in the early 1990s. The company claimed its highest sales ever in 1993 after introducing its World Vac and Powerline series and broadening The Boss line of cleaners. Eureka held about 20 percent of the $600-million full-sized cleaner market, as compared with Hoover’s 35 percent. The company manufactured more than 100 different models of vacuum cleaners, for home as well as commercial use.
In 2000 the Normal plant was shuttered, marking the end of line production in the Bloomington-Normal. On April 1, 2004, The Eureka Company became part of a new company named Electrolux Home Care Products North America to better reflect its parent company. Electrolux ended its presence in the Twin Cities in 2011 and divested the Eureka brand to Midea Group Co., Ltd. on December 2, 2016, while retaining the Sanitaire brand. Then in August 2018 the Sanitaire Division was sold to Bissell, Inc.
Side Note: The Normal plant, 903 Morrissey Drive, was purchased by Wildwood Industries, Inc., a producer and supplier of vacuum cleaner bags, scent tablets, floor powders, air filters, carpet cleaner and leaf bags. The company went bankrupt in 2009. In 2016, ownership went to Scott Garth, who converted the 156,000-square-foot building into 10,000 square feet of office space, 45,000 feet of storage - called Morrissey Drive Self-Storage - and 55,000 of warehouse space that can be used for light manufacturing.
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Credits: encyclopedia.com, mchistory.org, pantagraph.com, ristenbatt.com, insideselfstorage.com, morrisseyselfstorage.com, commons.wikimedia.org
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Photos:
1) The Eureka-Williams Corporation building on Bell Street at Hannah Street in Bloomington, Illinois on February 28, 2010. This office building was originally built by Williams Oil-O-Matic in 1925 and was adjacent to the manufacturing plant. (Camera roughly southwest, Bell St. east of Hannah St.) - wikimedia.com
2) Electrolux's final headquarters at 807 N. Main Street in Bloomington - wikimedia.com
3) In January 1963 a Eureka-Williams an unidentified plant worker tends to a machine - McClean County Museum of History
4) 1943 WWII Print Ad - depicting Mom O'Rourke making gas masks at the Eureka Vacuum Cleaner factory - eBay.com listing #295406256600
Eureka manufactured 2,000 vacuum cleaners a day by 1919. Demand for the cleaners grew through the 1920s.
In 1919, the firm of Beckett & Akitt, designed a factory for the company located on a 3.5-acre site at the corner of Holden Street and Hamilton Avenue in downtown Detroit. At the time it was called the largest vacuum cleaner factory in the world. It is now the location of Lodge Freeway service drive. By 1931, it was pumping out 2,000 cleaners a day. During WWII the factory went into war production of gas masks for our soldiers.
By 1946, the company was distributing its vacuum cleaners through 5,500 dealers, with 55 distributors, 12 of them company owned. By 1947, those numbers had increased to 8,500 dealers and 9,000 retailers. Burritt began to spend heavily on national advertising, a practice that had lapsed in the 1930s. The company had a net worth of over $6 million that year. In the fiscal year ending June 1947, sales totaled $21 million, with profits of $1 million. Oil burners accounted for approximately one third of sales and profits; however, there was almost no overlap in the production and distribution of the merged companies. In an attempt to broaden its array of consumer goods and enlarge its distribution network, Eureka-Williams bought the Chicago-based National Stamping & Electric Works in 1946 for $640,000. The company made electric toasters, irons, and other appliances under the “White Cross” label, with sales of $500,000 a year. The following year, it came out with a line of electric disposal units, the Dispos-O-Matic.
Due to the construction of Lodge Freeway, in late 1955 the company purchased the Meadows Manufacturing Company plant from Thor Corporation for $450,000. The plant, located south of Bell Street and west of Hannah Street on Bloomington Illinois' southeast side, consisted of two buildings with aggregate floor area of 180,000 square feet had been used from its inception in 1920 to the mid-1950s to manufacture conventional wringer clothes washers under brand names such as Meadow Lark and Select-a-Speed. During the Korean War it also produced 16mm shells.
Even with wider distribution and national advertising, Eureka consistently ran behind Hoover. In vacuum cleaner circles a battle raged between the proponents of the canister-type cleaner and the upright models. Eureka sidestepped the issue by selling both, and an assortment of attachments, in the “Eureka Home Cleaning System,” which in 1947 sold for the hefty sum of $144.95 (which would be just under $2000 in Dec. 2022). This concept allowed Eureka to sell two cleaners per sale instead of one.
Eureka celebrated its 50th anniversary year in 1959, the year in which Feldmann announced his intention to merge Eureka-Williams with National Union Electric Corporation, a heating and air-conditioning manufacturer of which Feldmann was both chairman and president. At the time of the merger Eureka-Williams was described as manufacturing vacuum cleaners, oil burners, school furniture, aircraft generators, hydraulic motors, starters and inverters, and thermal batteries at plants in Bloomington and Canastota, New York. Feldmann took Eureka private and it became a division of National Union.
Eureka-Williams fared well with National Union, playing the part of the steady and conservative manufacturer in a rather idiosyncratic company. By 1971, Eureka-Williams accounted for 40 to 50 percent of National Union’s sales and profits, and National Union reported that vacuum cleaner volume had climbed for the 12th consecutive year.
In 1973, Eureka-Williams purchased 38 acres of land in north Normal, Illinois and built a warehouse and motor department building at 1201 E. Bell Street. After AB Electrolux of Sweden purchased National Union Electric Company, a 50,000 square foot addition was built at the Bloomington plant plus a 210,000 square foot warehouse plant in Normal.
Later, in an attempt to cut production costs, Eureka began to move vacuum-cleaner production out of Bloomington. It first opened a plant to make uprights in El Paso, Texas, in 1983 and another in Juarez, Mexico, in 1984. Both these plants grew substantially over the next seven years.
Eureka’s 75th anniversary year, 1984, was said by the company to be its best sales year ever. Eureka reported that sales had increased 211 percent over the previous decade, five times faster than the industry average.
In 1989, a major reorganization effort saw hundreds of employees laid off at its Bloomington facilities as recession rippled through the economy.
In 1990, Eureka announced that it was moving production of upright cleaners completely to El Paso. The manufacture and assembly of canisters were consequently consolidated at its plant at Normal, Illinois, while headquarters and other manufacturing operations remained at Bloomington at 807 N. Main Street. Eureka reported that it spent $2.2 million restructuring its plants in Illinois.
By the mid-1990s, Eureka held steady at its perennial number two position in the vacuum cleaner market, but had rebounded from losses in market share in the early 1990s. The company claimed its highest sales ever in 1993 after introducing its World Vac and Powerline series and broadening The Boss line of cleaners. Eureka held about 20 percent of the $600-million full-sized cleaner market, as compared with Hoover’s 35 percent. The company manufactured more than 100 different models of vacuum cleaners, for home as well as commercial use.
In 2000 the Normal plant was shuttered, marking the end of line production in the Bloomington-Normal. On April 1, 2004, The Eureka Company became part of a new company named Electrolux Home Care Products North America to better reflect its parent company. Electrolux ended its presence in the Twin Cities in 2011 and divested the Eureka brand to Midea Group Co., Ltd. on December 2, 2016, while retaining the Sanitaire brand. Then in August 2018 the Sanitaire Division was sold to Bissell, Inc.
Side Note: The Normal plant, 903 Morrissey Drive, was purchased by Wildwood Industries, Inc., a producer and supplier of vacuum cleaner bags, scent tablets, floor powders, air filters, carpet cleaner and leaf bags. The company went bankrupt in 2009. In 2016, ownership went to Scott Garth, who converted the 156,000-square-foot building into 10,000 square feet of office space, 45,000 feet of storage - called Morrissey Drive Self-Storage - and 55,000 of warehouse space that can be used for light manufacturing.
_____
Credits: encyclopedia.com, mchistory.org, pantagraph.com, ristenbatt.com, insideselfstorage.com, morrisseyselfstorage.com, commons.wikimedia.org
_____
Photos:
1) The Eureka-Williams Corporation building on Bell Street at Hannah Street in Bloomington, Illinois on February 28, 2010. This office building was originally built by Williams Oil-O-Matic in 1925 and was adjacent to the manufacturing plant. (Camera roughly southwest, Bell St. east of Hannah St.) - wikimedia.com
2) Electrolux's final headquarters at 807 N. Main Street in Bloomington - wikimedia.com
3) In January 1963 a Eureka-Williams an unidentified plant worker tends to a machine - McClean County Museum of History
4) 1943 WWII Print Ad - depicting Mom O'Rourke making gas masks at the Eureka Vacuum Cleaner factory - eBay.com listing #295406256600
