184 Sweeney Street

An Important Part of North Tonawanda's Mighty Industrial Past

Built in 1895 as Power House #4 of the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric Railway Co., the red brick building at 184 Sweeney Street served as a trolley barn. In 1899 it became the home of the factory of a new company formed by Allan Herschell and his brother-in-law, Edward Spillman. The company, Herschell-Spillman, bought out Armitage-Herschell in 1903 and became the largest manufacturer of carousels in the United States. Allan Herschell retired from this company and formed the Allan Herschell Company in 1915, on the site of the present home of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum on Thompson Street. In 1920 Herschell-Spillman reorganized into Spillman Engineering Corporation, and at Oliver and Goundry Streets, continued to produce carousels and other amusement rides in competition with Allan Herschell Company.

In 1890, J. H. Rand, Sr., invented the world's first visible ledger in North Tonawanda. Rand was the native-born son of North Tonawanda pioneer parents. It was in North Tonawanda in 1898 that Remington Rand first manufactured and marketed the forerunners of the visible equipment, supplies, and systems which were to revolutionize the record-keeping methods of modern business. Rand established the Rand Ledger Company. In 1925, the Rand Ledger Company merged with the Kardex Company to form the Remington Rand Company and they purchased the Herschell-Spillman Company's manufacturing plant at 184 Sweeney Street.

In 1951 the first main frame computer, UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was produced by Remington Rand and was used by the United States Bureau of Census. In 1965, they employed nearly 1,000 area residents. The Sweeney Street plant was Remington's major printing facility. They also had a plant in Tonawanda, which manufactured the steel filing equipment necessary to house the Remington Records Retrieval systems made in North Tonawanda.

On the south side of Goundry Street, east of the viaduct between Marion and Oliver Streets, was the Remington Rand Maintenance School . An average of 25 sales representatives and maintenance men were trained there each month during the 1920's and 1930's. Remington Rand was known worldwide for its manufacture of quality office furniture, equipment and supplies. The North Tonawanda plant on Sweeney Street was located almost directly behind this school. The school building was destroyed by fire in the early 1950's.

Photos: 184 Sweeney Street today, and a close up of the cornice stone showing date built courtesy of Museum Trustee and volunteer, Betty A. Brandon.

Photo: Older photo of the building as it appeared in 1906 when it was Herschell-Spillman Co., carrousel manufacturer, from a 1906 brochure in the Museum collection.

To view a photo gallery of the many branches of Herschell history in North Tonawanda, please click HERE.