The First Seventy-Five Years of Simonds

A scan of Simonds's official history, titled Seventy-five Years of Business Progress and Industrial Advance 1832-1907, is on Archive.org. The book includes this photograph of the Simonds workforce in 1850. When this was taken, photography was in its infancy and most images were formal portraits. Very few photographs this early showed people in their working clothes with their tools, as this one does. The picture is also remarkable because the names of most of the men are given. The 1850 US Census shows some of  these skilled craftsmen. Click on pictures to enlarge them. 

1850 US Census, Fitchburg, MA

The Simonds Windowless Plant

The current Simonds factory in Fitchburg was a revolutionary design incorporating many innovative features. The genesis of the plan was the Simonds ideal of high product quality. As he told it to Popular Mechanics in late 1930, general manager Gifford Kingsbury Simonds (1881-1941) began to plan new facilities 2 years earlier. Simonds realized that for optimal efficiency and high quality work, the workers should have perfect working conditions. He considered lighting, temperature, dust control, and noise abatement. The typical factory of the day was lit with side windows, supplemented by skylights and electric lighting. Windows were opened in the summer, and winter heat was from the production processes or a central steam boiler. Power was a combination of steam, electric, and water. Noisy machinery was in a separate building, and office personnel were in another building.

Simonds windowless plant, Fitchburg

Simonds chose the ideal contractor, Austin Company of Cleveland, Ohio. Austin was the nation’s first large design-build company, including architectural, engineering, and construction in their services. Gifford Simonds and Austin Co. designed a plant lit entirely with electric lighting, with no windows to create shadows or to allow noise to escape, central heating and air conditioning, combination acoustical and thermal insulation, fans to remove dust, large clear spans under a welded steel roof, and even a catwalk for tours over the production floor. Gifford Simonds publicized the project widely, giving interviews to various trade publications and featuring the plant design in Simonds advertising. His shorthand phrase for the innovative design was "windowless plant."

The old Simonds saw works was in the center of Fitchburg, on Main Street a few blocks from downtown. The site of the new plant was on the south edge of town, and had been the Boston & Maine Railroad’s car shops and Simonds file works, traditional brick buildings lit by rows of large windows. The old buildings were demolished and tracks pulled up to create a large site. Construction began in 1930, with a cornerstone ceremony 20 Dec. 1930. Lumber Trade Journal, 15 Jan. 1931 announced, "Witnessed by a gathering of over 500 spectators, including municipal officials and industrial leaders, the cornerstone of the first windowless factory—the ultra-modern plant of the Simonds Saw & Steel Company, was laid at Fitchburg...."

  

Simonds file works, B&M RR car shops, early 1900s

Construction was expected to be complete in mid-1931, which proved to be very optimistic. In June, 1931, Gifford Simonds was still tinkering with the details, including interior paint colors. "An orange has good reflection value and also the brightness and lift so requisite in a windowless plant." Then, due to the worsening Great Depression, the decision was made at the end of July 1931 to delay the move. The uncompleted work included concrete footings and wiring for machinery and interior painting. The Fitchburg Sentinel said, "Stopping Work Temporarily on New Simonds Plant" on 30 July 1931, but the pause lasted 7 years. Simonds apparently remained profitable, because Gifford Simonds had a new 33-foot yacht delivered in 1935. 

On Saturday, 2 July 1938, the Fitchburg Sentinel finally announced, "Simonds Co. Starts to Consolidate Factories." Even this task was not completed quickly, because followup articles state that operations began the next year. The Paper Mill and Wood Pulp News said in 1939, "Preliminary to its official opening about March 15, the windowless, single floor plant of the Simonds Saw and Steel Company was inspected here today by publishers representing the leading industrial publications."

Simonds plant interior, file production line, 1939 

Despite the delay in opening the Simonds plant, Austin Co. adopted the design in the 1930s, making its key features standard for factory and warehouse structures. The windowless design with clear spans was ideal for World War II production, particularly aircraft. Two examples were the Consolidated Vultee bomber plant at Fort Worth, TX and another for Douglas at Tulsa, OK. While Simonds’ promotion of their windowless plant had slowed while the project was dormant, it resumed when the plant opened. Numerous mentions of  "Simonds Famous Windowless Plant" appeared in advertisements and articles in the 1940s and 1950s.

Simonds plant layout