1945 Stock Certificate - Doehler-Jarvis Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Description

1945 Stock certificate from the Doehler-Jarvis Corporation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It is cancelled, measures 11 1/2" x 8 1/4".
H. H. Doehler moved his Doehler Die Casting Company from Brooklyn in 1921 to the old Worden Monument Works on Evans Street in Batavia, NY. Mr. Doehler had chosen Batavia because it was near the Kodak plant in Rochester, one of his customers. There was also adequate room for expansion in the Evans Street area. Mr. Doehler got his start making aluminum parts for gas masks during World War I and it was the aluminum casting machinery that was first set up in the Evans Street buildings. The next year Mr. Doehler bought factory buildings on Robertson Street from the Batavia Rubber Company and installed brass casting machinery. All the original Evans Street buildings were rebuilt to make them fireproof, and later they were reinforced for use in the manufacture of munitions. They were not used after the end of World War 11 and have now been cleared to make way for parking around the city skating rink. Many additions were made to the Robertson Street buildings. In 1945 a magnesium foundry was built east of Ganson Avenue. Reflecting the expansion of the company in 1944 it became the Doehler-Jarvis Company, Inc. when Doehler purchased the W. B. Jarvis Company of
Grand Rapids, Michigan
, a company that made automobile trimmings, furniture and appliances. Two earlier purchases had brought the number of Doehler-Jarvis plants to four. In 1952 National Lead of New Jersey purchased all plants of the Doehler-jarvis Company and the Batavia plant became the Doehler-Jarvis Division of National Lead. The plant employed 1,500 men in the busy years, but work decreased under National Lead until by 1980 there were only about 150. The numbers continued to decrease until the plant finally. closed in 1981.