King 1927 Building
Where Kings are Built Acoustically Correct
The H. N. White Company Factory
In 1893 the first location of The H. N. White Company was at 13 woodland Ave in Cleveland and was very small (very close to where the main Post Office is now in Cleveland). As with any growing business Mr. White soon ran out of space and in 1897 moved to 1870 East 9th Street, in the Erie Building. In 1908 Mr. White purchased two lots on Superior Avenue and started construction of the first building with 38,000 square feet of work space. In 1909 Mr. White moved from the little workshop to 5225 Superior Avenue. By 1911 Mr. White was already expanding the original building with a dedicated space for polishing and plating. In 1912 construction started in the second lot (attached to the plating department) the brass works which is the final assembly department. The next major expansion came in 1917 with a three story addition built in front of the final assembly department off Superior Avenue this became the wood working department responsible for case manufacturing. In 1923 Mr. HN White purchased the rest of the lot off of East 53rd Avenue giving another access point to the factory. With this an addition was added to the final assembly department which went all the way to East 53rd Avenue. In the 1926 catalog picture there looks to be green space from 5229 Superior to East 53rd Avenue but according to the 1925 Sanborn Fire Map there is a small general store and apartment with garages. In 1926 Mr. White purchased another lot off of 53rd Avenue directly behind the final assembly building and started the construction of a three story store room for both raw material and finished product. This building ran from East 53rd to behind an apartment building on 1446 East 53rdAvenue. In 1930 the original building and additions (to that building) were increased to three stories. By 1932 HN White claimed seven buildings with 64,000 square feet of floor space taking nearly one-half of a city block.
The next major expansion of The H. N. White factory came during World War II with the construction of a three story building that connected to the back of the original building and went west to East 52nd Avenue. This addition expanded the plating department and final assembly department doubling production. Then in 1945 Mrs. Edna White purchased the apartment building directly west of the original building. The apartment building was removed and this space was turned into parking and another small building was constructed to hold wood stock for the case department. In 1947 Mrs. White purchased the general store and apartments and converted it to office space for the marking department and machine shop. At this point the company truly owed a complete city block from East 52nd all the way to East 53rd Avenue.