Gray & Barton I & II
Life Span: 1870-1871
Location: 162 South Water Street (1869)
479 State, corner Eldridge (1870-1871)
Architect: Unknown
Edwards’ 1870 & 1871 City Directories lists Gray & Barton at 479 State Street. Also a “Gray & Barton’s Telegraph Instrument Shop” advertisement appeared in The Chicago Tribune on May 4, 1870.
The Graybar Story, Graybar, May, 2013
Enos Barton, who served as a telegrapher during the Civil War. was hired at age 20 as the Chief Operator for Western Union’s office in Rochester, New York in 1862.
in 1867, Western Union closed its Cleveland shop, which was purchased by its superintendent, George Shawk. On a trip to Rochester, he and Barton agreed to become business partners. Full of entrepreneurial spirit, Barton left Western Union and prepared to go into business with Shawk. There was only one challenge—the 26-year-old Barton was strapped for cash. So he borrowed $1,500—including $400 from his widowed mother, who mortgaged the family farm, to finance the purchase. Barton moved to Cleveland, where he and Shawk opened for business in January 1869.
Soon Shawk grew tired of the business, and he sold his interest to Elisha Gray. Up until then, Gray had been one of the firm’s best customers. He was a professor at Oberlin College and an inventor of telegraphic equipment. In the fall of 1869, Gray & Barton was formed as a manufacturer of products, such as electric burglar and fire alarms, Morse telegraph instruments, railroad safety signals and Gray’s electric annunciator—a buzzer system used in hotels and offices.
The success of Gray and Barton attracted the attention of General Anson Stager, general superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Stager trusted their combined genius and could provide much-needed capital, so he offered to become a business partner on the condition that the company would move from Cleveland to Chicago. In August, 1869, the company opened its doors at 162 South Water Street in Chicago.
With Stager’s influence, Western Union became Gray & Barton’s biggest customer. In 1871 the Great Chicago Fire ravaged the city, destroying Western Union’s headquarters and most of its telegraph lines. Fortunately, the fire stopped two blocks short of Gray & Barton’s small plant, which moved to larger quarters at the corner of State and Eldridge in 1870.
479-483 State Street
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1869
479-483 State Street
Location of Gray & Barton Factory in Relation to Chicago Fire
1871
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