Trust Hammond Organ Company For The Best Of Hammonds!
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Written by Nitiphat N.
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
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Ernest and Caroline Hohman bought 39 acres of land near grand Calumer River and this area remained unsettled till 1869 until Hammond Company bought the land from hohmans for slaughter house. In the beginning the slaughterhouse flourished and the company employed 1,500 workers. Then Marcus Towel, who was one of the partners of Hammond’s platted the subdivision and built a luxurious hotel, roller skating, opera house and established first cemetery. The city appointed him as the first mayor of Hammond’s in 1883.
In 1901 the Hammond Company got destroyed because of fire and the support of labour diminished and eradicated 1500 jobs. The city suffered from crisis and Hammond got successful in getting the attention of new industrialists. In 1906, standard steel car company came and employed 3500 men. But Hammond never became developed industrial city like its neighbours East Chicago, Gary and others.
Instead, Hammond developed an impressive regional downtown with the Hammond Organ Company was founded by Laurens Hammond in 1928. The company got success in 1934 when Hammond patented an electric organ and started manufacturing instruments. He sold more than 1,750 organs of 275 pounds to households and churches in 1936. After that company employed around 1000 people during 1950s and changed company’s name to Hammond Musical Instrument Company.
By 1970 Hammond developed four plants in Chicago with the annual sales of $100 million. During that time he also employed 4,500 people nationwide. Because of the sales of the organ declined during 1970s, the company was taken over by Marmon group of Chicago. Suzuki group of Japan became the owner of Hammond group by 1990s. From the information described in above paragraph demonstrates the interesting history of the company so you will get the useful information. May be not for playing but if you are the real fan of Hummond organ, it is still good to know.
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