A Brief History of Arcade Manufacturing Company

The Arcade Manufacturing Company, based in Freeport, Illinois, produced various products, including coffee mills, stoves, and other household items. The company was founded in the late 19th century and operated until the mid-20th century.

The Arcade Company has always made a specialty of coffee mills. Besides the dozens of coffee mills of diverse designs, the Arcade also manufactured hinges, screen door hinges, stove pipe dampers, lid lifters, cork extractors, corkscrews, and numerous small notions and novelties. Multiple children’s toys, such as toy coffee mills, miniature trains, swings, doll carriages, etc., have also been manufactured.

The Arcade Company prided itself on producing the best quality products. Everything started from the finest material obtainable by skilled workers.

Arcade Manufacturing Company History

1868: Morgan Brothers, Charles Morgan, and Edward H. Morgan founded the Novelty Iron Works on the corner of Chicago and Jackson streets in Stephenson County, Chicago, Illinois, with ten employees.

1874: The old buildings were torn down, and a brand new, $25,000 manufacturing facility was built on the same spot with more advanced features such as a machine shop, foundry, and engine room.

1877: J.P. Easeter joined the company as a partner, and the company began manufacturing a variety of castings as Novelty Iron Works. One of the most dominant castings manufactured was plows and pumps.

1885: The company went out of business in 1885. Edward Morgan, Charles Morgan, and Albert Baumgarten reorganized the company as the Arcade Manufacturing Company in the same facility where the Novel Iron Works company was. The company grew too fast, and it was getting too crowded. They moved to a new factory in East Freeport.

1891: The company moved again to a building that the Emory and Williams Canning Company previously owned. It was a perfect building for Arcade because of the machinery that had already been installed. Charles Morgan’s design of coffee mill was patented on October 20, 1891 (No 461,784)

1892: The new location was burned down to the ground. No one was able to identify the cause of the fire. The fire was the knockout punch to the rapidly growing company. Everything burned, including all supplies and new equipment. Also, the fire destroyed about 40,000 coffee mills. The Arcade Manufacturing Company has accrued a deficit of over $20,000.

1893: The company was quickly reorganized and recovered from the deadly blow. It successfully built a new factory at a place now known as the Arcade Addition. The Arcade Addition was a land that belonged to the Keller- Wittbecker farm. A portion of the land was sold to the Arcade Manufacturing Company. Loyal.L. Munn (who later became the principal stockholder with heavy investment) became a partner.

1897: Started manufacturing a variety of wall-mounted coffee mills.

1900: The United States Patent Office grants Charles Morgan the patent (No 652, 323) on a new type of wall coffee mill known as the Crystal No 1.

1908: The animal banks launched with a horse figure and later expanded production by adding lion, seal, pig, buffalo, cow, rhinoceros, and rat.

1909-1933: Various toy products, such as the famous Yellow Cab and Fordson, were produced.

1935: Arcade introduced a line of inexpensive home-shop tools (Arcade Craft Tools and Craftmaster)

1941: Arcade introduced the Homecraft line of woodworking machinery.

1946: Arcade was purchased by Rockwell Manufacturing Company, mainly for their foundry and machining facilities. Sadly, Arcade stopped producing products, including coffee mills

The Best Sellers of the Arcade Company

In the history of the Arcade Manufacturing Company, the Arcade Crystal Series (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4) was the best-selling coffee mill that they applied for protection of the name.