Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I'll respond to each of your comments thus far below with tagging instead of quote replies so I don't clog things up in the thread.
@d42jeep - That thread as one of my first stops when I started the research and finding the Kirchner's Korner link where the guy's grandfather was one of the two founders was amazing. Unfortunately the link doesn't work anymore and I'm trying to track him down, which is proving very challenging. He had an incredible photo of the owners at an exhibit, which thankfully I saved before the website blipped out. I believe his grandfather was William McBride and not the other founder, William Selikoff.
@Gutman and
@Private Lugnutz the original factory is located just behind 1441 Main Street at 26 Glenwood. It's a freestanding one story building, but did have some historic association with the Main Street property. They were built less than a year apart by the same developer and designed by the same architect. 1441 Main Street did contain a small retail storefront for Meteor Manufacturing, but it was not production space.
That planned redevelopment of the old storage building across the street is pretty exciting. Middle Main Street has languished compared to more concentrated redevelopment and new development at either end. Once known as Automobile Row and lined with dealerships from downtown to the city edge, there were support businesses to the automotive industry along Main and some of the adjacent side streets like where the former factory is located. In fact, the first tenant in 1923 when it was completed was a Cadillac & Lincoln repair shop.
In addition to that building, the former Flextime building a few doors up on the same side was bought by the guy who owns Fitz Waffles and Books downtown. His mother owns a wholesale flower business near his place too and I'm guessing based on the size of this new building (two big warehouses on one parcel), they may be moving both of their businesses up this way, which would really start breathing some life into this section.
As far as the tools go, they'll be heading to a vintage display case that will have a place of prominence in the small office space that will be built out in the interior.
I'm always seeing new versions of tools that I hadn't seen before, like that set of three pliers, which I had to snap up. I'm hoping to track down the guy who posted this back in 2012 and see if I can buy this Meteor Wrench off him,
see here. Until seeing his post, I had no idea there was a different design they had so I'm thinking this one would have been the first iteration before the ones we're all used to seeing.
I was really hopeful, but not holding my breath, that I would find some remnant of Meteor Mfg in the building. Shockingly, when I was removing a built up platform near the entry and sweeping up the debris, a single Meteor wrench appeared! That will have a special place of honor in the cabinet for sure.
I have a LOT more history on the building itself and Meteor Mfg from all the research I've been doing if you guys are interested in hearing more.
worthy. I'd love to find one.
