On Jan 7, 1912, the company’s first building in the North Loop burned down during record-setting cold. (Hennepin County Library)
The Logan Park Industrial area houses a variety of buildings. A bright red, one-story building stands out among them. The long hallways of the Waterbury Building are now filled with a variety of unique businesses and relics of a once lucrative company that lived inside the walls for more than a half-century.
Clyde Waterman and J.L. Waterbury brought their furnace expertise and business aspirations to Minnesota in 1907, forming the Waterman-Waterbury company. The duo operated the business out of a building owned by J.J. Hill and the Great Northern Railroad Company in what was known at the time as the wholesale district (now North Loop).
Home heating looked a lot different in Minnesota homes over a century ago. At a time when oil and gas heated homes, schools and businesses with inconsistent temperatures from one end of the room to another, the company boasted a newly patented innovative solution to clean heat and circulation.
The company stood by a guarantee that their furnaces provided consistent warmth through their state-of-the-art systems and kept all combustibles airtight, making the process cleaner and safer. The Waterman-Waterbury “seamless furnace” was born. Both the storefront and factory were housed at the same North Loop site where quality manufactured products helped build their reputation.
1912 began with the longest below-zero cold stretch recorded in weather history with seven days clocking 186 of those hours at or below zero. Adding insult to injury for not just the company, but those in need of a custom-ordered furnace, the North Loop building burned down on Jan. 7, the last day of that stretch.
The fire consumed the Continental and Grand Central Hotels, creating a spectacular sight in the cold air. According to an 85-year-old onlooker who paced to keep from freezing while talking to a Minneapolis Morning Tribune reporter, “the thick smoke and dense steam generated by the extreme cold made it impossible for the fireman to see what they were doing. It was worse than fighting a fire in the dark.”
Almost immediately, Waterman identified their next move — 1121 Jackson St. NE. The building was already factory-established by Waterbury Implement and capable of resuming production. The business moved to the 60,000-sq-ft. building and resumed operations, maintaining the company’s national headquarters among 33 offices scattered throughout the U.S.
The company’s focus turned to rural schools and consistent heating, creating a business platform geared toward helping children comfortably learn without the consequences of the health implications caused by extreme classroom temperatures. Other innovations included a custom-built sanitary closet, promising to provide indoor convenience without plumbing and mitigate the dangers of the outhouse.
“It [outdoor closets] is also a menace to health,” said an ad in a 1914 Farmer’s Wife magazine. “It’s a greater danger than you realize. It spreads disease by polluting the air, by contaminating wells and streams.”
Air conditioning entered the picture in the 1930s. The company’s newest product, Comfortrol, was a combination of heat, humidity, clean air and air movement, providing homes with both summer cooling and winter warming options and an added health benefit — weeding out plant pollen responsible for hay fever.
The ’50s brought new leadership, with David Sedgwick heading the company as president from 1952-1957. After disagreements on policy and board decisions, Sedgwick left, leaving the reins with Ray Dervey, a former general sales manager with St. Paul’s American Hoist & Derrick Co. At the time, the company ranked number two out of 400 warm-air heating manufacturers in the U.S. But the changes did not lead to a robust business trajectory and in 1962, the company filed for bankruptcy, shutting its doors and beginning a two-and-a-half-year hiatus.
Entrepreneurs Paul F. Jock and Harry Pinkham scooped up the broke company, moving the headquarters south to Fort Wayne, Ind., where they continued manufacturing furnaces, parts, humidifiers and air conditioners. Even though the dust seemed to be settling on the Jackson Street building, several former employees happened to save engineering plans, eventually gaining rights to manufacture the product under a new name and a familiar face.
David Sedgwick re-entered the picture as president in 1966, leading the company in a different direction. Waterbury Inc. relaunched with the same values and mission, but with historical change in 1971, declaring it “the only minority owned residential furnace manufacturer in the United States.”
The White Earth Chippewa Band of Mahnomen purchased a 51% controlling interest in the company, which partnered with the reservation and trained Indigenous employees to build oil and gas furnaces, according to a 1971 Minneapolis Star article. Contracts with the U.S. military base in Grand Forks, N.D., and with several state tribes increased profits and promoted inclusive customer service interactions.
“You should have a minority person representing a minority-owned concern,” said Sedgwick. At this point, hopes to expand operations by contracting with low-income housing developments to increase the workforce was in the works.
Eventually, Sedgwick wanted operations moved to Mahnomen. It’s unclear if this ever occurred. Over the next decades, the company’s media presence was quiet, the Waterbury building eventually vacated by the company after an administrative dissolution.
The space was acquired by investors in 2004 whose main goal was to create business spaces while preserving the patina and history of the building. The building was purchased by shareholder Maggie Linvill Smith, CEO of Linvill Properties in 2019.
Since the last purchase, the space once occupied by the furnace giant now houses a conglomerate of art-related, retail, athletic and therapeutic businesses. Domestic Abuse Project, Xelias Aerial Arts Studio, Slam Academy and Steller Handcrafted Goods are a few of the tenants.
What happened?
There are gaps in this building’s history that leave questions about the potential move to Mahnomen and involvement with the White Earth Chippewa Band. After 1971, the media about the company dissipated and little is known what happened afterwards.
Jacob Syverson at the White Earth Land Office took a look at their historical documents and files, coming up with no additional information on the acquisition, saying in an email, “in 1971 most business deals were done by our umbrella tribe known as the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.”
He also noted that in 1980, a fire destroyed many historical documents which makes it difficult to unearth what really happened to the already struggling company. Even word-of-mouth inquiries in the community came up empty.
To make the story even more complicated, the original company owners Clyde Waterman and J.L. Waterbury may have owned another Waterman-Waterbury Company in Regina, Canada. Heritage researcher Ross Harrington of Regina worked to answer those questions up until his death in 2015, finding that the company built homes and commercial buildings, and like their U.S. company, had a strong focus on heating schools. Records indicate the company’s continued presence building furnace parts into the 1940s.