History |
The following company history is based on my text in A Field Guide to American Residential Doors, pp. 208-209.
Radford was one of the largest millwork companies in the nation in the early twentieth century. The company is best known today for its kit house catalogs.
William A. Radford and his brother Stephen Radford purchased the Libbey Mill, a sawmill, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1874. They re-named the company S. Radford & Brother and used the lumber mark of a "W." Charles W. Radford, a son of William Radford, constructed a small sash and door factory in 1879 as the first step in producing finished products, and by 1882 its sales had increased fourfold. The company's management expanded soon thereafter, taking the new name Radford Brothers & Company and building a new sawmill that was the first to use a bandsaw. Charles W. Radford successfully managed the company, earning a national reputation for his expertise in Wisconsin white pine and hemlock. With decreasing availability of Wisconsin lumber, the company opened a sash and door factory in Chicago by 1904 and purchased a distribution warehouse in Duluth in 1905. The company's Oshkosh mill burned in 1906 and was rebuilt although the company headquarters were moved to Chicago.
Radford initiated its own distribution network in the twentieth century. It purchased its first fleet of trucks in 1918 to deliver products to its distributors, bypassing the elevated rail rates. Radford set up the best sales force and the best distribution network for its products, and in 1938 the company closed its millwork operations, becoming solely a millwork distribution network. One of its largest clients was Morgan, which contracted with Radford to distribute its products beginning in 1946. Congestion on roads in the eastern states caused Radford to decide in 1956 to close its warehouses in Baltimore (opened 1920) and Harrisburg (opened 1947), consolidating its operations in the Midwest and opening warehouses in Fargo, Bismarck, and Omaha. The Radford family sold the company in 1986 to Dyson, Dyson, & Dunn, which invested in well-run companies (Oshkosh Northwestern, 6/5/1953; 4/8/1986).
The Radford Company produced a variety of catalogs in the early twentieth century. Catalogs of house plans were produced from circa 1898 until circa 1926 and were known for the quality of the illustrations. The variety of house plans included Queen Anne, Shingle, and the American Foursquare types among many others. Radford produced the Universal Design and Official Molding Book in 1904 that illustrated the company's line of millwork. The catalog was actually a 400-page book that included several color plates to convey a sense of some stained glass options. At that time, Radford offered a wide selection of doors and windows as well as the usual interior features such s balusters, newels, brackets, gable ornaments, and columns. After the company ended its millwork production, it produced catalogs that solely illustrated products distributed by Radford. An early post-World War II example is the Radford-Morgan-Andersen catalog of 1949. The doors in the tabbed catalog were produced by Morgan, and the windows were produced by Andersen. The 1952 Woodwork of Distinction: Radford & Sanders catalog was published to illustrate millwork sold through the Radford warehouses in Baltimore and Harrisburg (the two warehouses that Radford closed in 1956). The catalog occasionally identifies the company producing the items illustrated (such as Andersen windows), but none of the doors are identified as Morgan products. It is possible that the doors were produced locally and not by Morgan, since the Morgan kitchen accessories are noticeably absent from the catalog.
Millwork catalogs at archive.org:
1904,
1941,
1949,
1952 |