Great Pics of Parsons St. and a good story

[FredZepp]

Link>>> Tour of Parsons St by Mandolin Cafe... with interview w Ren

 

Some quotes... But also .. BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE PICS IN THE SLIDE SHOW..

 

"But my fascination on this day is seeing Kalamazoo and the factory halls where Lloyd Loar and his fellow craftsmen once roamed.

At last I find Parsons Street, turn onto it, and drive past what was once a sprawling Gibson complex of separate buildings connected with walkways. They all look rather flat and boring, except the noble, three-story, tan structure at the southeast corner—birthplace of the F5 mandolin and the L5 archtop guitar.

 

I came looking for what is and shadows of what was.

 

A worker was having a smoke break outside an arched entryway with a wooden door that says Heritage Guitar Inc. with a cutout of an F5 mandolin underneath. I told him I was looking for Ren Wall. Former Gibson employees started Heritage in 1985 in what Siminoff says "they always kindly referred to as the old building," a place where Gibson built mandolins and banjos right up until they left in 1984.

 

"Ren's here," the gentleman said. "Go on in. Go down through this door, down the stairs and through the next door and look for him on the left."

 

I did, and stepped into a large room with offices on my left, a guy gluing binding on a guitar on my right, sawdust and wood and instrument part shapes and equipment in front of me for a long ways.

 

Curley Holiday, the binding craftsman, was telling me about some longtime Gibson artisans still living in the area when Rendal Wall tapped me on the shoulder and said "can I help you." An earlier phone call to an owner had alerted him that I was coming, as he normally only gives plant tours on Wednesday afternoons, I was told.

 

Wall is steeped in both the old and new.

 

His father, Rem Wall, worked for Gibson for 37 years starting in the early 1940s, and he was also a noted musician, songwriter and radio performer in the Kalamazoo area.

 

Ren Wall followed in his father's sawdust tracks and worked for Gibson for 22 years. Now, he's worked for Heritage for 24 years, doing everything from sweeping floors and public relations work to guitar setups, inventing pickups and stringing up newly built instruments. His photographs of Heritage guitars adorn the company website.

 

"We produce four to six instruments a day here, depending on the wood mix," Wall said. "We employ less than 20 people. There's no CNC routers here, it's all made by hand, the old fashioned way."

 

We stepped into Heritage offices and walked past racks of finished electric guitars. Heritage at first included acoustic instruments similar to the old Gibsons in their line, but the company now focuses on electric guitars.

 

"Back in the old days of Gibson, there would be 450 to 1,000 people putting out 450 guitars a day here," said Wall, who started in 1960."

[Gitfiddler]

Thanks, Fred. That was an amazing article and photos. It brought me even closer to the factory.

 

It is so unpretentious, yet stately.

[skydog52]

Thanks for sharing Fred. That was a great article.

Such great history at that address.

My only hope is that a young group of luthiers keeps

that place humming.

[Hfan]

Thanks for the great article Fred. I hope to get there one day.

[schundog]

Thanks for the link, Fred. It's cool to read a true wordsmith's description of what I think of the place, as well. I, too, felt a charm of the railroad tracks being right next to the plant. During the tour we took, a slow moving freight train rolled by, blaring it's lonesome, echoing, horn. I definitely felt like I was in a time warp, for some reason, in a good way.

[brentrocks]

Very nice

[pegleg32]

Great article Fred. Really enjoyed reading it.

[golferwave]

Thanks for posting Fred...The article says it all.

[ronalr]

Thanks again Fred...great article...you always find interesting reads!!!!!

[chico]

Thanks for the link, Fred. It's cool to read a true wordsmith's description of what I think of the place, as well. I, too, felt a charm of the railroad tracks being right next to the plant. During the tour we took, a slow moving freight train rolled by, blaring it's lonesome, echoing, horn. I definitely felt like I was in a time warp, for some reason, in a good way.

 

you really know how to tug at the heartstrings of this railfan!

 

actually, for anyone interested, that line was once a part of the giant Pennsylvania Railroad system, PRR was the "standard railroad of the world", though this was just a branch line that came north off the PRR E-W mainline and route of the fabled "Broadway Limited" at Fort Wayne, IN., and went all the way (at one time) to the Straits of Mackinac.

 

this part was known as "the fishing line" because PRR could tout vacation packages that would originate in NY or Philly or Pittsburgh, and head west to Ft Wayne, then north to the woodlands and lakes of Michigan. But that was in the first half of the 20th century, and the second half saw the line become part of a secondary freight route. Today that line only intact from Kalamazoo north to Grand Rapids.

 

But, when railroads used to bring boxcars to your local siding and spot it for the local industry, the PRR brought boxcars of Maine spruce and set them out in a siding just south of Parsons St. where Gibson employees could unload the stocks. Jim D. pointed to the location one day while I was visiting.

 

there's your train story for the day.. (and next year at the PSPIV we are doing "long train runnin")

[FredZepp]

Chico loves his trains..!!!

 

 

 

I was happy when I found this article , but the pics are quite the added touch.

 

I'm glad that others enjoyed it too....

[Guest HRB853370]

Thanks Fred, for sharing, that was an excellent read. My first visit to Parsons street this summer was something special too. While I was waiting for the tour to begin at 1 pm, a man sat outside the building having a smoke. I introduced myself, and he introduced himself as Jack French. I later googled him to find out more, but he had told me that he was a long time Gibson employee and did the repairs for them back in the day. I picked his brain about the famous people he did repairs for and there were too many to count on both hands. Now he does part time work for Heritage. And just the thought of all the famous artists that had walked through those doors during the 67 years Gibson occupied that building, gave me the goosebumps.

[Thundersteel]

Nice story! And the pics were a nice added touch. Thanx!

[blueox]

"you really know how to tug at the heartstrings of this railfan! . . . But, when railroads used to bring boxcars to your local siding and spot it for the local industry, the PRR brought boxcars of Maine spruce and set them out in a siding just south of Parsons St. where Gibson employees could unload the stocks. Jim D. pointed to the location one day while I was visiting."

 

Hey Chico, I am a fellow railfan, growing up within sight of the Pennsyvania RR on the southeast side of Kalamazoo and enjoyed watching the freights roll by with rockabilly, blues, and soul music in the background. I often wondered why Gibson did not have a rail spur right up by the building for loading and unloading, but that would have entailed cutting into their instrument production areas for using forklifts, storage, dealing with dust, and so on. I believe their amplifier building on Alcott St. did have a rail spur along the plant.

 

This is an interesting story, especially the photo series with scenes from inside and outside the factory, along with surrounding area views showing the factory in context of a neighborhood. It is sometimes interesting to hear the reactions of an outsider, given their different take on a subject that one holds dear. However, he almost doesn't menton Heritage by name, as he is looking for "the lost Gibson mine" going way back to those days of Lloyd Loar. As far as Gibson goes, I am more interested in the Ted McCarty era of the ES-335, Seth Lover, Epiphones, and so on. As an acoustic/mandolin player, he is focused on the artisans of old, but he could have presented the modern artisans of Heritage which are second to none and have created their own classic era over the last 25 years and looking to the future.