Thomas Wieckowski, chair of the Cheltenham Township Historical Commission, published “An Historical Perspective on the SPS Fire of 2025” in the commission’s March edition of The Ivy Today.
From the newsletter:
The media is reporting on the ‘104 year history’ of the SPS plant in Abington that tragically burned down this week using the date of the establishment of SPS in Jenkintown. Actually the history of the industrial installation in Abington is even older and more complex than that.
SPS was founded in 1903 by Howard T. Hallowell and several friends. Hallowell was a member of the extensive Hallowell family in Montgomery County northwest of the city and was born on the family farm in the village of Hallowell near Warminster in 1877. Young Hallowell was working in the drawing room at a factory in Philadelphia when an industrial accident caught his attention. In the age before machines were powered by electricity, steam power turned an axle hanging from the ceiling from which hung leather belts that powered tools on the factory floor. A “hanger” holding up the axle typically made out of brittle cast iron, broke and injured several workers as the apparatus fell to the floor. Hallowell obtained a patent in 1901 for making the hangers out of more stable steel and formed the company, chartered on January 19th, 1903, at 20th and Clearfield Streets in Philadelphia to produce his innovation. Other innovations followed including the socket wrench and a six-sided wrench, commonly known today as an Allen wrench after another manufacturer.
Ironically, in 1916, a fire destroyed the Clearfield Street plant and interrupted business at that location. In 1919, Hallowell purchased the vacant Wharton Switch Works plant in Jenkintown. Further innovations there included bolts and screws that sat flush to the surface of the object in order to diminish the chance of snagging workers’ clothing, a line of steel work benches and cabinets for factory installations, and well into the 20th century, the specialized bolts, rivets and fasteners used today throughout the aviation industry and other transportation applications.
Industrialist Joseph Wharton (as in Wharton School) moved his Wharton Switch Works from downtown to Jenkintown on 40 acres of land purchased in 1882 on part of what had been the 100-acre Edward Mather farm. The Switch Works manufactured an improved safety switch that was used by railroads throughout the country during the boom development years of American railroading and street railways. Although Joseph named his younger and less accomplished brother, William Wharton, Jr., as superintendent of the plant, he named his banker brother-in-law Abraham Barker of “Lyndon” (now Curtis Arboretum) a Cheltenham resident during the Gilded Age of wealthy industrialists, as president of the company. He also named Abraham’s son, Wharton Barker, whose estate in Cheltenham was named “Wyncote,” as the treasurer of the company. The factory employed 150 men and successfully and profitably manufactured switches and rails until 1912 when the company merged with Taylor Iron and moved to Easton, PA, in 1916.
The factory complex was sold to William Sackett Duell, president of General Textile Machinery Company, in April of 1918. It doesn’t seem likely that Duell actually conducted a manufacturing business there but Hallowell in his autobiography said that Duell had made significant repairs and improvements to the various buildings before precipitously selling to Hallowell in 1919. SPS was the successor to that industrial complex and many of their new buildings were constructed around the former Wharton structures. Wharton Road honoring the proprietors runs through the SPS tract and neighborhood today.
The first photograph below is an enlarged detail from a 1926 Dallin Aerial Survey photograph of the Glenside area looking north. The complex of buildings looks much the same as when Wharton Switch Works occupied the site. Highland Avenue is on the left and Glenside Avenue is along the bottom. Distances are distorted because of the angle of the camera and distance from the location. The railroad is hidden in the tree line above the Glenside Avenue houses as the photo was taken before electrification of the line and erection of the electrical towers which would mark the location of the tracks above the trees. The second photograph from television coverage of the fire indicates the labyrinthian nature of the present plant as SPS added on additional structures to the existing legacy buildings through the years. I believe that the old wood of the legacy buildings contributed to the intensity and quick spread of the fire.
In related news, Montgomery County’s female firefighters will be demonstrating fire suppression skills to encourage other women to become firefighters on Monday, March 3 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at the Montgomery County Fire Academy, 1175 Academy Drive in Conshohocken.
Local firefighters from La Mott Fire Company (Cheltenham Township) and surrounding companies from greater Glenside will be at the event.
Many of the female firefighters volunteer with companies that aided Abington and Jenkintown in their efforts to manage the SPS fire earlier this month. They will wear gear, pull ladders, advance hose lines, hone their fire suppression techniques and drive the fire trucks during the event.
The county’s recruitment website can be found here.
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.
Photo: The Ivy Today, Cheltenham Township Historical Commission