From the Fox River Valley to the Windy City: The Roaring Twenties and the Neenah Foundry

The 1920s began with significant economic prosperity and an emphasis on social and culturally rich energy with an influx of jazz, Art-Deco, telephones, film, and radio in cities like Chicago, IL. With the City of Chicago flourishing, The Neenah Foundry of the Fox River Valley produced almost all the manhole covers and sewer grates dotting the streets. Documentation indicates that the Neenah Foundry cast manhole covers for the City of Chicago as early as 1920 if not earlier.[1] It is difficult to date these manhole covers because foundry catalogs rarely mentioned them, but we can use the cover’s various surface patterns and styles to estimate dates.[2]

As of 2016, the Chicago Water Department had 46,000 manhole covers and the gas company had over 4,000, all produced at The Neenah Foundry.[3] The relationship between the City of Chicago and The Neenah Foundry continues today with recent production (2008-2016) resulting in over one billion dollars in sales.[4]

Written by Keith Kaziak, September 2021.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Matt Bubala, “Chicago’s Manhole Covers Have Been Made at Same Foundry Since At

Least 1920,” WGN Radio (June 14, 2016). Accessed September 1, 2021 https://wgnradio.com/2016/06/14/chicagos-manhole-covers-have-been-made-at-same-foundry-since-at-least-1920/.

[2] Mimi Melnick, Manhole Covers (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994): 8.

[3] Nancy Stetson, “COVER GRILL,” Chicago Tribune (October 30, 1994). Accessed September 1, 2021 https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-10-30-9410300350-story.html

[4] Matt Bubala, “Chicago’s Manhole Covers Have Been Made at Same Foundry Since At

Least 1920,” (Chicago: WGN Radio, June 14, 2016). Accessed September 1, 2021 https://wgnradio.com/2016/06/14/chicagos-manhole-covers-have-been-made-at-same-foundry-since-at-least-1920/.