page_title: Bartlett-Hayward Company
section_title: Post-War Gas Industry
hierarchical_section_title: Bartlett-Hayward Company / History / Post-War Gas Industry
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of the George Peabody Library in Baltimore
context_page_description: Bartlett-Hayward Company was a metalworking foundry located in Baltimore, Maryland founded in 1837. The company engaged initially in the production of latrobe stoves, but by the end of the nineteenth century, its Pigtown complex was the largest iron foundry in the United States, with a diverse output including cast-iron architecture, steam heating equipment, machine parts, railroad engines and piston rings.
  During the peak of cast-iron architecture in the nineteenth century, the company was well known for its ornate building façades, which were shipped nationally. Among their notable projects were their contributions to the Sun Iron Building in Baltimore and the Harper Brothers Building in New York City, together credited as among the first major iron-front buildings in the United States.
  In the twentieth century, Bartlett-Hayward expanded to become the country's largest producer of gas holders. During World War I and World War II, the company assembled munitions, artillery carriages and ship propellers for the United States and its allies. The company was acquired, first by McClintic-Marshall Construction Company in 1925, before being sold to Koppers Company in 1927.
context_section_description: By the 1870s, Bartlett & Robbins was the largest iron foundry in the United States, employing between 500-1000 people at any given time. The company at this time produced the elaborate cast-iron interior and railings of the George Peabody Library in Mount Vernon. In 1871, the company supplied the cast-iron exterior for the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware. It also supplied the architectural ironwork of the United States Capitol. Many of the company's cast-iron building façades were designed by English architect George H. Johnson (who also designed listed landmarks including the Haughwout Building in New York City), such as the extant structure at 322 W Baltimore St.
  In 1871, the company built the cast-iron façade of the Wilkens–Robins Building at 308 W Pratt Street, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1873, the Baltimore News-American building was built by Bartlett & Robbins across South Street from the Sun Iron Building. In addition to its stoves, heating systems and iron architectural work, the company continued to diversify its products in this period, beginning to produce gas lighting fixtures.  It also produced brewing and distilling equipment. An advertisement from the time period shows how extensive the catalog of cast-iron products available had become, including: "walls, floors, doors, windows, roof, porticoes, balconies, cornices, vaults, ventilators, fences, gates, fountains, vases, statuary, chairs, settees, gas and water fixtures, a heating apparatus, ranges or cooking stoves, parlor stoves, grates, brackets, stable fixtures, iron pavements, pots and kettles, culinary implements, bedsteads, in fact everything except beds and bedding, and science will doubtless ere long find some means of remedying this apparent difficulty." In the 1870s, Hayward & Robbins moved an increasingly large amount of its business into the nascent gas holder industry. Senior partner David L. Bartlett became president of a new company, the Consumer's Mutual Gas Light Company of Baltimore, and Hayward & Robbins was contracted to build its plant. The company's earliest gas holders made use of the ornate architectural column molds that had been designed for their earlier commercial architecture.  Over the next decade, they would build over 100 gas holders, for clients as far away as Caracas and Havana.
  Horace W. Robbins died of illness on August 12, 1878, leaving David Bartlett the sole partner. Two years later, in 1880, Thomas J. Hayward bought out the interest of the late Robbins and joined the company as a partner, leading to its renaming again as Bartlett, Hayward & Co. Edward L. Bartlett, David Bartlett's son, was also made a partner in the company in the same year. By 1889, the shops near Mount Clare had expanded even further. Around this time, Bartlett, Hayward & Co. obtained several major national contracts, producing the heating and cooling systems for Johns Hopkins Hospital, New York Post Office, the New Orleans Custom House and the San Francisco Mint. In 1899, David L. Bartlett died, and Edward Bartlett assumed his father's role as Senior Partner.
caption: Bartlett Hayward produced the intricate railings of the George Peabody Library
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