Aerial view of Die Cast Site - Peasley 1960

Aerial view of Die Cast Site - Peasley 1960

This aerial photo shows the Electric Autolite factory taken from the south in 1960. It is titled the Die Cast site since that is what it has been called since 1997 when it was demolished.

The original Tappan Steam Pump then Oliver Typewriter factory is located to the right of the right-hand smokestack. The old McHenry County Courthouse dome is in the center bottom. Buildings on Cass St., Throop St., Washington St., Main St., Benton St., Church St., Clay St., and along the railroad tracks can be seen. The smokestack on the left is part of the Woocstock city power plant on Wheeler St. Clay Street School is in the top center.

Woodstock--Die Casting Timeline
Predecessors:
1893 Woodstock Public Improvement Committee offered a $20,000 bonus to attract industry
1894 Tappan & Wheeler Steam Pump Company moved from Chicago; produced pumps for Procter & Gamble, Colgate and other soap manufacturers.
1896 Oliver Typewriter Company produced typewriters sold all over the world. As the major employer of the area (1,400 employees), the company had a band, fire department, semi-pro baseball team and major social events such as a summer picnic in the Fox River Grove picnic grounds. The Oliver typewriter allowed the user to see the letters as they were typed, rather than raising the bar to read the copy. It went out of business in 1927 when it was deemed too costly to retool the factory. It stayed open a few years offering repair services.
1928 Alemite Die Casting & Manufacturing of Chicago produced aluminum cookware, parts for Hamilton Beach, Speed Queen, Whirlpool; electric trains and toys; and many other items. Their fireproof storage room held over 4, 000 different precision molds.
1935 Electric Auto-Lite made automobile parts and accessories, including door handles, grilles and hood ornaments for Ford Motor Company and Packard and others. It had over 2,000 employees in 1949.
1963 Woodstock Die Casting, (the name was bought from its parent company, Eltra Corporation) manufactured automotive, appliance and industrial fittings
1964 A five-year building and renovation project added 100,000 square feet to the complex
1979 Allied Chemical Corporation acquired Eltra.
1980 Allied merged with Signal Corporation and became Allied-Signal Corporation.
1985 Woodstock Manufacturing Corporation purchased the plant and named the company Woodstock Die Cast Corporation. Despite the name, the company was located in Southfield, Michigan.
1988 United Auto Workers Local 922 went on strike. The dispute over pay, pensions and safety issues lasted over two years.
1990 Woodstock Die Cast plant closed on June 29 with a loss of 757 jobs.
1992 Mary Ann Talbert and Pauline Gray convince officials to let them remove historical documents from the company vault the day before the building was closed-down and locked for good. Mary Ann donated the items to the McHenry County Historical Society.
1997 The 400,000 square -foot plant was demolished; the 204-foot smokestack was the last to go in May 7.

Don Peasley

August 1960