Lennox, T-R built a combined 163 new Marshalltown homes post-WWII
T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY Pictured recently is one of the 57 brick homes built in the Norris Addition by the Lennox Furnace Co. post-WWII. Many of them remain in good condition and are occupied.
Pictured is photo of the Lennox Furnace Co. circa 1906. The origInal inventors and owners were Ernest Bryant and Ezra Smith. The two hired Dave Lennox's machine shop to build the units. Later, Bryant and Smith sold the patents to Lennox - who in turn sold the company to D.W. Norris of Marsalltown in 1904.
Dave Lennox, circa late 1880s. Lennox, a Detroit, Mich. native, developed the Lennox Furnace Co. into a local and regional manufacturing power before selling the company to D.W. Norris.
Shown is a Marshalltown street sign designating Norris Place on the city's east side near Lennox Industires. D.W. Norris purchased the Lennox Furnace Co. from owner Dave Lennox in 1904.
T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY Pictured recently is one of the 57 brick homes built in the Norris Addition by the Lennox Furnace Co. post-WWII. Many of them remain in good condition and are occupied.
Pictured is photo of the Lennox Furnace Co. circa 1906. The origInal inventors and owners were Ernest Bryant and Ezra Smith. The two hired Dave Lennox's machine shop to build the units. Later, Bryant and Smith sold the patents to Lennox - who in turn sold the company to D.W. Norris of Marsalltown in 1904.
Dave Lennox, circa late 1880s. Lennox, a Detroit, Mich. native, developed the Lennox Furnace Co. into a local and regional manufacturing power before selling the company to D.W. Norris.
Shown is a Marshalltown street sign designating Norris Place on the city's east side near Lennox Industires. D.W. Norris purchased the Lennox Furnace Co. from owner Dave Lennox in 1904.
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Editor's Note: This is part one of a two-part series on the building of new apartments and homes in Marshalltown by some of its major employers.
Specifically, in recent years JBS and MARSHALLTOWN Co. - among others – have expended funds and devoted other resources in the building of apartment and housing complexes specifically for employees or primarily for employees with the balance open to others.
These efforts were initiated because the local apartment/home housing inventory was not adequate for potential hires who wanted to live in Marshalltown but could not find housing to meet their needs. Consequently, those prospective employees found housing in the Ames-Ankeny and Des Moines markets.
The lack of affordable housing to meet local workforce needs is not new. The Marshalltown area experienced a similar problem immediately following World War II when returning servicemen by the thousands needed affordable housing and employers needed a skilled workforce. (Housing construction had been halted during the war years due to war and war-related factors).
Part one reports on efforts by the Lennox Furnace Co. (now Lennox Industries) and the Times-Republican (T-R) to build affordable housing to meet that need. Both businesses were owned by D.W. Norris and family who resided in Marshalltown.
In 1946, the Lennox Furnace Co. built 52 new brick homes near its facility on the east side, according to the June 10, 1953 Times-Republican. They were sold to returning WWII veterans "virtually" at cost. A number of those homes still remain, are occupied and have served countless families over the decades.
The success of the Lennox venture and the continuing need for home in the growing city prompted more action.
Executives at the T-R then decided to participate in 1947 and proposed a larger project in the same section of the city known as the Norris Addition.
The T-R purchased land between 12th and 18th Avenues, just south of the Lennox factory. A builder was hired to construct more than 100 homes to be sold virtually at cost.
The area was platted, streets were laid out, and construction on 57 homes started in the summer of 1948.
Those homes were ready for sale in early 1949, and on Jan. 16 of that year an open house was held and attended by hundreds of residents despite bitterly cold temperatures.
Those 57 homes were sold, but demand lessened and the T-R put on hold the development of the unimproved section of the Norris Addition.
The project not only generated local and regional interest but grabbed the attention of others. As a result, in October, 1951, the T-R was named winner of the Community Service award for the Inland Daily Press Association newspapers - the third of some 450 member newspapers to be so honored - on the basis of the efforts to relieve the housing shortage in the its home community and on the newspaper's record of community service of more than 50 years.
Another honor was to come.
Building was resumed in the Norris Addition on a small scale in 1951 when a contractor built five homes on South 12th Avenue.
Those homes were readily sold, and more building followed.
In 1952, the Homer Kellogg Co. Inc. of Des Moines took options on a number of lots and began construction on more homes which also sold. In total, the T-R Housing Project built 106 homes, according to its archives.