![]() ![]() And many Sagamore residents still live in buildings that once housed workers at the Keith Car Works. Those houses are still scattered around present-day Sagamore. Keith and his innovation were the houses that he left behind,” said Ellis. “The bridges were built, the canal was widened, Keith Car Company disappeared, all the buildings were taken down by 1938, and everyone said the whole car company’s gone, there’s nothing left. At around the same time, the original Cape Cod Canal needed to be widened and made deeper, so the government stepped in and took it over. But by then, the railroad system was shifting to metal boxcars, and the plant would have to have re-tooled their entire facility to adapt. “Six blacksmith shops within the factory…by 1905 or 6, the whole factory was electrified – one of the first areas around here.”Īfter World War I, the factory’s contract for 40,000 rail cars had run out, so the plant began refurbishing wooden boxcars – around 14,000 a year. “You take a car in the far west end of the factory, and when it came out to the far east end of the factory on the Sandwich town line, you had a finished boxcar,” said Jerry Ellis. The Keith Car Works was known as a model of production efficiency. The cars would be manufactured and pre-fabricated for shipment to France. Around the start of World War One, the plant secured a contract to build 40,000 rail cars known as “40 and 8’s” – cars that were built for 40 men or eight horses. After Isaac’s death in 1870, his two sons took over and the Keith Car Works continued to prosper. ![]() When the Civil War began, the plant began making wagons to haul cannons. Isaac Keith constantly adapted production at the plant to fit the needs of the moment. They also produced other items the hopeful fortune-seekers might need, like picks, shovels, axes, and crowbars. ![]() Thomas and is located at 39 Pleasant St.,sagamore,ma C/O P.O. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Simon B. The company's File Number is listed as 043253867. When Gold Rush fever took hold in California, the factory started churning out wagons to accommodate the hordes of people heading west. is a Massachusetts Domestic Profit Corporation filed on March 11, 1994. They built the first mall, as it were, in the village of Sagamore, that had approximately 25 stores, from Adams Pharmacy to dry goods stores to donut shops,” Ellis said. “The first doctor, so that all the people here could have their own doctor instead of going a long distance. The plant was demolished in the 1930s, following the second expansion of the Cape Cod Canal.This photo shows the first "mall" on Cape Cod - built for workers at the Keith Car Works. In 1928, the company closed after eighty two years in business, and the plant was stripped for materials, after years of being a minor maintenance facility, staffed by a skeleton crew. German prisoners of war then helped to assemble them, placed them onto rail lines, and helped to bring an end to the conflict. ĭuring World War I, the plant shipped 40,000 freight cars to Marseille, France, which were built under contract. The plant also was responsible for the design and patent of the 40-8 boxcar design used by many trains. ![]() In 1912, the company was purchased by the Standard Steel Car Company.ĭuring this time, it was a large repair facility for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, as well as possibly being the largest employer on Cape Cod, employing up to 1,400 people at a time. Following the creation of the Cape Cod Canal, the plant helped to manufacture coffins that would be used to inter recently relocated bodies that were in the path of the canal. In the early 1900s, the plant employed hundreds of Italian immigrants, many of whom lived in the area. The company eventually switched over to manufacturing rail cars, in a plant that stretched about a mile long. The company was founded in 1846 as Keith and Ryder and manufactured carriages, stage coaches, and prairie schooners. Operational between 18, the plant employed up to 1,400 people at a time. The Keith Car & Manufacturing Company is a former railroad car manufacturing company that was located in the village of Sagamore in Bourne, Massachusetts. Keith Car & Manufacturing Company, circa 1915 ![]()
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