The "A Drawer Full Of Memories" Story

One of a few Slaymaker padlocks I found in my drawer.

It was an ordinary day.  Going through a few of my desk drawers when I came upon a few old padlocks.  Forgot all about the locks that Carol's father had given to me years ago.  Charlie, my father-in-law, worked for years at the Slaymaker Lock Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  One of the best and well-known lock companies in the United States in the early 1900s.  Samuel R. Slaymaker, founder of the lock company, began his interest in locks while working for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a civil engineer.  The railroad switch and signal locks gave him the background he needed to start his own lock company in 1888 when he opened Slaymaker Lock Company on North Water Street in downtown Lancaster.  

The front door of what was Slaymaker Lock Co.  It is now
a series of offices and retail stores.

They offered quality padlocks at a reasonable price and gained many customers.  The US Government and the Pennsyl- vania railroad were two of the biggest customers when Slaymaker first started in business.  In 1918 the company moved to South West End Avenue to gain more space.  

The beautifully restored building on South West Ave. and 1st St.

In the early 1920s, another Lancaster lock manufac- turer, Walter Fraim, who had recently sold his share of the Fraim Bros. business to his brother, bought a major interest in Slaymaker Lock Company and it became known as Fraim-Slaymaker.  Eventually the company retained the name Slaymaker Lock Co., but folded in 1986 with the onslaught of inexpensive foreign padlocks.  The Slaymaker building on South West End Ave. is now a beautifully restored office complex.  One of my former students, Eric Forberger, now has a large photography studio in the restored old Slaymaker Lock Company.  Carol remembers living a few blocks away from the lock company as a child.  

Corner markings on the Slaymaker Lock Co.  Carol and
her mom and dad lived a block away on 2nd Street.

Her dad walked to work daily and was the Personnel Manager of the plant.  In 1966 they moved from 2nd Steet in the city to an apartment unit about a block away from where I was living with my mom, dad and brother in Grandview Heights.  Charlie decided that whenever there was a problem at the factory he was called first since he lived real near the plant, so they moved outside the city.  After Carol and I met and began dating, I remember making a few visits to the plant to see her dad and I got a chance to see around the place.  It was sometime during those years that Charlie gave me a few of the old Slaymaker locks that I have rediscovered once again.  Gonna have to do some research on them and see what their value might be.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.