pre-fire crane brothers factory building riveted joint hand-forged iron vault door saved from demolition

shortly before the last wave of demolition left the original 1865 foundry building standing alone, as the only reminder of crane's bustling fabrication of steam and valve fitters, urban remains was able to salvage and document the event. the crane manufacturing company lasted well into the 20th century before moving the central manufacturing district on the south side of chicago. as a side note, a few other masonry factories from the mid-19th century do remain along jefferson street, including the pre-fire chicago mccormick reaper works (just north of crane's extant 1865 foundry).

still, the crane brothers factory salvage and subsequent excavation have been written about extensively in prior posts, so i will shy away from going into any great detail on the history of the company and the plethora of artifacts extracted from various buildings. i will instead detail a specific artifact recovered that deserves more attention.

the exceptional and fully functional riveted joint hinged iron vault door was no doubt fabricated in crane's own foundry, located just a stone's throw away from the addition (1870) that the door was methodically salvaged from. each floor, including the basement, was outfitted with a vault or safe door. all but the one salvaged were fabricated and installed by hall's safe and lock company, cincinnati, oh. the heavily reinforced walk-in safes contained barrel-vaulted ceilings, brick floors, and massive slabs of cut limestone directly above and below the brick encased rooms.

while the hall safe doors contained bolt locking systems controlled by three-movement vault door time clocks, the room in question was secured with a simple gravity-hinged rolled and riveted sheet iron door containing an unusual ornamental drop latch. the surrounding jamb was comprised of lightweight angled iron bolted into the brick. in addition, and unlike the other vaults, this one contained a floor of massive granite pavers. the exact reason as to why this thin iron door was not outfitted with an internal or integrated locking mechanism is unknown.

upon further investigation, it seems the area the vault door was located, on the third floor of the crane brothers factory addition (built in 1870), was occupied at least for period of time by the company's finishing department. the exact reason this door was not more heavily reinforced merits further investigation. further, i don't know why none of the other extant buildings contained walk-in safes or vaults. whether this vault door, fabricated in-house, was added later or is original to the 1870 construction is simply conjecture. perhaps after the great chicago fire a year later, the company decided to invest further into safeguarding their receipts, payroll, master pattern molds, etc., with improved "fireproof" systems like the bolted doors, steel jambs over two feet deep and a set of additional inner double doors, with a lockable t-handle designed to actuate the sliding flush mount door bolts. and yet, if that is indeed the case, why would they not apply this new system to all the vaults?

again, additional research is required to fully appreciate or understand why one door is completely different (and quite frankly, stylistically more interesting) than the others.
by keeping this door in place, it allowed me to carefully extract both the door and matching surround from the building before it came tumbling down the next day. with the riveted iron door completely refinished (i.e., brushed down to bare metal), the rivet heads, sporadic crudities, surface wear and tear and so on, make the door that much more visually distinctive. together with its place of origin, the door makes for an exceptional and historic chicago architectural artifact that i hope will be repurposed in a new home in which both its design and historic background live on. until then, a piece of it will continue to be appreciated, in spite of the death of the building.