[GreenKeys] WECo Hawthorn Works

[Don Robert House]

Western Electric Company (WECo) Hawthorne Works (HW)...
The Hawthorne Works (HW) occupied 63 acres of land in Cicero, IL. In  
1919, HW was the only WECo manufacturing plant in the Bell System.  
The plant expanded, building by building, until it grew by 1985,to  
144 Acres; 1.4 million feet of factory, support centers and office  
space.

There has probably never been another factory with such a varied  
background of activities, both productive and social.

Over 81 years, HW produced every major telephone switching system,  
and the related equipment needed to make them work. HW manufactured  
power apparatus, lead covered telephone cable, exchange cable,  
telephone sets, switching systems, and, in 1929, a gold desk  
telephone for Illinois Bell's celebration of the millionth telephone  
set in Chicago. In 1946 alone, HW manufactured 3,000,000 telephones  
and a million lines of dial telephone equipment. In 1955, it began  
production of transistors.

HW had its own power plant, gas house, deep wells, and hospital with  
an operating room. It had a fire brigade with engine, well-equipped  
automobile garage, laundry, green house and, private railroad. The  
Manufacturer's Junction Railroad (MJR) had two engines, 25 boxcars, a  
roundhouse, weighing platform, freight house, and a connection to  
Chicago's Belt line – but no caboose.

HW grew from 6,000 employees in 1919 to a peak of 43,000 employees by  
1930. The population dipped to 7,000 during the Great Depression but  
soared back up to 40,000+ during World War II when the plant produced  
Naval Radar, Gun Director Control Systems, and Echo Ranging Equipment  
for the Dept. of Defense. In 1970, the population began a decline  
from 23,364 to the 5,748 employees who closed the plant in 1983.

HW General Plant Managers worked in the legendary "Tower," the corner  
building (pictured next to the headline) which remains a Cicero  
landmark and the only structure still standing from the original  
plant. The General Manger's office in the Tower was 40 feet long and  
20 feet wide with a fireplace. The last General Manager of HW was  
Virgal Schad who ran the plant for 12 of its last 14 years.

Among its many accomplishments HW made:

1919 - the First Panel Dial switching office for New York City, and  
the Candlestick telephone
1921 - the first Public Address System inaugurated by President Harding
1923 - Chicago's first Panel Dial Switch with 12,300 lines which  
could handle 400,000 calls with a less than 1% error rate
1924 - the behavioral science Hawthorne Studies conducted by MIT and  
Harvard
1937 - the first Crossbar Switching system
1959 - the Electronic PBX
1960 - a $30M modernization project facilitated the production of ESS  
equipment
1963 - Bell System's first 101 ESS PBX shipped to Cape Canaveral for  
NASA contractors
HW functioned as a city. It sponsored dances, band concerts, variety  
shows and picnics. The plant had its own brass brand with uniforms  
that played at rallies where employees campaigned to become officers  
in plant clubs. General Dwight Eisenhower campaigned for the US  
Presidency at HW in 1952.

And, from 1930-80, female employees competed in the plants' "Hello  
Charley," beauty pageant. The annual competition was taken so  
seriously that Price Waterhouse (now Price Waterhouse Coopers, the  
accounting firm that tallies the Academy Award ballots), verified the  
vote count. The winner, and her court, became the official hostesses'  
corps for HW visitors. Each woman was supplied with a wardrobe to use  
for her official duties. Every year a car decal was made of the  
"Hello Charley" winner.

On June 24, 1983, WECo announced plans to phase out HW in Cicero. The  
closing took place in stages, ending in 1986. Most of the work  
previously done at HW was moved to the new NSC in Lisle, Montgomery  
Works in Aurora, the Central Region Headquarters in Rolling Meadows,  
the Illinois Service Center in West Chicago, Teletype Corporation in  
Skokie, Bell Labs in Naperville and AT&T Long Lines in Chicago.