Article: 100th Anniversary of Westinghouse in Mansfield

[wringer]

This is

my home town area. I remember so much about this Mansfield Plant. Now it is all gone and a bit cleaned up. In 1949 we moved into a new home and the entire home was Westinghouse except the wringer which was Speed Queen. My parents bought anything that was Westinghouse it seems. Fond Memories and knew many people who worked there.

 

[firedome]

Westinghouse

was big in Baltimore, they had Defense Electronics, Electric Motor, and Aerospace Fabrication (Sykesville) divisions, a total of 3 or 4 facilities there. My wife's step-Dad was a lawyer for Defense Electronics doing contracts with the Navy, her uncle was an EE at the same D E Division (and he's still alive at 93). The next door neighbor was an EE at the Motor Division on Taylor Ave. and everything in their house was Westinghouse.

My impression matches John's: laundry, ranges, fridges, fans, &c peaked in the mid-'50s but by early '60s quality was going downhill fast, sadly. By 1974 our neighbor at my own first house worked at the AF division doing satellite and defense fabrication. He always called it Wasteinghouse due to the numerous times they'd make something, blueprints would be changed, the structure thrown away and re-started from scratch, sometimes many times. No wonder they went broke.

 

[firedome]

Pertinent to the preceeding...

my wife's parents had a top-freezer WH fridge, around 14 cu ft, bought on the employee discount plan around 1966. By the time we met in 1970 it was not keeping temp in the freezer compartment, and even after several repairs it was not right, and had to be replaced by 1971, at 5 yrs old, this time on my recommendation by a Frigidaire that was still going strong in 1994 when the house was sold...not a good performance by WH!

 

[jamiel]

Separately, going on in Mansfield in 1962 was a bit of a scandal which I'd never heard of before.

The famous Central Park Underground Restrooms

Editor’s Note This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2016. When people are new to this area they ask me various questions about our past. There is a fairly predictable sequence to these questions according to how long they’ve been here and what they have heard. Sooner or later...

www.richlandsource.com

 

[norgeway]

Of course...

My experience with Westinghouse WAS limited, We had a 55 slant front dryer that ran just about forever,I never saw but a few Laundromats, which made them all the more interesting to me, I do think the WH stoves and fridges were much better than most of the competition, we had a 50 Westy fridge until the 70s when my well meaning uncle bought us a GE Which I hated,,lol, I have tried to like GE stoves but never had any more luck with them than I have had with Maytag washers,,which is NO luck at all...lol, GE stoves to me as a kid were a cheap brand, I thought this because everyone I knew who had lots of money had Westinghouse or Frigidaire, small builder grade or starter houses all had GE , I know this because I went on tons of service calls with my Uncle who was a electrical contractor and was in all kinds of houses from mill houses on Cotton Mill Hill to large mansions on Hibriten street, where all the lawyers and doctors lived..Iguess it all depended on where you lived, in Lenoir NC, the most expensive stores in town sold Westinghouse, Amana and Frigidaire, The cheapest stores sold GE, and Philco and Norge.

 

[washerlover]

Never Really Saw Westinghouse in NorCal...

Only thing I remember seeing as a kid in the very late 60s and early 70s were those Pearl Bailey ads...never laid eyes on a real Westinghouse set. Where we lived only saw Frigidaire, GE, Norge/Wards, Kenmore/Whirlpool, Speed Queen and Maytag. Still a delightful and diverse selection, for sure!

 

[jeb]

The scandel in the park

My mom told me about the restrooms in central park.When they were first build they were pretty up scale but by the late fifties were getting rundown. All shopping was done "downtown" so that's why the city installed them. By the mid fifties suburban shopping centers were springing up on all sides of town, drawing major retailers ( Sears, Penney's, Oneil's, Wards ect)which left the downtown some what abandoned. Because of the bad press they were filled in and bull dosed over. Some boot leg copies of the films can be found on the internet if you look hard enough for them (supposedly a few gay cops-probably the ones operating the camera- made secret copies of the originals which surfaced a few years ago. I looked them up but can't remember were I found them, I think Tearoom or Teahouse was in the title. Some of the first "spy" porn !

 

[tolivac]

I briefly knew someone that worked in one of the Westinghouse Baltimore sites.Are these still in use-He could not say what he worked on-one of those types of places.

 

[circlew]

The Westinghouse products in our house consisted of the following: 1953 range, 1953 refrigerator, 1955 washer, 1958 or 59 dehumidifier, 1962 dryer, 1964 FL washer, circa 1969 window air conditioner, circa 1980 dehumidifier. The range is the only thing I still have. The refrigerator was replaced in '62 by a Frigidaire of larger capacity, and the washer and dryer by Maytag's in '73. Air conditioner given away when we got central air in '74, and the second dehumidifier lasted until the 90's.
While the '62 dryer seemed to be good quality, the '64 washer didn't hold up well at all.

We didn't have any Westinghouse small appliances, but occasionally bought their light bulbs, including Christmas. My mom talked about getting one of the roaster ovens, but never did.

The store that the range and refrigerator were purchased from (Snyder's) stopped selling Westinghouse by 1956. The dehumidifiers and AC were bought at Swallen's, and the laundry equipment was bought through one of my dad's friends. He was an electrician who bought from a supply place that was also a Westinghouse distributor.

 

[arbilab]

Our 64 FL didn't hold up either.  Kept breaking.  Mom kicked it out of the house before the warranty expired.  I was mostly out of the house by then too so I don't know exactly what kept going wrong with it.

 

[firedome]

Westinghouse Baltimore today...

Rex - the Electronic Systems Division at the airport (now BWI, it'll always be Friendship Airport to me!) was absorbed by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems group in the '90s when Westinghouse dissolved. Essentially it's still there in that form. Both the wife's step-Father and Uncle worked there for 30+ years.

 

[rinso]

If the "B" and the two "E's" burned out on a lighted sign, it would say "You can sue, if it's Westinghouse."

 

 

[tolivac]

Firedome:glad the site is still being used under a new name!