WT Grant/Bradford appliance sourcing

[jamiel]

Saw an interesting advertisement on a FB group that popped up in my feed on WT Grant.

In 1966, it looks like WT Grant acknowledged that:
Refrigerators/Freezers sourced from St. Cloud, MN (Studebaker-Franklin)
Washers/Dryers from Webster City, IA (ditto)
Other appliances from Minneapolis (??) , Belleville, IL (doubtless Peerless/Premier ranges), Cleveland, TN (Magic Chef-ranges) and Mansfield, OH (probably Westinghouse for dishwashers)

Any idea what appliance manufacturer was in Minneapolis? Did Zenith move south from Duluth at some point?

 

[jamiel]

and with a little work looks like Minneapolis was a Seeger/WP refrigerator plant.

 

[combo52]

Whirlpool had a huge plant in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they assembled and built the Segger designed whirlpool Rotary refrigeration compressors.

I believe they also made vacuum cleaners there and they may have made their early dishwashers there before they opened the Findlay Ohio plant for dishwashers.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In their range brochures, they showed a Westinghouse range, only one, and it stood out from the Sunray dreck like flecks of mica on a bowl of oatmeal.

 

[vacerator]

Britmann electric in Chicago made Kenmore vacuum cleaners like the Kencart thank style and early uprights until the Whirlpool canisters. Uprights were by Ryobi and Singer later until the Panasonic type. Maybe Panasonic bought that concern.

 

[wayupnorth]

Bradford washers were junk. I had an Empress 18 given to me that ran and had a filter flow. Transmission seals must have been toast as it leaked oil into the washtub. Junked at only 5 years old.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

My father worked for WT Grant's until it folded...

So we had those appliances pf which I'd long wondered who the manufacturers were?

The washer and dryer were unusual as I saw things that resembled Norge products and what was not-so-Norge...

The dishwasher could easily have had WCI-parentage, Westinghouse, as you described... There was that spinning rotary thingy, on top of the lower rack...

The fridge was a frost free top freezer 14 cubic feet, that held food for a family of four until it got replaced by a 19 cft. side by side, and it had a coil-back condenser, as well as an overhead light in the refrigerator compartment over the left side...

Years later, I saw a Kelvinator refrigerator that had the same refrigerator compartment design, but it was bigger, so it had two light bulbs over the left and right side in the cabinet... The emblem on out Bradford was a square-shape, while that Kelvinator had it along the top of the freezer door, resembling a Philco side by side I saw that had the name on the top of the freezer door, while the refrigerator boasted No Frost at the top of the refrigerator door... Think there is a Kelvvinator ad showing that, and I know I saw an old magazine ad a long time ago with a side by side like that... So maybe the Bradford was made by who was making Philco, Kelvinator, and perhaps who'd be making Tappan and O'Keefe & Merrit, if their refrigerators were built like that... The condenser on the side by sides were underneath, at least on that Philco and a couple other Philco side by sides I saw, and I'm not sure about that Kelvinator top freezer...

That brings us to the electric range, which had a clock and timer and oven window, of which a three-way switch turned on the light in the oven, a light above the clock/timer and then both... It had the burner and oven controls over the oven door... Maybe made by Sunray, like you said...