On our grand tour of Canada and the USA we visited Racine.  We had visited the old MH factory site twice before and seen the great extent of it and in particulr the very tall iconic MF water tower.

Well we went back one more time only to be saddened to find out and see that most of it has now been pulled down including the water tower.  What a loss - so many models of MH and Wallis tractors made there and of course tanks during the war.  In a local restaurant we met a lady who used to work in the administration there after the war - she was very sad that it had all almost been demolished.

Even more sad - as far as I am aware nobody has taken the trouble to get the site and its history documented .............

John

I totally agree with your previous post about the sadness we both felt in Racine around the area of the old factory site  on De Koven Avenue. It was a glorious sunny autumn (fall) day and the feeling of nothing there related to the history of the J I Case Plow Works, Massey-Harris or even M-F in later years gave me a feeling of a "final farewell" and closure on all aspects of Racine, it was my fourth visit there since 1992 and it just made me realise how times have moved on, entering a new era in all aspects of life.

I did just get a slightly better feeling when we came across both the old lady in the restaurant who worked for M-H, she was the only person in the entire stop in Racine who responded when we mentioned M-H.

The other breath of fresh air for me was seeing the Modine Manufacturing Company large refurbished manufacturing facility off De Koven Avenue, great to see an old name who was involved in supplying radiators to M-H still in business and thriving there. Some of my "U" frame tractors still have a brass tag attached to their radiators as supplied by Modine, expect other collectors have these too?

Malcolm.

I know this could be a controvercial subject on here stemming back to the family rivalry between the two J I Case Companies in Racine.

Today what was the old J I Case Threshing Machine Company, later to become Case, then Case I-H and now Case New Holland still have a presence in Racine, it was 1992 when I last toured the Case factory and office block in downtown Racine.
On our recent visit we stayed overnight in a hotel very near to the old J  I Case office block, so after breakfast the following morning we had a brisk walking tour with a very cold wind coming off the lake.
Pictured is the old office block as it is today, totally unchanged since 1992 apart from the change of Company name, across the street the large complex still positioned on the old site next to the Root River, I remember in 1992 seeing the old hill on the site where they tested the steam engines and early gas tractors.
We also visited the Racine Historical Society who had just dismantled their entire J I Case exhibition, shame their volunteers had little knowledge about the entire Case connections in Racine. Just a cabinet of salesman samples of horse implements was all that remained of Case.

Malcolm.

Malcolm,

Your recollections of our visit to Racine generally and the Case sites really does make me feel the more sad.

Can I make one last plea - I have made them before through this web site and at Expo banquets - for MCA members and indeed others who live within reach of Racine to set about getting matters of MH,MF and Case history documented from surviving buildings and by rooting out surviving employees for their stories and memories.  History lies in your hands - it will soon be gone forever.  Time and tide make for no-one as the saying goes.

Could MCA form a group to undertake this important work??

John

Malcolm and John I have the same sentiments as you. You can't stop progress as they say but unless someone records these lovely old buildings they just end up as car parks and supermarkets. It is such a shame when history is lost. It would also be lovely to have the stories of the employees as well. There has been some very interesting articles in Massey Legacy about Dealerships. Perhaps Gary could do some articles on Massey factories and their employees. Just a thought. Alan