The History of the Smyser-Royer Company
The Smyser-Royer company came from the EG Smyser's Sons
Co., which came from of the Variety Iron Works. The driving force behind
the Smyser-Royer Company was B. Frank Royer. Royer was vice-president of
William Remppis Co. of Reading, PA, a manufacturer of architectural
ironwork. Remppis was into many things, mainly the Reading Standard Co. a
manufacturer of bicycles and motorcycles. In 1907, advertisements listed
their address as 1806 Sansom St., Philadelphia and offices as Remppis, Royer and
Daniel Yost.[1]
In July 24th, 1907, the Smyser-Royer
Company of Philadelphia was chartered in Pennsylvania with $60,000 capital.
The charter states they would be in the business of "Manufacturing and
selling iron, zinc, nickel, brass and copper, and the manufacturing, selling,
buying and erecting all kinds of ornamental and structural metalwork, and for
there purposes to purchase, and sell lands and mineral rights, and to create,
purchase, hold and sell patent rights, inventions and designs, with the right to
issue license for the same and to receive pay therefore, as may be necessary in
the carrying of said business"
[2], a very broad description for their
operation.
The most logical explanation seems to be that Royer and
Yost acquired the Smyser facility to manufacture their products, and, based on
1907 ads, likely brought existing products manufactured by Remppis. George P.
Smyser (1843-1912), who headed EG Smyser's Sons was 64 years old and may have
been looking to retire from the business as he had several other business
interests.[3]
Yost and another officer, Henry William H Myers, an engineer[4],
were located in York, most likely to oversee the manufacturing operations.
Royer was based in Philadelphia and lived in Ardmore, PA, a suburb of
Philadelphia. The new operation also appears to have been a foundry
operation only, as they do not claim to work in wrought or fabricated iron, as
did EG Smyser. The Baltimore location was quickly removed from company
literature. As with their predecessor companies, they remained the foundry
that produced the bulk of JW Fiske's cast iron products, such as fountains,
stable equipment, etc.[5]
They apparently hit the ground running, closing a large
order for the twenty-eight memorial light standards surrounding Philadelphia
City Hall for the September, 1908 250th anniversary of the city.[6]
At 22 ft. tall and 4 ft. square, they quite an undertaking for the new venture.
Unfortunately, all that exist now now are two aluminum reproductions on the
south side of the building.
Royer typically worked closely with architects to develop
a design for a project and, when obtaining an order, produced patterns, cast the
product and proceeded to market the designs in
catalogs, when a
sufficient quantity of designs had accumulated. The catalogs are the best
sources of information about their products, having project lists in the back of
catalogues "H", "J" and "K". For a project
list, please click here:
B. Frank Royer
B Frank Royer was an evangelist for ornate, monumental
cast iron lighting. While quite a few other companies dabbled, Royer,
starting at Remppis and greatly expanding with Smyser-Royer, specialized in it.
His years in ornamental iron had given him many contacts in the
architecture
profession, most notably Paul Cret. Many Cret projects were finished off
with Smyser-Royer products. In The 1915 Lighting Journal, he was described
as a man of "highly artistic attainments" who sought to apply to lighting the
high standards of art which were then currently applied to fences, gates and so
forth. His many designs more than achieved these goals.[7]
Royer started in what appears to be a family business,
Royer Brothers (iron founders), located at 9th & Montgomery avenues, in
Philadelphia.[8]
From there he worked for William Remppis Co. of Reading, which did all
manner of architectural ironwork, including castings, eventually becoming
Vice-President.[9]
Royer apparently spent long periods of time away from the
business (from 1912 to 1915 and 1918 to 1919) due to illness before his death in
1922.[10]
His death may have been caused by tuberculosis as both he and his wife were
involved with related organizations in the 10 years prior to his death and his
wife made annual donations in his name to these organizations as well as an
upstate New York sanatorium.
Even so, his influence was evident even until a few months before his death when
he conceived and designed a series of residential fixtures, two of which still
exist on his former house in Ardmore, PA.
1908 to 1922
This
seems to have been the heyday of Smyser-Royer. They were generating many
new designs and B. Frank Royer's vision for his product meshed perfectly with
the building designs of the day. By the mid-teens, Smyser-Royer
advertisements were appearing in many places, including most issues of
Architectural Record magazine. Royer's son, Frank C. Royer had entered the
business after graduating from University of Pennsylvania with a degree in
Architecture.[11]
The company’s product lines expanded to several hundred
lighting fixtures as well as window frames and spandrels, fence posts and
verandas, the continuing Fiske business and various, high-end architectural
items such as Philadelphia’s Broad Street Subway entrance surrounds.
1923 to 1929
In retrospect, the company seems to
have lost its entrepreneurial spirit with the death of B. Frank Royer.
There seemed to be no new lines or designs, to speak of but other forces
may have taken a hand. Art Deco” had been launched at the
1925 Paris exhibition and the smooth lines and contours were, frequently, more
economically manufactured by metal spinning, stamping and fabrication than by
casting. How much of an effect this
change had on their business is hard to gauge.
No records, financial or otherwise, of the company seem to exist today.
Still, the company heavily advertised
their residential offerings, both for individual houses and residential
developments.
1930 to 1939
The stock market crash of October
1929 is the major milepost in American economic history but not everyone thought
so at the time. FW Dodge Co.,
publisher or Architectural Record Magazine thought it was just the correction
that was needed to reverse the 14 straight months of construction declines.[12]
History has proven them to be wrong.
Every major economic upheaval since
the 1893-96 seems to end with new designs in lighting and each new design trend
is simpler, less ornate and less expensive to manufacture.
Since Smyser-Royer manufactured lighting fixtures, which were intended to
make a statement, they seemed to be immune to this trend for a while.
This immunity ended with the Great Depression.
Smyser-Royer’s advertisements were
usually partial page ads until 1928 when they went to full-page ads.
Was this done to increase declining business?
We will never know. These
ads continued sporadically until 1933 when they ceased, never to return.
Smaller ads occasionally appeared in the mid-30s for the verandas and
posts. Starting in 1930 the company started listing 10-page mini-catalogs in the
Sweets catalog and continued until at least 1938 (it had dropped to one page by
then)
The product offerings hadn’t changed
in 20 years by this time and were hopelessly out of date.
War preparations were
under way and there was no room in budgets for such
design frills.
The next, and last reference found is in a publication
printed by the Patternmakers League of North America lamenting the closing of
the company and hoping that another firm might come in and rescue them[13].
Other vague references are made to 1941 as their
closing date so this may have happened.
At least one Architectural Record issue from 1941 has a Smyser-Royer
advertisement for verandas.
1940 to Present
Regardless of the exact date, the
closing of Smyser-Royer may have left JW Fiske Co. without a foundry to produce
their products. Later issues of
Smyser-Royer lamp and veranda catalogs had a label stating that JW Fiske had
acquired the patterns of the Smyser-Royer Company.
The earliest label date I have seen is July 1st, 1945.
The 1941 closing date may have been due to World War II and related to
the availability of strategic materials such as iron, bronze and aluminum.
In 1946,
Robinson Iron Co. was
founded in Alexander City, AL as an iron foundry.
A short time afterward, JW Fiske Co. started sending patterns for Fiske
products, as needed. Robinson has
several Fiske patterns for various items but apparently no Smyser-Royer lamp
patterns.
Where Did
They All Go?