Poole & Hunt

Union Works

1853/02/18 - Was among 15 Baltimore companies that refused to give striking mechanics a requested increase in wages.

1867-1869 - Advertised in Hagerstown newspaper variously the Leffel Turbine Water Wheel it manufactured and Lorrell's Fire Engine Deep Well and Force Pump. Styled themselves as Engineers & Founders.

"In 1853, a modest machine plant was born on Woodberry Road, just north of a nameless branch of the Jones Falls at the foot of Tempest Hill. The new plant, coined Union Machine Shops, housed Poole & Hunt's general offices, an iron foundry, erecting and pattern shops, a melting house and stables. Instantly it became the backbone of the Woodberry/Hamden community, employing thousands of men as it grew to become the country's largest machine manufacturing plants."

"Woodberry began as a small mill town, with its first flour mill created in 1802 to process grain grown in Frederick County for export. In 1804, the Falls turnpike followed an old indian trail out of Baltimore city (Woodberry was part of Baltimore county until its annex in 1888) to the area, and this road spurred development in the area"

"By 1820, the Baltimore area was a world center for flour milling. Cotton duck grew in popularity soon after and by the 1830's, most of the flour mills were converted to cotton mills. The Poole and Hunt Foundry (which created the cast iron columns for the Capitol's dome in Washington, D.C.) and the North Central Railroad came to Woodberry in the 1850's. By the time of the Civil War, there were four cotton mills in the Hampden-Woodberry area, mostly owned by the Gambrill family. These operations were small; by the 1860's, only about 500 employees worked in these mills."

Were makers of early hand-pumped fire engines.

From 1851 until the 1920s Maryland's leading builder of water turbines, and power transmission, mill and manufacturing machinery.

Manufactured the friction clutches that drive the cable for the cable railway on the Brooklyn Bridge.

"Car #25


Type: Horse Car
Builder/Year: Poole & Hunt (?)/c1859
Purchaser: Baltimore City Passenger Railway Co.
Length: 21' '7"
Seating: 20
Operated/Routes: Horse Cars Operated From 1859 to c1900 on All Lines."

1888 - Referenced by The Manufacturer & Builder as "engineers and machinists."

Robert Poole of the P&H Foundry ...

Good advertisement for leffel Wheel at http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/buildingplans/ill10.html

"In 1843, a modest machine plant was born in the outskirts
of Baltimore City at 161 North Street. Founded by
Robert Poole, joined in 1851 by partner German Hunt,
the plant served as one of the country's largest machine
manufacturing shops.
Two years later, after a fire that damaged the factory and
halted operations, the two gentlemen moved their
operation to Woodberry Road, just north of a nameless
branch of the Jones Falls at the foot of Tempest Hill.
The new plant, coined Union Machine Shops, housed
Poole & Hunt's general offices, an iron foundry, erecting
and pattern shops, a melting house and stables. Instantly
it became the backbone of the Woodberry/Hampden
community, employing thousands as it grew to become
the country's largest machine manufacturing plant. The
Foundry, complete with railroad siding and tracks for
moving raw material and finished product, produced
“cotton duck”, the cloth used for the sails of clipper ships
during the first World War.
The most remarkable feat accomplished at the plant, the
production of a pit-lathe capable of turning out a wheel
sixty feet in diameter, gained national attention for being
the largest in the world. In addition, the company cast
the 36-inch columns and brackets that still support the
US Capitol dome in Washington, D.C."