Photo Credit - Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum
A former Two Rivers city manager is looking back at what happened with the closure of Hamilton Manufacturing.
Right now, the City of Two Rivers is asking for the community’s input as it seeks to purchase the 14-acre plot along the East Twin River to develop it into something other than an empty plot of land.
Greg Buckley took over as city manager in 1995, at a time when Hamilton was embedded in Two Rivers’ identity.
He tells SeehaferNews.com that it’s hard to overstate the importance of the economy and the livelihood that it provides for residents.
In its heyday, the Hamilton Manufacturing downtown building covered 1.2 million square feet on 12 acres.
Photo Credit – Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum
Hamilton was eventually purchased in the 1960’s by American Hospital Supply, and then by what would become Thermo-Fisher, which owns the land right now.
Buckley explained that Hamilton was still going strong when he arrived in 1995, but he noted some signs of disinvestment.
“There were trees growing out of the roof in some of the downtown plant buildings,” he explained. “And it was clear that there had not been a lot of investment in the physical plant there. There seemed to be a fair amount of anxiety over what the future of the company was.”
The company was still hiring some part-time workers during the summer, but by 2005, a change was coming to the Cool City.
Buckley said Hamilton announced that some production would be moved to Mexico.
“The move to Reynosa (Mexico) was basically some of the high volume, lower tech, cabinet production, the mass production of stuff, that you would by out of a catalog,” he described. “The good news was that would enhance the competitiveness of the remaining Two Rivers operations that were more into the custom cabinetry for major customers.”
However, more shuttering of Hamilton came six years later, when it was announced that all steel manufacturing would move out of Two Rivers, leaving wood production at the downtown plant.
But in December 2011, the wood type plant would also close, moving operations to Texas.
Some offices were left over from the closures, but in the end, Buckley said, “The downtown facility announced the closure and the relocation of the remaining office staff to De Pere. It wasn’t too long after locating to De Pere, within a year or so, those offices were closed.”
Eventually, deconstruction began, and the plant was fully torn down by 2015, culminating in the implosion of the Hamilton Smokestack.
Photo Credit – City of Two Rivers
Buckley noted that Hamilton’s loss didn’t have a significant impact on their tax base after fully closing, and it didn’t affect city utilities either.
But the impact was on the families of those who worked there.
“That’s a heritage in the community,” he exclaimed. “You had people who were third and fourth generation working at Hamilton, that’s were dad worked, that’s were grandma worked on the line. That was tough. The Two Rivers Community Band started as the Hamilton Band, they had company sponsorship.”
Two Rivers officials held two community vision meetings last week to discuss what they are looking for for the now-flat land where Hamilton’s downtown plant used to stand.
Current City Manager Kyle Kordell explained that the land is not as bad as previously thought, and they are still working on a deal with Thermo-Fisher.
Our next story will provide more information about what the city plans to do with the community over the next few months before deciding what to do with the property.
