Interesting early Gibson factory photo

**travellerbytrade** · Apr-19-2017, 7:28pm

With all due respect to the author of the Wikipedia page, we all do our best with the information we have at the time, but their grid/chart with dates and factory addresses really is incorrect. It would take about 30 footnotes to document this post and the one above, but here goes.

Mrs. Carrie Sherwood-Gilmore bought the property at 114 E. Exchange place in, I think, January 1909 (land deed). Gibson's lease was up the first week in November (G. Laurian, city council meeting, Oct. 1909). But, since Mrs. Gilmore was Lewis Williams' cousin, she may have granted them a short extension instead of hauling their stuff out to the curb.

The annual report to the State of Michigan for year ending Dec. 1909, filled out by the Gibson Company, lists their address as Harrison Court. It's in the city directory and the factory building is also listed among their assets on the report - as opposed to Exchange Place which they only rented.

So they had moved to Harrison Ct. between October and November 1909 and moved out between July (offices) and the end of September (factory), 1917. Gibson still owned and rented the Harrison Ct. building for a couple of years before selling it.

**MikeEdgerton** · Apr-19-2017, 10:13pm

You know you can edit a Wikipedia page right?

**walter carter** · Apr-20-2017, 7:38pm

Just saw this thread and haven't read through all 7 pages, so someone else may have ID'd the guys in the pic.

The one on the right is Ted McHugh. He was one of Orville Gibson's buddies in musical groups, and he was the inventor of the adjustable truss rod and co-inventor of the height-adjustable bridge. I met his grandson when I was doing the Gibson 100 Years book in 1994; the grandson was in his 70s at that time and his resemblance to Ted was unmistakable.

The guy in the middle is definitely not Guy Hart. The sales manager in the early 1920s was a bespectacled bald fellow named Clifford Buttleman. Without seeing his face full-on, I can't tell if it's him or not.

Someone mentioned that Loar and Hart were there at the same time. Yes, but barely. Hart was brought in as an inside auditor in 1924. This is speculation, but Hart's promotion to GM was probably the last straw for Loar.