Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Peter A. Frasse & Co. Records

Call Number

MS 2189

Date

1818-1977 (bulk dates 1878-1977), inclusive

Creator

Extent

1.67 Linear feet (1 box and 8 volumes)

Language of Materials

The documents in this collection are in English.

Abstract

The records of Peter A. Frasse & Co., Inc. include minutes, administrative and personal correspondence, financial records, and audit reports. The records document the internal workings of a New York City manufacturing company engaged in tool, machinery, steel, aluminum, and stainless steel production and distribution, and bicycle, automobile and defense manufacturing.

Historical Note

Missing Title

1816 Henri Frasse opens his shop at 95 Fair Street
1849 Henri Frasse dies. Peter A Frasse, Henri's son, takes over and renames his father's business.
1868 J.M. Montgomery joins Peter A. Frasse's operation as a partner, and the company becomes known as "Peter A. Frasse & Co." The company produces tools such as twist drills, machine screws and files
1876 J.M. Montgomery leaves the Frasse business and founds "J.M. Montgomery & Co."
1878 Peter A. Frasse & Co. produces vises, forges, lathes and other blacksmith's and moves into a new building at 95 Fulton Street
1891 Peter A. Frasse and Peter A. Frasse & Co. is incorporated
1897 Peter A. Frasse & Co. produces bicycles, bicycle supplies, steel tubing, and tubing parts
1898 The company moves to #94 Fulton Street
1900 Peter A. Frasse & Co. becomes the sole eastern distributor for Shelby Cold Drawn Seamless Steel Tubes, a product used for bicycle frames
1901 The company focuses on producing automobile parts, and discontinues the manufacture of bicycles and bicycle parts
c. 1901-1903 Peter A. Frasse & Co. establishes a business connection with Poldi Steel Works of Austria
1906 The Tube and Steel departments move to 142 and 144 Worth Street
1909 The Tool and Supply departments moved to 130 and 132 Worth Street and Branch offices open in Philadelphia at 407 Commerce Street, and in Buffalo at 50-52 Exchange Street
1910 Peter A Frasse and Co. builds new home office quarters at the northwest corner of Canal and Sullivan Streets
c.1910-1914 Peter A. Frasse & Co. establishes business connection with Hans Renold, Ltd., of Manchester, England, the oldest and largest manufacturers of driving and transmission chains. The company also established business relationships with Duetsche Waffen-und Munitions fabriken of Berlin, makers of steel balls; the Union Gesellshaft fur Metallindustrie, Frondenberg-Ruhr, Germany, makers of bicycles chains; William N. Brunton & Sons, Musselberg, Scotland, makers of music wire and drill rods
c.1914 The Frasse company begins shipping steel to aircraft industry
1914 First World War begins. Commerce between United States and Austria ceases, and Peter A. Frasse & Co. discontinues agency of Poldi Steel Works
1916 Frasse Steel Works is built in Hartford, Connecticut
1920 The company disposes of remnants of its hardware and tool business and commits entirely to the distribution of metals
1925 Frasse Steel Works sold to Union Drawn Steel Company and Peter A. Frasse & Co. becomes a distributor of their cold drawn carbon bars in New York and Philadelphia
1927 Peter A. Frasse & Co. begins carrying stainless steel products
1935 Peter A. Frasse & Co. begins carrying stainless steel bars produced by the Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation. Frasse begins close association with Superior Tube Company
1938 Peter A. Frasse & Co. installs its first IBM equipment
Late 1930's-1945 Peter A. Frasse & Co. focuses on meeting defense industry demand
1946 Peter A. Frasse & Co. opens plant at Syracuse, New York
1951 New plant built at Syracuse, Peter A. Frasse & Co. consolidates four smaller plants into one custom-designed center at Lyndhurst, New Jersey
1953 Peter A. Frasse & Co. builds larger plants in Buffalo and Hartford
1954 Frasse becomes a distributor of aluminum for Reynolds Metals Company
1964 At the Philadelphia branch, Peter A Frasse & Co. installs state-of-the-art materials-handling system, a completely automated master control system. The company constructs new office building in Lyndhurst, New Jersey and purchases Cambridge, Massachusetts facilities of Ward Steel Company, adds stainless steel and aluminum products to product line produced there.

Citation: The information on the history of the Peter A. Frasse & Co. was derived chiefly from "One Century in Business, 1816-1916" and "Frasse: The story of Peter A. Frasse & Company, Inc." Both documents written and published by Peter A. Frasse & Co.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into the following three series:

Missing Title

  1. Series I. Financial Records, 1818-1928
  2. Series II. Minutes, 1891-1977
  3. Series III. Corporate History, ca. 1916-1966

The materials are arranged chronologically within each series.

Scope and Content Note

As described in "One Century in Business" and "The Story of Peter A. Frasse & Co., Inc.," Peter A. Frasse and Co. began as a mechanical shop and tool import business owned and operated by Henri Frederic Frasse, a Swiss immigrant to New York City. Frasse's shop was located at 95 Fair Street, later renamed Fulton Street. During the first decades of the nineteenth century Frasse's business prospered and his reputation grew due in large part to the assistance he was known to have provided Robert Fulton in perfecting the steamboat and other inventions.

Upon Henri Frasse's death in 1849 the business was taken over by his son Peter A. Frasse and the company's name changed accordingly. The name of the business was changed again in 1868 to "Peter A. Frasse & Co." when John M. Montgomery joined Frasse as a business partner.

Peter A. Frasse & Co. incorporated in 1891 following the death of Peter Frasse and adapted to new technologies over the latter part of the nineteenth century, capitalizing on the production of bicycles and, into the twentieth century, the lucrative automobile industry. The Frasse company grew considerably during the first half of the twentieth century by attending to the defense industry demands of the time.

Peter A. Frasse & Co., Inc. continued doing business into the postwar period, shifting its focus to the considerable new civilian demand, increasing the size and number of its factories and facilities, modernizing production via automation, and introducing new products such as aluminum and stainless steel.

The records of Peter A. Frasse & Co., Inc. document the activities of the business from 1816 to 1978, with the bulk of the records falling between 1878 and 1977. The records include minutes of the Board of Directors and Stockholders meetings; administrative and personal correspondence; financial records and audit reports. The New York City-based company manufactured and distributed tools, machinery, steel, aluminum, and stainless steel, and was engaged in bicycle, automobile and defense manufacturing.

Subjects

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days. Researchers on site may print out unlimited copies from microfilm reader-printer machines at per-exposure rates. See guidelines in Reading room for details.

Use Restrictions

Permission to quote from this collection in a publication must be requested and granted in writing. Send permission requests, citing the name of the collection from which you wish to quote, to

Library Director
The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Peter A. Frasse & Co. Records, MS 2189, The New-York Historical Society.

Collection processed by

Luke Meagher

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:48:21 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from frasse.xml

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024