Benjamin Franklin Goodrich

(1841-1888)

Born in Ripley, New York 

B. F. Goodrich was an American industrialist in the tire industry and was founder of the B. F. Goodrich Company.  He was buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York.  His parents were Anson Goodrich and Susannah Dinsmoor Goodrich.  On November 4, 1869 Goodrich married Mary Elizabeth Marvin.  They had 4 children .. Charles, Richard, Isabella and David.  Richard died in infancy. Charles became a Goodrich chemist and a member of the Maine Legislature.  David became a Goodrich executive and Isabella married John Breckinridge II, grandson of John Breckinridge (former Vice President of the United States under James Buchanan).

Another famous name from Ripley, New York was Charles Mann Hamilton who built the Hamilton Mansion which is now a B&B and event center.   Charles and Bertha Lamberton Hamilton will be featured in a follow-up story.  

After B. F. Goodrich's death, his wife hired architect Guy Lowell in 1905 to design a 32 room mansion known as River House in York, Maine.  His widow died at age 65 in April of 1907 and is buried in Lake View Cemetery along side her husband, B. F. Goodrich.

River House

York, Maine

The River House is a 26 acre estate facing the York River and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is one of Maine's most architecturally distinctive and unusual early 20th-century summer estate houses.  The River House has a guest cottage, a barn and two "play houses". The original house was destroyed by a fire in 1925, but firefighters were able to save much of the original contents.  One wing of the building survived the fire and that wing was incorporated into the rebuilding of the new River house along with some of the surviving brick walls of the original brick structure according to the information provided guests by the local historical society. The property was given to Bowdoin College by granddaughter, Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson in 1974 and the college operated it as a conference center until it was sold into private hands in 2004.  

Advertisment for Goodrich Silvertown Tires

Circa 1920

In 1869, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich purchased the Hudson River Rubber Company, a small business in Hastings-on Hudson, New York.  The following year Dr. Goodrich accepted an offer of $13,600 from the citizens of Akron, Ohio to relocate his business there.  

The company grew to be one of the largest tire and rubber manufacturers in the world, helped in part by the 1986 merger with Uniroyal.  This product line was sold to Frenh company, Michelin in 1988. During the 1970s, Goodrich ran television and print ads to distinguish themselves from the similar-sounding Goodyear tire company.  The tag line was "We're the other guys. Remember?"  The company was also sometimes confused with Mr. Goodwrench as the two last names were similar especially since B. F. Goodrich tires were featured on many General Motors cars and trucks. 

Who Knew?

B. F. Goodrich sold radios from the 1930s to the 1950s under the brand name "Mantola".  These radios were actually made by a variety of manufacturers for B. F. Goodrich. Goodrich ranked 67th among United States corporations in the value of WWII military production contracts.  

In August 1986, one of the biggest competitors in the tire business, Uniroyal Inc. was taken private when it merged with the tire segment of the B. F. Goodrich Company, in a joint venture private partnership to become the Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company.  B. F. Goodrich Company held a 50% stake in the new tire company.  The new Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company headquarters was established at the former B. F. Goodrich corporate headquarters within its 27 building downtown complex in Akron, Ohio which contained Goodrich's original factory.  In the autumn of 1987 B. F. Goodrich Company shut down several manufacturing operationsat the site and most of the complex remained facant until February 1988 when B. F. Goodrich announced plans to sell the vacant par of the complex to the Covington Capital Corporation, a group of New York developers.  The complex is now known as Canal Place.

GENERAL OFFICES
THE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY

In 2021, a group of Akron/Cleveland investors purchased buildings #10 and #17 and converted them into 139 high-end residences known as "The Goodrich" which opened in the summer of 2022. Canal Park, a baseball stadium with 8,500 seats was also built on the site of the former Anthony Wayne Hotel which was razed in 1996.

By the end of WWII the site had grown to become the largest rubber factory in the world emcompassing over 90 buildings and 3 million sq. ft. of space.  At its peak, the complex was a self-contained city with its own fire, police and medical services which included the first telephone system in Akron.  Goodrich was the first in Akron to own a telephone, which was a gift from Alexander Graham Bell in 1877.  The telephone connected Goodrich's home on Quaker Street to his factory on Rubber Street. 

 

The Iconic B. F. Goodrich Smokestacks

Built in 1925, B. F. Goodrich's Building No. 41 at 388 S. Main Street was the northernmost of several that composed the company's Akron complex, where 15,000 employees once made an array of rubber products including billions of rubber bands, as well as

 John Glen's spacesuit!  They built spacesuits for NASA astronauts in the 1960s!

Glenn's spacesuit and the Friendship 7 capsule are at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 

"Although Colonel Glenn traveled alone in his 81,000-mile journey, the thoughts and prayers of millions were with him."

The Beacon Journal 

Circa 1962

"It was a day of glory for a brave man and for the nation whose prestige and honor he carried into space."

Thank you to The B. F. Goodrich Company

Colonel John Glenn

Circa 1962

Sidenote:  Goodrich let astronauts suggest what they wanted in the way of pockets explained by Wayne Galloway, spacesuit production manager for Goodrich in 1962.  "Glenn wanted two zipper pockets below his knees and one on his thigh. In this he carries surgical shears to be used in an emergency to cut himself out of his suit and safety belt.  One other pocket is a slit on the right shoulder for his hankey."

The B. F. Goodrich Co. designed and built the silver spacesuit John Glenn wore on Feb. 20, 1962 as the first American to orbit the Earth. He orbited the planet aboard the Mercury space capsule, Friendship 7.  He became a national hero when he made three trips around the world, traveling 83,450 miles in four hours and 55 minutes.  Goodrich made every spacesuit worn by Project Mercury's seven original astronauts.  The other brave astronauts were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Donald "Deke" Slayton.  In 1959, NASA agreed to buy 20 suits from Goodrich for $75,000 or approximately $3,750 each.  Today, that would be $583,249 or $29,000 apiece!  

Glenn and Schirra were the first to be fitted, arriving in Akron in October 1959.  Dressed in civilian clothes, they dined with 40 workers in Goodrich's cafeteria and left that same day.  The five other astronauts soon followed.  

The B. F.Goodrich Company can actually trace their history of its space garb to 1934 when famed pilot, Wiley Post ordered a high-altitude suit.  Goodrich worker, Russell S. Colley designed the pressurized garmet from balloon fabric and is wife, Dorothy stitched it together on her sewing machine! Goodrich named Colley the engineer of the Mercury spacesuit project.  The Beacon Journal called him "the first tailor of the Space Age".

Goodrich built a stainlesss-steel chamber at its research center to test spacesuits in a vacuum.  The room mixed hydrogen, nitogen, argon and oxygen to simulate high altitudes. The spacesuits weight 20 pounds, not counting the long underwear that astronauts wore.  Oxygen was pumped in through a waist connection.

None of the original "Mercury 7" astronauts who were selected by NASA in 1959, are alive today. 

Thank you, Gentlemen.  Job Well Done

RIP

🛞 🛞 🛞 

Akron became known as the "Rubber Capitol of the World".

Lena M. Joseph's employee card

Service Date May 6, 1933

The factories of The B. F. Goodrich Co. in Akron Ohio

Largest rubber plant in the world. Two miles around the grounds, with 15,000 employees.  Seventy-Five acres of floor space.

Sidenote:  Your blog writer grew up outside of Ripley and graduated from Ripley Central School so it is no wonder I wouldn't include a blog story about Ripley's hometown boy whose name was Benjamin Franklin Goodrich.  And yes, there is a street named .. Goodrich.  The parades used to form up on Goodrich which included the Ripley Central School marching band led by Lyman Wood.  I played clarinet.