Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
BECKER-HAZLETON COMPANY
BECKER-HAZELTON COMPANY. C. H. LITTLE, BRUCE AND COMPANY, the predecessor, was a crockery and glassware business organized in 1888. Moving through a series of partnerships, the company under C. H. Becker and H. S. Hazleton became the Becker-Hazleton Company in 1903. The firm grew rapidly after incorporation, importing and wholesaling its products throughout the Midwest.
The company offered fine china from England, France, Japan, Germany and Austria. From England, the famous dinnerware of Johnson Bros. amounted to imports of five hundred crates annually. In the same period of time, two carloads of Haviland & Company china was imported from France. Japan accounted for annual imports of four cars while Germany exported twenty-five cars to the Dubuque firm.
In 1911 the company's offices, store and warehouse were located at 537-545 Main Street. Duties on goods were paid in Dubuque, which was the PORT OF ENTRY, and collected at the DUBUQUE CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE.
By 1914 the company had outgrown its four-story, 30,000-square-foot sales and storage building on Main Street. The partners commissioned Dubuque architect JOHN SPENCER to design a large warehouse near the tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad on Iowa Street - the former site of the DUBUQUE CITY MILLS and the KEY CITY BARREL COMPANY (c.1880).
Once the plans had been completed, competitive proposals for the building's construction were solicited; the low bidder among the eight respondents, prominent Dubuque contractor ANTON ZWACK INC. was awarded the contract. Zwack, who had completed the similar DUBUQUE PAPER COMPANY warehouse four doors north earlier that year, began excavating for the foundations in the fall of 1914, and completed the building for the reported cost of $70,000 the following year.
The company branched into other products besides china and crockery over the years. Refrigerators were advertised in 1929. In 1930 the firm even offered winter storage of automobiles for $2.00 monthly.
The 1939 through 1957 Dubuque City Directory listed 280 Iowa as the address.
In 1959 the Becker-Hazelton Company was purchased by G. J. Hohnecker who established HOHNECKER'S in Dubuque.
See: Charles H. BECKER
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Source:
"Iowa's Largest Importers of Chinaware Are in Dubuque," Telegraph Herald, January 26, 1910, p. 1
Historic American Buildings Survey. memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ia/ia0200/ia0289/.../ia0289data.pdf
