Sixty-five years ago, John and Eunice Taylor founded a fastener distribution company and later settled in this location with a proven track record of customer service.
In 1980, the Capital Screw and Nut company moved into an old red brick trolley and bus barn on Hartley Street. Above it was the tower of the former business office, and below was the tram maintenance pit.
They knew their business. In 1950, they moved from New Britain, a manufacturing city in Connecticut, to York, which had an equal knowledge of manufacturing.
The high ceilings of streetcar barns mean that racks and buckets containing millions of metal fasteners can be stacked high in the space that once housed the overhead wires that supplied electricity to the utility poles, creating a rattling sound. We were able to quietly supply electricity to the streetcars that were being built.
The Taylors operate out of their wheelhouse, supplying drill bits, threaded rods, anchor bolts and wood screws for, as the company's website states, “everything from airplanes, cars and bridges to sculptures, tools and tractors. , to assemble, manufacture, and fix everything.”
There used to be a factory for electric machinery, then internal combustion machinery, and it is located in a manufacturing district where manufacturers of large and heavy things such as air conditioners that cool tunnels, barbells that produce Olympic champions, and civil engineering machinery are gathered. I did. It was a large bike that could move mountains and later became an American brand.
Their Hartley Street business stood squarely in The Avenues, a streetcar district lined with working-class and executive housing that stretched along the trolley lines. In the pre-automobile era, streetcars allowed people to live far from their employers.
For many years, Capital Screw and Nut was a leading company in York's old mill town, purchasing large quantities of hardware directly from factories across the country and distributing it in smaller units to customers in York County and beyond. .
And so it is now.
Businesses meet customer needs
The other day, Marianne Clay, the Taylors' daughter, spoke about the former operation, which 100 years ago operated trolleys that carried 11 million passengers a year from York Haven to Littlestown and from Dover to Bittersville, east of Windsor. I was sitting behind the desk at the center. .
She was quoting for customers who typically had orders in the thousands. Orders for 40,000 screws are not unusual.
A former York Daily Record reporter, magazine writer and nonprofit staffer, she became active in the family business about three years ago. She faced a huge learning curve reading her book after researching how her late mother kept her bookkeeping for years.
She found time to establish a small museum on the walkway from the customer service area to the company's offices, complete with Benson W. Rohrbeck's oft-cited book “York County Trolley” and a York Fair poster. A century ago during Fair Week, trolley companies deployed everything they could to transport thousands of visitors to and from the fair.
Why did she take on the challenge of running a dealership that sells an almost endless variety of machined products to a variety of customers, including roofers, construction companies, handmade furniture makers, and coffin makers? ?
Indeed, that's York County's trolley history. She had mentioned several times that she wanted to examine her 40 boxes of streetcar company documents in the archives at the York County History Center. She has experienced it at least once and wants to find out more.
She spoke with sadness about learning that when the streetcars stopped working in 1939, many of the cars went up in flames. Today, her remaining two cases are open to the public. One is operated by the Rock Hill Trolley Museum in Huntingdon County. The other is on display in the History Center's Agricultural and Industrial Museum.
Coincidentally, these archives are scheduled to move to the former Metropolitan University Steam Plant on West Philadelphia Street this summer, so any exploration of those documents will have to wait. That power plant supplied power to streetcars from 1892 until 1939. In fact, the York County Transit Company and York Railroad once owned this old steam power plant, so the streetcar's electricity needs were huge.
And then there's Capital's customers and their kindness. At this family-run business, some of the customers are like family. Clay said some people come in looking for Bolt, and they say, “Hey, we've got a bolt.” I'll get it. ”
It's hard to keep track of what goes where among the millions of parts in old car barns the size of a football field or larger.
“I know,” she said. “I would walk miles to find a screw.”
Capital's four employees know what they're doing. As you walk through the office, you can hear discussions about customer requests. The caller asks the employee about a certain length of bolt. Or a specific thread. Or request a specific type of metal.
The amount of details you need to know about fasteners is unlimited. And where to find it in the barn. Or how to order if out of stock.
York is said to be America's largest small town. That also applies to the relationships between the iconic companies, large and small, that have and still do business here. After 60 years, Capital has become one of those companies.
Kinsman worked on the trolley.
Clay described employee Greg Ness with the highest praise of anyone in the profession. “If you want to know where something is, just ask him.”
Ness trained as a machinist and then moved into marketing and engineering.
Some of his ancestors in York County date back to before the Revolutionary War, and some were among the earliest to be trained as blacksmiths.
The employee, who has been with Capital for three years, stands in one of the cavernous barns where three sets of tracks leading in and out of the original wooden vehicle barn doors are still visible on the floor. Although he knows where and what is in this vast space, he still learns something new every day.
“For me, it somehow comes naturally,” he says of his work.
His family history may be able to answer “somehow.” It started with a pioneering blacksmith. and passed on through his great-grandfather Edward Ness.
Edward Ness worked for a trolley company in York.
remembering her family
There's another reason Clay is under Capital's control after finding success in other areas. She runs a “moderately profitable” business in memory of her father and mother and her family.
She continues this business with pride. It's her pride in her county and its history that her parents valued so highly. And she is quick to quote what her customers have been saying to her family since 1959. “If you can’t find it at Capital, you don’t need it.”
Jim McClure is a former editor of the York Daily Record and has written or co-authored nine books on York County history. Please contact jimmcclure21@outlook.com.
