A Lost Landmark:
The H. K. Porter Company

By James Wudarczyk - November 30, 2004

A brief mention of the H. K. Porter Company was made in Franklin Toker’s Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. “For Lawrenceville the first of the colossal mills was the predecessor of the H. K. Porter Locomotive Works, opened in 1866 on Harrison Street and Hemlock Alley between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth streets. A dozen low brick structures are used today by the Pittsburgh Commercial Heat Treating Company and the McConway-Torley Corporation.”

As in the case of many industrial institutions, they often vanish with scarcely a trace. In some respects, this is true of the H. K. Porter Company. It appears that the company’s founder never intended to be an industrialist. Born in 1840 in Concord, New Hampshire, he was enrolled in Newton Theological Seminary in 1861 and 1862 in order to study for the Baptist ministry. However, his studies were interrupted by the Civil War, and he enlisted with the 45th Massachusetts Volunteers, where he served in the military until July, 1863. According to John W. Jordan, “Time, however, wrought a change in the life plans of the soldier-student, and in May, 1866, he came to Pittsburgh, engaging in the business of manufacturing light locomotives. In this venture he achieved a rapid success, his products, by reason of their great excellence, finding a market in all parts of the world. On January 1, 1899, the business was incorporated as the H. K. Porter Company, with Mr. Porter as president. American trade annals, telling as they do of many men who have been architects of their own fortunes, contain no record more creditable by reason of undaunted energy, well formulated plans and straightforward dealings than that of Henry Kirke Porter. His untiring energy and his enthusiastic manner of forging ahead are the envy of the younger men about him and his employees have always shown him a rare devotion, the result of the justice and kindliness which have marked his conduct toward them. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, and at one time was president of that body.”

Porter held a number of positions with civic, cultural, and religious organizations, and in 1903 was elected to represent the 31st Congressional District.

Jordan also noted, “The personality of Mr. Porter is that of a man possessed of remarkable financial acumen and with marvelous knowledge of men, a director and stockholder in numerous monetary institutions, one who has managed high and responsible business affairs with a brilliancy that has won for him the admiration of his fellow citizens. A fine looking, genial man, his mind is alert, his eye piercing and his step resilient. His countenance radiates an optimistic spirit and the briefest talk with him reveals his ability and the versatility of his talents. Temperamentally calm, careful, considerate, courteous and amiable, his personal qualities have endeared him to his associates.”

Although there are a number of references to the Porter Company, specifics on the Lawrenceville branch of that enterprise are scarce. As early as 1948, Sylvester K. Stevens, author of Pennsylvania Titans of Industry, observed:

“The H. K. Porter Company with general offices in Pittsburgh is one of the major manufacturers of railway equipment for special uses. Like a majority of other larger industrial enterprises of today, it is not a purely Pennsylvania concern as it has two plants in New Jersey at New Brunswick and Newark and another at Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Its Pennsylvania locations are in Pittsburgh and Blairsville, and the Steel City is the nerve center for the organization.

“‘Locomotives and cars, heavy projectiles, Porter and Porter Devine Equipment, and pumps from its Quimby Pump Division were in service on every major battle front during World War II. With the exception of the projectiles, the same products were serving the pre-war peacetime needs of the world, and will continue to do so in the future. In recognition of its wartime contributions, of the first Army-Navy “E” pennants awarded in Western Pennsylvania and one of the first fifty in the nation was granted Porter very early in the war.

“H. K. Porter Company is the outgrowth of a company established before the turn of the century in 1900 for the production of locomotives. It became the designer and manufacturer of what was probably the most complete line of industrial locomotives in the world. Railway switching engines were another major product. Porter pioneered in such developments as the fireless locomotive, of which it is the leading manufacturer, the compressed air engine, and other devices. It is the leading builder of four, six, and eight wheel steam engines. It became also a leading builder of Diesel electric locomotives and designed the first double power plant 100-ton Diesel. In this field, the Company contributed markedly to making possible the most modern Diesel powered era in railway transportation. Many improvements in recent railway transport would not have been possible without Porter’s research and pioneering.”

The Lawrenceville facility specialized in small locomotives used in steel mills, mines, and logging camps. Much of what we know regarding the Porter concern comes to us from an account in The Bulletin Index of Thursday, April 30, 1936: “Amid the profusion of equestrian statues of Simon Bolivar the Liberator which stud the public squares of Bogota, Columbia, stands an ornate monument mounted with a dinky, high-wheeled, 19th Century locomotive-the first one the impressionable natives of that South American republic had ever seen when it puffed up & down the steep slopes of the Columbian Andes in 1878. Its builder, H. K. Porter Co. of Pittsburgh, was then only a going concern of ten years; but already its locomotives were chuffing in the earth’s far corners. H. K. Porter Co. shipped the first locomotives to China, Japan and Alaska, and in 1877 built the historic, 15-ton, wood burning Minnetoka for the Union Pacific R. R.” It should be noted that the account also indicated that the Minnetoka was still in operation in a logging camp in 1933, and was displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair.

In continuing the account, the Bulletin Index also stated, “H. K. Porter estimates that 7,000 of its locomotives are running in all parts of the world. Porter’s great days were from 1868-90 when it grew rich on orders from the railroads which were pushing Westward through Pittsburgh. Bigger fry soon squeezed little Porter out of the lucrative railroad locomotive business, and H. K. Porter now gets its bread & butter as the ‘world’s pioneer industrial locomotive builder.’ The company’s biggest sellers, almost to the exclusion of the 693 other types of locomotives it catalogues, are its fame compressed-air locomotive and its newer, equally-famed fireless steam locomotive.

“Porter developed the first compressed-air locomotive in 1890, now makes most of them in the U. S. They are used mainly in mines, and in powder plants, lumber yards, wood-working mills, etc. where fire-risk is a prime consideration. Porter’s best year was in 1919 when it was swamped with War orders from arsenals and munitions makers, made $800,000 profit. Compressed-air locomotives run from 3,000 to 15,000 feet on a single charge of air, can be recharged from the stationary compressing station in less time than it takes a motorist to fill a tire. Hauling by compressed air locomotives Porter claims, costs on an average of only about 1 cent per ton-mile.”

The Great Depression of the 1930’s was very hard on the Porter Company. As the Bulletin Index noted, “It lost $200,000 in 1931, last time it made a public statement.”

By 1950 the Lawrenceville facility of H. K. Porter closed after an apparent labor dispute. In an article by Arthur R. Friedman, Post Gazette Financial Editor, Thomas Mellon Evans, president of the H. K. Porter Company, was quoted as saying, “During the past several years the company has been carrying out a policy of disposing of parts of its business that were unprofitable or earned only a small return on the investment and acquiring, where available on attractive terms, other businesses with the idea of building up the company’s earning power.”

Friedman’s article also noted, “This policy has produced a certain diversification of activities. One other prominent Pittsburgh industrialist has done pretty much the same thing.

“Mr. Evans started to build up on the Porter locomotive plant at Forty-ninth and Harrison Streets, in Lawrenceville, but as a result of strikes in the Pittsburgh district and being compelled to meet steel plant labor benefits, even though he made no steel, it was decided the company’s funds could be more advantageously employed in enterprises other than metal fabricating.”

A massive class action suit filed by more than 122,000 people for asbestos-related claims, spelled the end for the H. K. Porter Company in 1993. According to Len Boselovic, a Post Gazette staff writer, “Porter, a former Fortune 500 company, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in February 1991. Last week, a liquidation plan filed by unsecured creditors estimated Porter has assets of $48.8 million and liabilities of $555.9 million.

“More than 122,000 people who have filed asbestos-related claims against Porter make up the largest class of creditors. Creditors estimate asbestos victims will collect 3 cents to 8.6 cents on the dollar from Porters.”