BLOUNT PLOW WORKS
by PAT SIDES
This imposing manufacturing plant is Blount Plow Works, seen here eight years after it was built in 1881. One of several large factories that once lined North Main Street, it occupied the block bounded by Baker Avenue, North Main, Illinois, and Franklin streets.Â
Over the years, Blount became one of the largest farm equipment manufacturers in the country, its labor largely supplied by the densely populated Jacobsville neighborhood that surrounded it. The company’s name was changed to Burch Plow in the twentieth century.
This image shows the North Main façade, with streetcar tracks running down the unpaved streets. The group of children at the corner of the building may have provided some of the labor at the large factory, which was a common practice in that era.
The building was razed circa 1970 to make way for a Great Scot store, which in turn will soon be razed for a new housing and commercial development on the block.
