EAST ST. LOUIS CASTINGS - 1934

East St. Louis Castings was started in 1919 by Ralph M. Hill. Hill, a graduate of Purdue University, worked at Missouri Malleable Iron prior to starting the new company.

Easst St. Louis Castings originally was a stove foundry with just one customer, the Wrought Iron Range Company. In 1929 the foundry was moved from its location on Kansas Avenue to a new location just outside the city at 4200 St. Clair. It was then one of the most mechanized iron foundries in the Midwest. Additional customers were added, some of whom were not stove builders, but basically it remained a stove foundry until 1949 when Mr. Hill died.

In the years that followed the company served a variety of industries throughout the Midwest such as automotive, electrical,agriculture and earth moving to mention a few. The company established a reputation for high quality, low-cost castings and at itspeak employed nearly 400 people.

In the early 1970s Farquhar was made President of East Side Castings with Hill Chairman of the Board. The company continued to prosper until the 1980s but as basic industry declined in the U. S. it became increasingly difficult to run a profitable operation of this type and the business was finally closed in 1985.