the hell jar

THE HOME OF THE SQUARE DEAL - Endicott, New York

In Endicott are the headquarters and several factories of the Endicott-Johnson Corporation and of the International Business Machines Corporation. State 17C continues through West Endicott, newest and most delightful of the Endicott-Johnson villages.  -New York, Guide to The Empire State (WPA, 1940)

Endicott is a town in Upstate New York named after Henry B. Endicott, who founded the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company with George F. Johnson in 1899. Industrializing the process of shoe making, the company grew rapidly and was awarded government contracts to make boots for servicemen in both World Wars, becoming the largest shoe manufacturer in the world by the end of 1945. As they grew, Endicott-Johnson turned the city into “The Home of the Square Deal,” based on an idea of welfare capitalism that now seems impossible to imagine. They instituted an eight hour day, built hospitals and provided health care, brought electricity to Main Street, built homes for their workers, parks and carousels for their families. In tribute, the neighboring town of Lestershire, named for the shoe company bought out by Endicott and Johnson, was renamed Johnson City.

An old man stopped me once on the street to talk about E-J, holding a homemade DVD with a photograph of George F. Johnson on the cover. My feeling was that he was going to play it at the American Legion Hall he had parked his car in front of. Although dissenting opinions could be heard, Endicott-Johnson was largely beloved, and few talk about their long decline, what they could have or should have done differently. Endicott- Johnson slowly faded after their peak during World War II and was basically out of business by 1980, although the last factory didnʼt close until 1993. Now it exists in name only, as a subsidiary of a tiny boot company.

IBM also started in Endicott, when The Bundy Manufacturing Company and the International Time Recording Company moved their operations from nearby Binghamton in 1906. IBM never centers in the narrative or looms as large in the collective memory as E-J, even if they followed Endicott-Johnsonʼs example by founding their company in Endicott and adopted the standards set by Endicott-Johnson towards their employees. Perhaps Thomas Watson never inspired the same kind of love.

Endicott has a significant amount of mid century modern architecture, much of it built on or around Washington Avenue, the main thoroughfare that leads to the original IBM headquarters and manufacturing plants, which IBM sold and are now run by much smaller companies at much smaller capacity. Washington Avenue was once a busy street that people used every day, but then it fell into decline. People still remember how bad the Avenue got. It doesnʼt look that much better today. There are still a few restaurants. A couple of places that never look open. The post office. A few damaged people wandering around. Normal people going about their business.

These buildings are what is left to tell a story that is achingly sad in its finality. They possess a certain surety, a quiet power, a certain beauty. A certain resilience, even in defeat. They eulogize the best days, before anyone realized that they were already behind them.