The Stephenson Plant, 100 Years Later

Last weekend business took me to New Jersey, and I was able to make a long-planned stop at the John Stephenson Car Company in Elizabeth, N.J. The old 1898 plant where our very own car 36 was built is still there, intact virtually in its entirety, but with a slew of additions in the past 100 years or so. After Stephenson went out of business around the time of the Great War the plant was bought by an airplane manufacturer and likely went through some other owners. Nowadays it is home to several different companies.

Below left is an aerial photo of the plant courtesy of Bing; below right is a key to what you're looking at. Information comes from a 1903 Sanborn Fire Insurance map sent to me some time back by Walt Stafa, who is currently leading the charge on rebuilding the 36's control system. Original Stephenson buildings still in existence are outlined in red; former Stephenson buildings and features that have been removed are outlined in yellow. Locations from which photos (see further down in this post) were taken are noted with blue circles.







1 - originally the varnish shop, with the electrical shop at the east (lower right) end
2 - noted as "print shop" on the map
3 - erecting shop
4 - mill shop
5 - former site of a transfer table
6 - former site of another transfer table
7 - former site of the engine house
8 - former site of what appears to be the engine house, though this isn't entirely clear
9 - former site of a building, designation is illegible on the Sanborn map
10 - former site of drying kiln
11 - approximate former site of lumber shed, with open lumber storage taking up all of the space south of the mill shop

Most of the photos are pretty poor quality, as they were shot from inside my rental car - there was a security booth on the property and I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be there, although there was no gate and nobody stopped me. We're looking southeast at the north side of what was originally the varnish shop here; subsequent owners added the truck docks, obviously.



Here we're looking down an alley along the west end of the varnish shop (near left) and the "print shop" building further down on the left. The building to the right is a later addition. The buildings are all brick but most have been clad in sheet metal, and additionally a large office and truck dock building has been constructed which extends north-to-south along the entire eastern edge of the original building faces.


This is the aforementioned modern building which was constructed along the entire eastern edge of the plant, obscuring views of the print shop, erecting shop and mill shop. The varnish shop/electrical shop at the north end of the factory extends further east and is visible, but has been clad in sheet metal like the rest of the buildings.



In this admittedly terrible photo you can see a bit of the original plant showing through. The modern building pictured above is only 20'-30' deep, I'd guess, and here we are looking through one of the truck dock bays and can see the original brick wall exterior of the "print shop" building. There's also what appears to be a bricked-over window in what was originally an exterior wall.



I hope you enjoyed this rather poor-quality photo tour of the Stephenson plant. Depending on time constraints, I may try and inquire about a tour of the building on a future trip, though I'm fairly certain there's nothing terribly interesting that has been left there through the plant's many lives. Still, it was neat to visit the birthplace of our latest acquisition.