Bausch Picture Frame and Moulding Manufacturing Company

One of Farmingdale’s earliest industries was the lumber company started by Mr. La Vine. Mr. La Vine started this company in the latter half of the nineteenth century and it was located on the east side of Main Street, on the corner of Rose and Richard Streets. The building was across from the Main Street School.  In the 1880s, Robert Bausch bought this lumber business. Robert Bausch turned it into a family business and employed his seven sons. When Bausch opened the factory, he wrote on the building “Bausch and Sons, Dealers in Lumber and mason’s materials and ladders, manufacturers of picture frames and mouldings.” This variety of offerings required a large amount of space, so the factory was located in an open field and surrounded by piles of lumber and materials.

Eventually, Adolph Bausch bought the business from his father and kept it as a family business employing some of his brothers. He also employed many Farmingdale residents. When Adolph took over the business, he expanded it by opening a window sash factory and then a factory that made the ornate gilded picture frames that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1909, the business employed 100 people and had an annual payroll of $36,000. At some point the company changed names to Bausch Picture Frame and Moulding Manufacturing Company. In 1910, the company moved to a newly constructed brick building on Eastern Parkway where he continued to manufacture picture frames and molding. This building was said to be extremely close to the train station for shipping purposes, and located at 361 Eastern Parkway.

In 1917, Lawrence Sperry bought the Bausch property near the Main Street School.  By the 1950s, the Bausch factory on Eastern Parkway was housing another company, therefore the company eventually dissolved and Farmingdale lost its largest manufacturer from the nineteenth century.

 

Sources:

Farmingdale Junior Honor Society. Farmingdale’s Story: Farms to Flight. The Society, 1956

Hanc, John. “Tracing the trail of a house's history.” Newsday, 15 July 2004, www.newsday.com/classifieds/real-estate/tracing-the-trail-of-a-house-s-history-1.733876.

“Many Proofs of Progress at Hicksville and Farmingdale.” 3 Sep 1911, Page 23 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle at Newspapers.Com. Brooklyn Public Library, http://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/53899087