Bill Caldwell: Nevada factory puts its stamp on tin ceilings

Restoration of historic buildings can create headaches for contractors. Finding period furnishings, materials and craftsmen to rejuvenate a historic site can challenge the most dedicated conservator.

Nevada’s W.F. Norman Corp. provides valuable assistance as the leading source for pressed metal ceilings so common in 19th and early 20th century buildings after having come back after hibernating for almost 50 years.

The founders of the business were William Franklin Norman and John Berghauser. Norman entered the business world working as a traveling salesman in the 1890s for the Wheeling Corrugating Co. in Wheeling, West Virginia. The company produced steel products such as roofing and siding. Instead of staying with the company, Norman decided to move west to Missouri to open his own business.

In 1898, he partnered with Nevada resident John H. Berghauser, a local tinsmith, to establish the W.F. Norman Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co. They started small, yet, by 1907, according to the Nevada Weekly Post, had salesmen and business in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Indian Territory, Arkansas and Texas. They handled metal shingles, pipes, eave troughs (gutters), crestings, medallions and ornaments. “They are the pioneers in the manufacture of steel ceiling in the West.” In fact, they were the only such manufacturer west of the Mississippi.

In November 1909, the company suffered a fire that turned their factory into smoking rubble. Yet that did not deter Norman and Berghauser. They rebuilt a new plant of 50,000 square feet, which employed 100 men. It opened in May 1910 to the praise of the Southwest Mail.

Steel ceiling, variously referred to as tin ceiling, metal ceiling or pressed ceiling, is a sheet of steel, tin or copper that has been stamped beneath a 3,500 pound, cast-iron drop hammer to which is attached a dye. The dye has a design, which is transferred to the sheet as the hammer is dropped onto it. The mill used a rope-controlled, belt-and-pulley system.

Galvanized steel ceilings came into their own after the Civil War. The rapid expansion of settlements west of the Mississippi created demand for relatively cheap decorative building materials. The steel ceilings imitated the plaster forms found in government buildings, churches and schools. Norman offered 140 different ceiling designs as well as hundreds of ornamental moldings, medallions, crests and trim. All conveniently displayed in their various catalogs.

The finished panels came in sizes such as: 1 by 1 foot, 1 by 2 foot and 2-foot squares. List price was $8 per 100 square feet in 1909. It had only risen to $11 for 100 square feet in 1920. Prices stayed relatively stable despite inflation from World War I. Assembly on-site just required basic carpentry. The necessary fastenings were included. The ceilings were also promoted by the Tri-State District’s American Zinc Institute. “Make it of zinc” was their motto.

In August 1919, Norman had submitted to the Globe a letter from a former Belgian metallurgist on the efficacy of zinc roofing. According to Prof. W.H. Seamon, zinc roofs would last between 75 to 90 years with little if any maintenance. Then in September, the Galena (Kansas) Board of Education chose to roof its new high school with zinc shingles and install pure zinc ceiling panels in the rooms. The W.F. Norman Corp. was hailed in the Globe as a pioneer in promoting the district’s zinc industry.

Despite loyal customers as the Galena school district, building styles had started changing after World War I. Steel ceilings were seen as old-fashioned. The busy and complicated designs gave way to sleek styles. All through the 1920s the demand for steel ceilings declined. So much so, that by 1930 the company had discontinued their production. The presses and equipment were set aside, not destroyed or salvaged. But the company branched out to make other products.

Galvanized roofing as tiles or sheets continued to be marketed. Spanish-style tiles were fashionable in the late 1920s and 1930s. Several filling stations in the area touted the distinctive red-orange roofs. One in Joplin was featured in the company’s 1936 catalog. Metal skylight frames were another item that continued to be produced. Other products as temporary grave markers, funeral home “no parking” signs, caskets, metal planter boxes were offered. They also made Bath King metal shower stalls, which were noted for being sturdy and having shower doors that didn’t freeze or bind. All those products did not require as much manufacturing space, so the old equipment sitting in the background did not interfere.

That was the situation for almost 50 years. The business had passed from W.F. Norman, who had bought out Berghauser in 1918, to his sons and then to his grandson, Franklin Norman.

In 1978, Norman had put the factory up for sale. It was purchased by Robert Quitno, a farm and implement producer and dealer, who had an idea for a new kind of wood-burning stove. The plant was the perfect size for his plans. However, as he began building his stoves, he found there was all kinds of clutter around, massive machines that looked like presses. He asked Franklin Norman, who had stayed on to help with the transition, what are these? Norman described the process of stamping the ceiling panels, how it was a uniquely American style and that it had been the only such manufacturer west of the Mississippi.

Did he want to salvage the old equipment? Quitno said no. Instead, he remembered a Kansas City restaurant had recently salvaged a pressed metal ceiling for a new building but that there were no new ceiling panels available. He contacted the restaurant owners and arranged to show them some of his panels still on hand. According to Quitno, “they told (him) bluntly that he had the next-best thing to a license to print money.”

The renaissance of historic restoration had begun to hit stride after the nation’s bicentennial in 1976. There was only one other company in New York that produced steel panels but their designs were limited. Whereas, the Norman Corp. had 140 designs saved along with the accompanying moldings and ornamentation. As the word got out, restorers were knocking on the company’s doors.

Custom patterns can be made to replicate historic patterns for panels and ornamentation. Early projects included restoration of a room in the home of silent movie star Mary Pickford and one in the Smithsonian. Decorative pieces have graced U.S. Embassy buildings as well as a Chicago-based pizza chain in Hong Kong. New projects for the New York subway system and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico show not all their work involves restoration. More recently, it worked restoring the ceiling of the Minerva Candy Co. in Webb City. The Quitno family company has handled projects in every state and Australia.

When Robert Quitno bought the 50,000 square foot building back in 1978, little did he know he would revive a classic craft that had been in hibernation for almost 50 years. In an interview with Kansas City Times columnist James Fisher in 1983, Fisher asked if it was just a transitory fad, would it last? Quitno replied the demand was too steady. There was a restoration renaissance at work. When asked about the wood stoves, Quitno smiled and said, “Oh, any one can make those.”

Bill Caldwell is the retired librarian at The Joplin Globe. If you have a question you’d like him to research, send an email to [email protected] or leave a message at 417-627-7261.

Courtesy of KSHB-TV, this piece aired in 1998 as a part of the Kansas City Crossroads series with Bill Kalahurka. The series highlighted Kansa…

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