Photo by Ellen Ferrera
First pair of shoes from Sullivan’s Brown Shoe factory.
•April 5, 2017•
By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress
She sits in faded glory on Hamilton St. between a gas station and Habitat for Humanity. Some windows are broken and boarded, the interior is crumbling. She was an architectural beauty in her day bustling with workers coming to make shoes for the Brown Shoe Company. But, if she could talk - the stories she could tell.
Sullivan during 1929 was the worst of times, and there were no best of times. People were desperate for work and manufacturers such as Brown Shoe were also desperate for cheap labor to expand their factories. So they devised a plan to exploit rural communities, women and children.
By 1900 Brown Shoe Co. was growing at the rate of one million dollars a year. By 1928 the five largest St. Louis shoe companies had plants in 56 small towns within a 200 mile radius and over 30,000 employees. In order to build new $300,000 plants and guarantee wages, Brown demanded that Sullivan and other communities raise $125,000 of the cost, provide the site, electric and sewer connections, build the plant to Brown’s specifications and give them a 10 year tax free agreement. Read More
