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Drum Company Exterior & Interior Factory Photos

Addresses and locations

Here are a collection of photos from my collection and others that have been sent to me for
this page (as noted). If you have a photo you want to add to this page, let me know!


Ludwig & Ludwig Drum Company
1611 North Lincoln Street, Chicago, IL

The street was named Wolcott in 1937

The 1912 Ludwig Catalog Shows the address:

2035 20th St Chicago

Dates & Addresses taken from different articles posted in trade magazines
1611-13-15 N Lincoln St
1920
 December 11
1611 N Lincoln St
1922
 July 1
1611 N Lincoln St
1922
 October 28
1611 N Lincoln St
1922
 December 2
1611 N Lincoln St
1923
 February 17
1611-15 N Lincoln St
1923
 July 17
1611-21 N Lincoln St
1924
 April 12
1611-23 N Lincoln St
1924
 November 15
1611-27 N Lincoln St
1927
 June
1609 N Lincoln St
1927
 September 10

Here are a bunch of different ads with addresses (no particular order)

(International Arcade Museum)
1920
      
Interesting how the address was printed on this 1920 Ad. All other ads after this show the address as 1611    
       
1922
May 8, 1923
Page 2
Aug 11, 1923
Feb 17, 1923
April 12, 1924
  
 
 
Sept 10, 1927
Oct 1, 1929
June 1, 1929
 

Not sure how this address was in an ad for 1927.

 
Map of the street
Current Building
Not available
No building at the address
 

This ad talks about the expansion of the Ludwig & Ludwig Factory. They talk about a house being moved and one being wrecked. It also says this will add additional square footage of 34,560. It appears from other articles that the factory was around 85,000 sqf in total after the expansion.

The Music Trades July 17th 1923

Interesting! this ad is from October and it talks about the new Ludwig & Ludwig Plant being doubled in size.

Presto October 20, 1923

(International Arcade Museum)

Here is a Presto Times article from October 1, 1929 that talks about the new merger between Leedy Manufacturing, Ludwig & Ludwig to C.G. Conn.

This is the article that mentions the L&L factory at 85,000 sqf

(International Arcade Museum)

 

Ludwig Drum Factory (Damen Plant)
1728 N. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL

1937 - 1980's

This is the location where William F. Ludwig Sr. and Wm. F. Ludwig Jr. went into the drum business in 1937. They were WFL Drums at this time. It was not until 1955 when they purchased the family name back from C.G. Conn. (See photo ad below) that it had the Ludwig family name as part of the company name.
Map of the street
Current Building
There was an ad making the announcement that Ludwig purchased their name back from C.G. Conn LTD on March 4th 1955. The ad showed the 1728 N. Damen address. The building looks like the Ludwig & Ludwig building

(photo: The Making Of A Drum Company - Rob Cook)

This is an earlier photo of the factory from the corner of St Paul & Damen Ave prior to the plant addition which you see in the photo below this. The building with the tower was razed to make room for much needed expansion. (1950's)

(Corner of St Paul & Damen Ave

Here is a different and newer view of the factory from the one above. You can see the doorway in the photo above in the bottom right corner of the photo. Also missing is the Script Logo Ludwig sign on the corner of the building which you see in the photo above. (1970's)

(Corner of St Paul & Damen Ave)
Exterior photo showing Bill Ludwig II opening the front door
After Ludwig sold the business to Selmer which moved the drum business to Monroe North Carolina in 1984

 

Ludwig Drum Factory (Monroe Plant) (1984)
Exterior photo showing the Monroe Plant which trhey moved into around 1984

 

 

 



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