Loading Dock | Spatial alignment Bumper contact gap Architectural fixture |
D uring the second part of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, many shoe factories were built and operated in small towns spread throughout Missouri. The shoe factories began closing by about 1950 and moved to third world countries to exploit lower labor costs.
I believe this photograph is of a small part of the Hamilton Brown Shoe Company factory complex which was built in 1919 in Boonville. The factory closed during the great Depression, but then reopened in 1941 as the Selwyn Shoe Company. It continued to operate until the early 1970s, employing hundreds of local workers. Now the main Selwyn Shoe factory building near the Missouri River is preserved and repurposed. The four-story brick structure was renovated into affordable housing for senior citizens.
The old loading dock and storage building in the image is just off the MKT railroad line, immediately across the street from the main factory building. Although I cannot be sure, my hunch is it was used to off-load supplies from the trains and stage them prior to shoe assembly. Of course it could have been used for something entirely different.
