Friday, March 20, 2015

Is the Springfield Metallic Casket Company still in business?

Is the Springfield Metallic Casket Company still in business?
No, the Springfield Metallic Casket Company (SMC) has been out of business for decades.
After its foundation in Springfield, Ohio in 1884, the company soon acquired the reputation of being one of the leaders of the industry. In an advertisement at the end of the 19th century, SMC claimed that its bronze caskets were virtually indestructible. For other caskets it gave a 50 year warranty of protection from the intrusion of water. In 1900 the company came up with the innovation of a "burglar proof grave vault". Gradually SMC became became one of the largest manufacturers of metal caskets and metallic burial vaults in the United States, at times probably the largest. In the 1950s it had some 230 employees. Until 1943 the company possessed also a warehouse in Detroit; for this purpose, SMC had erected a building with a beautiful art deco front in 1930. Legend has it that the bronze casket Al Capone was buried in, had been manufactured by SMC. In the 1960s, the company lost its independence and became a division of Springfield Greene Industries, Inc.. About a decade later, in 1974, the SMC factory closed down.

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