Sullivan Company Manufactured Equipment For Diverse Businesses

Former employees, friends and relatives crowded into the recently to learn the history of the Sullivan Company. The company manufactured tabletops, counters and cabinets for major corporations at its facility on Pine Street in Grayslake. It was the monthly program of the Grayslake Historical Society.     

Frank Sullivan Jr., who owned and operated the company with his father Frank Sr., gave the history. The company was a major Grayslake employer from the early 1960s to 1980 when it was sold. Throughout the years, the company served customers such as Amtrak, railroad car manufacturers Budd and Pullman, CBS, the federal Government Services Administration (GSA), Playboy clubs in Lake Geneva, Wis., Great Gorge, N.J. and London, and the Marriott Corporation.  

Sullivan said his father's motto, which became the company's motto, was: "Keep your customers happy, keep your employees happy and make money."

His father, Frank Sr., started the company in the Cincinnati area. "My father had a dream," Sullivan said, adding that the Grayslake plant became "a major part of the company."  

In the beginning in the late 1940s, Frank Sr. worked with Formica, a plastic laminate with layers of paper and plastic pressed together.

"My dad could do it himself," Sullivan said. 

In 1951, the company moved to Chicago where it leased 20,000 square feet on four floors. Initially, there were six employees. The year 1959 "saw a big change," Sullivan recalled.

Business was expanding, there were 20 employees and more space was needed. The company purchased Royal Fabricators on Armitage Avenue in Chicago, a manufacturer of sinks and counter tops.

"The company expanded overnight," Sullivan said, as the number of employees doubled to 40 and the number of square feet for the business doubled to 40,000. Almost immediately, the search began for another facility so the two companies could be joined. A plant was found in Grayslake.  

In 1963, the Sullivan company purchased the Buffalo Manufacturing building on Pine Street in Grayslake where siding for the building industry was manufactured. Sullivan said a sprinkler system, needed for the woodworking areas of the building, had to be installed and soon after the two plants were moved to Grayslake.

"That was no small feat," Sullivan said. From 1964 to 1971 several additions were made at the Pine Street facility increasing the size from 45,000 to 90,000 square feet. Also, a cafeteria for the employees was added.   

Sullivan said that there could be as many as 400 individual "jobs on the floor at one time. We were a job shop."

For example, he said, for the Marriott Corporation "we didn't make just one tabletop, we made hundreds."  

Among the products made at the Grayslake facility were counter tops for railroad cars for the Budd and Pullman companies; a tv control table for CBS; and a huge conference table used by President Richard Nixon for an international conference held at the president's retreat in San Clemente, California.   

Sullivan Company also made tables and chairs for the Playboy Club restaurants in Lake Geneva, Wis., Great Gorge, N.J. and London. But there was a problem, Sullivan said. The Playboy bunnies with their famous costumes were finding it difficult to serve at the table.

"We remade them all in a few days," Sullivan said, offering few details.  

In 1971, Sullivan Company purchased Chicago Hardware Foundry in Racine for $200,000, Sullivan said. Only the facilities which included 19 buildings and 300,000 square feet were purchased. The company, with between 200 and 300 employees, manufactured steel tables and chairs.

"We learned the metal finishing business in a hurry," Sullivan said. "Stress was a major problem for us for few days," he quipped.   

By now combining the steel table bases made in Racine with the table tops manufactured in Grayslake, the company expanded in customers to include the restaurants and offices in Sears Tower in Chicago, the Twin Towers in New York City, the Hyatt Hotel chain, Burger King, the University of Michigan and Commonwealth Edison Company for its Zion nuclear plant. The company was sold in 1980, Sullivan  said.    

The , is open from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays during the downtown Farmers' Market and from noon to 4 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The museum is also open during downtown community events.  All programs of the Grayslake Historical Society are recorded and available for viewing in the Archives of the Grayslake Historical Society.

- Contributed by the Grayslake Historical Society.