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BUILDINGS

Note:  The years shown represent the addresses shown in surviving documents per footnote-references; but are not necessarily the only years the businesses operated.

• The Cleveland Cap Screw Company (CCS)
• 215 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio (1900):  CCS formally began here on December 28.^[1]
• 66 to 72 Clarkwood Ave., Cleveland, Ohio (1901^[2] to 1908^[3])
• The Electric Welding Products Company
• Cleveland, Ohio (1908^[3] to 1915^[4])
• The Ford-Clark Company
• 3125 Perkins Ave, Cleveland, Ohio^[5] (1915 to 1924^[6]):  No relation to Henry Ford's famous company, Ford-Clark became a side venture operated by Charles Thompson^[7] to develop and market replacement valves named Thompson Products.  Based on their success, Thompson's own Steel Products (SP) Co. acquired the business, which it merged with 2 others as Thompson Products Inc. in 1924.  Due to their continued popularity, in 1926 SP's board decided to rename their entire organization Thompson Products Inc^[8].  Although CCS's original manufacturing site along Clarkwood Ave. has been destroyed, this original brick building on Perkins still stands, making it the oldest TRW-related facility in existence.^[9]
• The Steel Products Company
• Cleveland, Ohio (1915^[4] to 1926^[8])
• Detroit, Michigan (1922^[10])
• Thompson Products, Inc. (1926^[8] to 1958)
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Detroit, Michigan
• Bell, California
• The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation (R-W)
• Arbor Vitae Complex:  After R-W outgrew the small Westchester office they had begun leasing in September 1953, they expanded in January 1954 into a building located on Bellanca Ave. north of Arbor Vitae St. (temporarily named #1, later renamed #8^[11]), followed by construction of buildings on 8 acres leased south of Arbor Vitae Blvd, east of Airport Blvd:^[12]  Bldgs. 2, 3, (4) and 6 in 1955; 1, 5, and 7 in 1956; 9 and 10 in 1957.^[13]  Bldg. 13 ended up being the last one for this location, with its leasing, remodeling, and occupancy starting in 1959.^[14]  At this peak occupancy, the campus had expanded to about 27 acres.  Most of the buildings were demolished when construction began on the LAX Automated People Mover in 2019.^[15]
• Canoga Park Laboratories:  In July 1958 R-W announced the acquisition of 90 acres in Canoga Park on the northwest corner of Roscoe Blvd. and Fallbrook Ave. as R&D faciliities for their general electronic groups. Construction progress for 6 of the 9 buildings in March 1959 described their functions as Administration (L1), R&D (L2), Utility Center (L3), cafeteria-auditorium (L4), R&D (L8), Special Engineering and Services (L9), with occupancy starting in November. R-W personnel began occupying the facility in November 1959 while construction continued into 1960 for the 3 other buildings for R&D (L5, L6, L7). In 1961 R-W began advertising the campus as the "''West Coast Headquarters''" of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc. after the Microwave Division of its Tapco Group (Thompson Aircraft Products Co., established in 1942 with Microwave Components added in 1950) moved into L2 and L8 from Cleveland. In January 1964, the campus and staff were acquired by the newly formed Bunker-Ramo Corporation. Sometime between May 31, 1994 and April 30, 2002, L1 was demolished and 3 new ones were built at other places on the campus (per Google Earth satellite images). The site currently operates as Corporate Pointe at West Hills, primarily leasing to medical businesses.
• Littleton, Colorado:  In November 1955 R-W announced plans for a manufacturing facility spanning up to 800 acres in Colorado to mass-produce electronic systems. Construction began in July 1956 on 640 acres (1 square mile) with an address of 4800 Ramo-Wooldridge Rd. (now defunct) for a single 140ksf building. The Denver Post reported the construction's progress and general location (Holly St. near the Arapahoe/Douglas county line), noting a landmark 135-foot tall, 150k-gallon water tower. Occupancy began in October 1957 and production activated in November with a $5M price tag ($3M for the plant and $2M for the equipment). In a speech 9 months later upon delivering their first computer built entirely at the site, the VP/GM compared its effect on the world to the first production-line automobile. Unfortunately this Denver Manufacturing Division (Electronic Components) had hoped to sell 4 or 5 computers per year. Neither their computer nor their other electronics ever sold as expected; and after losing a large business contract in 1960, they moved what could be salvaged from Denver to Canoga Park in December. R-W closed the plant in March 1961, selling it in December to the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. The building and landmark water tower were demolished in 2008, rebuilt as a Life Time health club at the address "5000 E Dry Creek Rd, Centennial, CO 80122".
• El Segundo R&D Center:  TBD...
• STL (1957 to 1965; formerly the Guided Missile Research Division of R-W)
• Redondo Beach, California:  Click for an enumerated list of Space Park buildings that began under R-W, expanded with STL, then consolidated under TRW Systems.
• Cape Canaveral, Florida
• Houston, Texas
• Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc. (1958 to 1965)
• TBD...
• TRW, Inc. (1965 to 2002)
• TBD...

References

1. Dyer, Davis (1998).  TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900.  p. 19.  "In 1900, one of the ... newest of these structures was the eighteen-story Williamson Building ... Here, ... On December 28, five men ... gathered 'to form a corporation for profit'..." ^
2. Dyer, Davis (1998).  TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900.  p. 21.  "On February 14, 1901, Kurtz, Mathews, and Frederick Bright ... arranged to sell to the company 'the property known as The Grant Ball Company's plant, located at Nos. 66 to 72 Clarkwood Avenue in Cleveland'..." ^
3. Dyer, Davis (1998).  TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900.  p. 27.  "...the company changed its name to Electric Welding Products Company early in 1908 'for the purpose of removing any possible inference that the company was engaged only in the manufacture of cap screws and related products.'" ^
4. Dyer, Davis (1998).  TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900.  pp. 31-2.  "Early in 1915 ... At the annual meeting of Electric Welding Products in February ... the stockholders volted to change the corporate name. As of April 1915, the company was known as Steel Products Company." ^
5. "Valves When You Want Them."  Automotive Industries (advertisement).  July 8, 1920. ^
6. Dyer, Davis (1998).  TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900.  p. 46.  "In 1915, several of Thompson's friends and business associates had organized ... the Ford-Clark Company. ... In April 1924, Ford-Clark was renamed Thompson Products Incorporated..." ^
7. "The Silcrome Valve."  Employees Handbook (Tapco Plant; Thompson Products, Inc.) 1947.  p. 18.  "Previously some valves had been sold for replacement through a small jobbing concern in Cleveland, operated as a side venture by C. E. Thompson and a group of associates." ^
8. Dyer, Davis (1998).  TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900.  p. 48.  "At [SP's] annual meeting in April 1926, the stockholders recommended changing the corporate name to Thompson Products, Inc.  'The purpose of this move ... was to secure a larger amount of the growing automobile replacement business which was being handled by the recently acquired service and sales company which had operated under the name of Thompson Products Incorporated.'" ^
9. The website of the modern occupant of this historic location, The Skybryte Company (Skyco) claims to have been "Fighting Rust Since 1917", though that slogan may refer to an earlier business they acquired, Rusticide Products Company; so it is likely they moved to this location when Ford-Clark's manufacturing operations moved to SP's facilities. ^
10. "Silcrome Facts."  Automotive Industries (advertisement).  November 16, 1922. ^
11. "Company To Observe Fifth Birthday On September 16."  RevieW (monthly newspaper for employees) vol. 4, no. 6.  11 September 1958.  "In 1954, the one-year-old Company had its headquarters on Bellanca in the presently numbered Building 8." ^
12. "Construction Begins On Building 5".  RevieW (monthly newspaper for employees) vol. 1, no. 2.  August 31, 1955.  "When The Ramo - Wooldridge Corporation opened in September, 1953, it boasted one site--literally, one leased office, which is still in use--at 6316 w. 92nd St.  In January of last year, remodeling began on the leased structure, now called Bldg. 1, on Bellanca Ave. ... Meanwhile, approximately eight acres on Arbor Vitae, between Bellanca Ave. and Airport Blvd., were leased, and construction began on Bldgs. 2 and 3 in July 1954." ^
13. "Company To Observe Fifth Birthday On September 16".  RevieW (monthly newspaper for employees) vol. 4, no. 6.  11 September 1958.  "In 1955, Buildings 2, 3, and 6 had been occupied ... In 1956, Headquarters had been moved to the newly completed Building One at 5730 Arbor Vitae, Buildings 5 and 7 had been occupied ... In 1957 ... Buildings 9 and 10 were added at Arbor Vitae..." ^
14. "Work Started On Building 13".  SenTineL (monthly newspaper for employees) vol. 1, no. 5.  5 March 1959.  "Work of converting the one-story building to fit Air Force-STL needs started more than a week ago.  Completion date will be approximately May 15. ... Included in the lease of the plant facilities is a 90-car parking lot..." ^
15. Automated People Mover (APM) Train System. Los Angeles International Airport (December 8, 2023).  "Project Stats:  Construction Start:  2019." ^

Postcard of TRW's Cleveland headquarters (postmarked March 16, 1988 on back):

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