Hunting Park Avenue & 30th Street, Philadelphia PA
© Harold E. Spaulding,
Workshop of the World (Oliver Evans Press,
1990).
William Nice, Jr. was born to
a longtime Philadelphia family in 1849. After many years
of success as a partner of Good & Nice Lumber, he
retired in c.1900. Shortly thereafter, Nice was
approached by Oliver Knipe of Norristown who needed
cash—for it exchanged two patents for pressed steel
ball bearings. In 1902, Nice formed the Pressed Steel
Manufacturing Company. After William’s death in
1910, h is son Budd Good Nice took over the company and
six years later changed the name of the company to the
Nice Ball Bearing Company.
Before World War I, the company developed and
manufactured a ball thrust bearing for automobile king
pins. 1
During the War,
the company made them for military trucks and gun mounts
and afterwards went back to automotive thrust bearing
production. By 1940, 60% of the work was automotive, but
during World War II, the company manufactured aircraft
pulleys—up to 500,000 per month.
In 1950, the Nice Ball Bearing Company was sold to the
Channing Corporation; in 1960, it became a part of SKF
Bearings. The operations and machinery were relocated to
Kulpsville, Pennsylvania in 1977 and the site in Nicetown
was closed down, then sold to the Melrath Gasket Company,
the present occupant. 2
The building is a single-story structure.
1 A king pin is the
vertical pin about which a front wheel rotates in
steering a car.
2 "History
of Nice Bearing Products Division of SKF Industries,
Inc." (Manuscript)
Update May
2007 (by
Muriel Kirkpatrick):
In 2006 Philly Self Storage Inc. bought the
137,000-square-foot building at 2901 Hunting Park Avenue,
which housed the Nice Ball Bearing Company. Melrath
Gasket still leases the west part of the structure. Food
Share is located on the east side.