Bradley Historical Society
Kroehler Mfg
A Short Kroehler HistoryPeter Edward Kroehler was born April 3, 1872, at Mound Prairie, Houston County, Minnesota. He is one of 13 children born to Jacob and Anna (Eberhardt) Kroehler. Peter went to work at the Naperville Lounge Company in 1893. In 1896, he became a partner in the company. The Archer Starch Company buildings had occupied a block on the west side of the Illinois Central Railroad tracks in North Kankakee until they burned in 1901 (see page 25). In 1910, the Naperville Lounge Company bought the old Archer site and built the P. E. Kroehler Manufacturing Company plant. The original building was named Plant No. 3. On April 1, 1915, the name of four existing factories became "Kroehler Manufacturing Company." By the 1930s, the Kroehler company had added Plant No. 4 to the Bradley site (below). The engraving shows the complex as it appeared at that time. The Kroehler company and its 10 factories in the United States and Canada became the world's largest furniture manufacturer. But the company gradually faded from the scene in the 1970s. In 1982, the Kroehler plant was sold. In the summer of 1989, fire destroyed the abandoned Plant No. 3. |
P. E. Kroehler |
Kroehler Mfg Plant Bradley, IL Plant 3 is to the left.
Click on all images below for larger view
Plant 3 destroyed by fire in 1989
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Misc. images
 In the plant |
 Tony Rittmanic |
 Old timers meeting |
 Early delivery truck |
 Kroehler truck drivers |
 Plant 3 fire |