Tuesday, the former Walrus Manufacturing Company building, in the Levee District at the corner of Wabash & Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, suffered a structural collapse along its south wall. Emergency demolition of the building got under way Wednesday. The building was highlighted in August 2020 by History of the Heartland on our “Top Eight Most Endangered Non-residential Structures List”. Built in 1904, the building fell victim after 117 years to a failing roof and decades of neglect.
Walrus Manufacturing was started by one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Decatur history, Robert Faries. The company enjoyed explosive growth at its founding and quickly became one of Decatur’s leading companies. The company built and installed equipment for soda fountains at a time when thousands of drug stores across the country were installing them.
Faries utilized local expertise in water controls and piping, which grew from the Mueller Company’s knowledge in the municipal water and fixtures business, and was extended by other companies, such as Walrus, A.W. Cash Valve, and Burks Pumps, into new markets. Decatur was a national center of this “aqueous industry.”
By 1950, however, bottled carbonated soft drinks had killed the soda fountain equipment business. Walrus had to find new markets and they moved into installing equipment for hospitals and laboratories where their experience with water controls was relevant. They also briefly dabbled in unrelated businesses, like coffin making, less successfully, after acquiring the assets of Decatur Coffin Company.
When Walrus was liquidated, the building was briefly occupied by Cash Acme, the successor to A.W. Cash Valve, before that company relocated to Kansas.
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