The Fall of the House of Heiser

[rednichols]

I didn't think I'd have any interest in this thread. don't stop now. Keep going. Fascinating story. thanks.

You asked for it .

Author Mark Barnhouse, working with his knowledge of his home town, and me and my Google Maps, has identified Heiser's original building which still stands at the corner of 15th & Wynkoop (aka 1705 15th St). We had a bit of difficulty agreeing on compass directions, so my ability to stand in the middle of the intersection using Google Maps and note the markings on the various buildings did the trick.

Mark had located a circa 1930s pic from the Denver Library files, that shows a building in the foreground that was known as the Weicker building (name all over it in the pic, too); and in the background, just across what he knows to be 15th St, is clearly (enlarged) H E _ S E R running vertically up that building. So now we know: what was once known as the Heiser Building, 15th & Wynkoop, has been replaced with a 21st century building that is across from what is called today The Saddlery (formerly owned by Colorado Saddlery 1945-2003 which now is in another part of the Denver area).

This address is also known as 1705 15th St., and Heiser called it that before moving to Market Street where it was acquired by The Denver. My theory is that DDG, which owned a saddlery of its own already, wanted Heiser's famous holster range; and when Ewald Heiser, not a young man, died in 1949, liquidated its investment in both the company, and the building they had moved it into on Bannock St. It sat a few years back in Heiser hands (there were two brothers left of the four) then Fred Keyston (another theory) bought it for holster capacity to support their booming holster business for capgun cowboys and cowgirls.

Here is a Keyston capgun holster, and a Heiser that it was derived from:

that's a Lasso 'Em Bill capgun in it. L.E.B. was one of Keyston's holster set brands. This capgun was made by Schmidt; the capguns then were accessories for the holster sets (the holster company created the set, you got what the holster maker included with the holster set).

Heiser from its Keyston years. Might even be the same cutting dies.

 

[rednichols]

A different pic shows the Heiser building in the foreground and the Weicker building in the background. The Heiser sign would be on the side of the building that was facing Weicker. We are looking roughly South down Wynkoop, and The Saddlery today would be across it to our left (not visible). The street between Weicker and Heiser buildings is 15th St. running very, very roughly E and W.

 

[rednichols]

I'm unaware of anyone or any reference source that has worked out the dating, and significance, of Heiser's many addresses, until now.

The known catalogues aren't until No. 14 (I.e., we havn't seen them) and even then it takes math to work out that No. 14 is from 1921. Nor do we have all of them that follow. So we've not the benefit of their addresses being printed in the catalogues, to absolutely know at least the where and the when (if not the why); unlike, say, Bianchi Holster since 1966, which admittedly had a hundred year head start.

We do know that Heiser, courtesy Hermann himself, located in Denver on Blake St. in 1874 (though the company used 1856, 1857, and 1858 as founding dates); and we know that the original site on the even side of the street was re-numbered and the company grew to occupy several there. For simplicity's sake I refer to this as 'the even numbered Blake St.' address.

There has been only one catalogue, believed to be from 1896, we've seen that shows this address. So, even-numbered side of Blake St. from 1874 to at least 1896. And we also know, from city directories, that Heiser was at the even numbered side until at least 1906.

In 1910 they appear in the city directory at the odd-numbered side and catalogues tell us they remain there until shifting to 15th St. aka The Heiser Building by 1926.

I look for patterns. What happened in the interim? Hermann died in 1904, Heiser incorporated in 1906, and Catalogue No. 1 is believed to have appeared in 1908 (Packing Iron says "around 1910). And 1908, perhaps by coincidence, was the company's 50th anniversary from their most-used founding date, 1858.

This suggests that the sons expanded the business and did so across the street, on the 'odd side'.

We know that by 1943 Heiser is out of The Heiser Building at 15th and in 'the' address at Market St. (a building that is later occupied by Colorado Saddlery) (not to be confused with the building in Denver that is known as The Saddlery, which Colorado Saddlery occupied from 1970 and didn't ever house Heiser). But why would they shift from something they've named the Heiser Building? Perhaps the fire on the third floor of what was surely The Heiser Building, reported in the local newspaper July 1943.

That's smack dab in the middle of WWII and appears to have been a temporary headquarters, perhaps because of the times. Surely they were already in talks with Denver Dry Goods for what came next:

Denver Dry Goods buys Heiser and promptly moves Heiser in 1945 from Market St. to Bannock St. (we know from DDG's Denver historian); likely because Heiser didn't own the Market St building they'd recently shifted into and DDG owned Bannock. Cheaper than renting. In 1949 Ewald Heiser, who was Heiser's operating executive, dies; 1950 DDG simultaneously sells the Bannock St. building and releases Heiser (back to the Heisers?).

Heiser shifts to Cherokee at this time where it remains even after Keyston merges with it (down an alley from Bannock St.) in 1955 and thereafter until Keyston loses interest in Heiser by the late 1960s: Cherokee is still printed on Keyston's 1968 catalogue cover, as Heiser's address.

All sorted: dates and reasons (both of which are calculations).

 

[rednichols]

With the bulk of the research completed over decade by others, and then compiled by me; still there are little bits within even the oldest research that were both significant and 'missed'.

Here's one: recently I was lucky enough to locate a copy of a Nov 1954 issue of The Western Horseman, that includes an article about Heiser. It is cited as a reference in Packing Iron and I've tracked down many of Rattenbury's references.

God help the author about his dating in general, which is almost comical in its misunderstandings about Heiser and his company. But one we have to at least take into consideration: we know when Hermann died, which was 1904 (errors of 1903 likely come from his namesake son's death that year). And this article states that it was the sons who instituted the use of stitching machines within two years of Hermann's death.

If we take that literally, then machines were added to Heiser's repertoire in 1906. That's around when it is believed (a) Heiser added holsters and (b) the company was incorporated (c) put out its first catalogue No. 1 (d) moved shop across Blake Street from the even-numbered side to the odd-numbered side.

The implications of this are: if it's a Heiser with stitching on it such as for closing the welt, then it's from the 20th century and never from the 19th century. To be from the 19th, a Heiser would have to be rawhide laced, which was done as stronger than hand sewing with linen thread*. Laced holsters of the era do not have welts inside, nor are they stitched AND laced; lacing with rawhide created significant strength to the seam.

If anyone has Heisers with what are considered/believed/reputed/alleged to be 19th century maker's marks on them, it would be worthwhile for you all to post them up and see how they compare with a lack of sewing machines at Heiser before 1906 or so.

Some pics of both ways:





*Now: it's a little more complicated than that: if it's laced it could readily be from Heiser's very last years of production in the 1960s. Lacing doesn't mean it's old; instead, stitching means it's new (20th century) in a Heiser. I think

 

[gnfrk]

Wow! My brain is on overload. Great thread! Is there more?