Frazer & Jones: Foundry History

A foundry within an industrial neighborhood

Frazer & Jones is part of the manufacturing history of Syracuse and the village of Solvay. Its name appears alongside other employers in a 1949 New York Supreme Court opinion concerning industrial traffic on Milton Avenue. The court described the railroad, nearby homes, pedestrian crossings, and work shifts that shaped daily movement through this industrial district. It estimated that Frazer and Jones employed approximately 300 people at that time. That figure is a statement recorded in the opinion, not a verified payroll census.

The same opinion identified Solvay Process Company, Stanton Foundry, Pass and Seymour, Iroquois China, and Holcomb Steel in the wider corridor. These neighboring employers help locate Frazer & Jones within a lived industrial landscape rather than as an isolated name on a list.

Company names and earlier Syracuse connections

A historical biographical directory of the American Iron and Steel Institute identifies predecessor business names Frazer and Burns and Frazer, Burns and Jones, followed by Frazer and Jones Company. Its entry for Frederick Frazer states that he became company president in 1906. The directory gives a business address of 351 West Fayette Street, Syracuse. The address should be understood as a historical business address; the source alone does not show that a foundry occupied that parcel.

The precise dates of these name changes and the locations of individual operations remain open questions in the surviving records reviewed here.

The Solvay foundry

Frazer & Jones identifies its current address as 3000 Milton Avenue, Solvay, New York. Its own company description presents a long history of iron casting and identifies products including mining anchors and other industrial castings. A 2019 Form 10-K filed with the SEC describes the Frazer & Jones division's Solvay property as approximately 17.9 acres, with 205,000 square feet of buildings constructed for foundry use. These are dated descriptions; neither establishes when each building was erected or whether its footprint remained unchanged over the decades.

Work and production: what the sources describe

The company's published materials describe foundry functions including pattern and tooling work, core-making, casting, heat treatment, machining, grinding, assembly, and quality control. Such terms may help former workers recognize their jobs or departments. However, the company descriptions are not dated department-by-department histories; the presence of a process in a modern description does not prove it operated at the site in 1949 or in any other particular year.

The worksite's industrial history can be reconstructed more precisely by identifying dated product catalogs, equipment photographs, shift records, building plans, and employee publications.

Remembering the neighborhood

The 1949 judicial opinion describes the Auburn Branch of the New York Central Railroad running approximately parallel to Milton Avenue north of the street, and discusses Bridge Street, West Genesee Street, Charles Avenue, Woods Road, and Belle Isle Road. The court described workers crossing Milton Avenue and the effects of shift changes and freight traffic. These are useful geographic prompts for people recalling where they worked, the routes they took, and nearby employers.

The opinion also refers to photographs and an occupancy exhibit dated December 11, 1946. Those exhibits have not been obtained or cleared for publication. A future archival inquiry could establish whether the originals survive.

Historical questions still open

• When did Frazer & Jones first operate at the Milton Avenue site? Which buildings date to which periods?
• What functions, if any, were located at 351 West Fayette Street, and when?
• How precisely did the Frazer and Burns / Frazer, Burns and Jones / Frazer & Jones succession unfold?
• Which products and casting processes were used in specific decades?
• Are there historic photographs, employee publications, catalogs, fire-insurance maps, or original court exhibits?
• Do independent workplace-specific sources establish any historical asbestos-containing products or particular exposure circumstances? The sources cited here do not establish a specific historical asbestos-containing product or exposure circumstance at this facility.

Sources and evidentiary boundaries

1. Associated Transport, Inc. v. City of Syracuse, 196 Misc. 1031, 93 N.Y.S.2d 423 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1949): https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/associated-transport-inc-v-city-of-syracuse-nysupct-1949 — contemporaneous description of Milton Avenue industrial geography and approximate workforce.
2. Frazer & Jones, company history: https://www.frazerandjones.com/company/about-us/ — company-described history and products; promotional/company source.
3. Frazer & Jones, contact: https://www.frazerandjones.com/contact/ — modern address.
4. 2019 Form 10-K, SEC: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/31107/000003110720000008/form10k2019.htm — Solvay property and building area as of filing.
5. Biographical Directory of the American Iron and Steel Institute: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Biographical_directory_of_the_American_Iron_and_Steel_Institute_%28IA_biographicaldire00amer%29.pdf — Frederick Frazer biography and historical business names/address.
6. Frazer & Jones website: https://www.frazerandjones.com/ — contemporary production capabilities.
7. OHA research finding aid: https://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Online-Subject-Finding-Aid.pdf — pointer to archival collections, not evidence of their unseen contents.

This history documents a foundry and its industrial neighborhood. The cited sources do not establish asbestos exposure at this site or any individual worker's exposure history.