Landstrom Furniture Co.

The addresses:  Free Sewing Machine Co., William Free, pres., a division of Consolidated Industries, Inc., 1731 – 18th Avenue.  Landstrom Furniture Co., Oscar E. Landstrom, president, 11th St. corner 18th Ave.

All photos are from the 1928 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. The maps are drawn for use by the Rockford Fire Departmant, primarily, and by realtors, city planners, etc.  Free Sewing Machine is shown in pink, and Landstrom in yellow.  Both factories had multiple buildings.

Free sewing is at the top on the map. Illinois Central Railroad Tracks run between the 2 companies.  Landstrom is in yellow. Free has the steel stock room at bottom left, the screw and punch room at upper left, the machine shop in upper center, tool room and assembly in upper right, office in lower right.  Landstrom has wood working, cabinet work throughout.

The rust-orange colored building at bottom are the steam kilns for the wood, the middle pink building at the bottom is the lumber storage “shed,” and next to the right, a Landstron factory building for making posts, etc. The pink square building, middle right, is for grinding and tumbling.  The yellow buildings at bottom right are storage buildings, the one on the left says Flask Storage.

Enlargement of Free Sewing Machine, top photo.