A late 1890s view of the M. Robson Leather Company formerly located off of Manistee Lake between 16th and Main Street.

One of the more sizeable industries that often gets overlooked whenever we discuss the decades of Manistee’s history is the leather and tanning industry.

For 50 years, multiple hide and leather companies operated out of several buildings located on the east end of the city limits. In the mid-1890s, the city welcomed the first of these factories when the M. Robson Leather Company opened its doors after much anticipation.

By the mid-1890s, the lumber industry had begun its slow, local decline.

To combat this, city fathers attempted to bring in other kinds of businesses that would offer some variety when it came to manufacturing. To this end, the M. Robson Leather Company, a leather and tanning company headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, found the Manistee area attractive enough to suit their business interests (most notably the approximation to the water and the large quantities of hemlock bark) and decided to construct a series of large buildings off of Manistee Lake near the corner of 16th and Main Street.

A sizeable description of the buildings as they were under construction, as well as the processes employed by the leather company, was published on Sept. 28, 1895 in the Manistee Daily News. Portions of the original article follow:

“The new tannery buildings are beginning to assume shape, but as yet only a faint semblance of what the buildings will be like when completed can be obtained. Warren Price, the master builder in charge of the construction of the plant, has a goodly force of carpenters and laborers at work. The plant will hardly be complete before late next spring, though a part of it may be in operation before that time the stocking with hides will probably begin within a short time.

“The buildings now in course of construction or to be begun immediately are the tanyard, beam house, leach house, coolers and the boiler and engine house. Wood is the material used almost exclusively excepting the engine and boiler house which will be of brick.

“The largest building is the tanyard or tannery proper which extends from about the center of the old ballpark back something over 270 feet The frames for this building were raised this week. It will be two stories high, of nine and eight feet each. On either side of the building, extending its entire length, a wide platform is built, covered with a lean-to-roof, for convenience in handling the hides as they go to and from the tanning vats.

“The next largest building is the beam house, extending from the rear of the tan yard. The two being connected it practically forms one continuous building 555 feet in length. In the beam house, the hides, dry or green salted are soaked, cleaned, unhaired by plunges in lime solution and scraped by hand or machinery. In short all superfluous and foreign substances are removed from the hides, leaving simply a clean network of fiber, ready for the action of the tanning liquor. The process generally takes about two weeks before a hide is in shape for the tanning vat.

“The leach house is located west of the tan yard. It will be quite long and is raised on spiles from the ground about twelve feet. It will contain about 20 vats used in leaching the tanning liquor from the bark. Hot water is employed in this process and necessitates the liquor being run into coolers, to cool before use in the tanning vats. The leaching vats are built above the ground so as to furnish enough gravitation for conveying the liquor, first to the coolers and then to the tanning vats.”

By the late spring of 1896, the M. Robson Leather Company was up and running and for the next four years continued in the tanning of hides used for the leather industry.

In 1899, a local history book titled, “Salt City of the Inland Seas” provides descriptions of several aspects of the factory:

“One of the most substantial of the large industries of Manistee is the M. Robson Leather Company. The tanning plant of this company is located upon Manistee Lake at the foot of Rietz’ Hill and has a capacity of 600 sides of sole leather per day.

“The tannery building is 576 feet long by 86 feet wide. One-half of its length the building is three stories in height. The lower floor is used for vats, the upper ones for drying and finishing of the hides.

“The hides are shipped by rail directly from New York, most of them coming from Africa and South America. Frequently there will be found among these hides a leopard or a tiger skin.

“The steam plant comprises three 150 horsepower boilers, which furnish steam for a 250 horsepower engine that drives the machinery of the mill. Three hundred and fifty incandescent light machines furnish light for the night work. The heating and ventilating of the entire plant is accomplished by a Sturtevant hot blast fan. Fifty men are employed in this plant the year round. During the summer, twenty extra men are employed to pile bark.”

By the turn of the 20th Century, the leather company was discontinued and the entire operation was purchased by the American Hide and Leather Company which continued from that location through the mid-1910s. American Hide was later purchased by the Michigan Tanning and Extract Co. and by the late 1920s was closed up altogether.

Through the years, several other companies (some of which were brought in through the efforts of the local Board of Commerce) set up shop in Manistee including the Manistee Leather Co.,, Manistee Tanning Company, and the Manistee Glove Company.

In 1931, T.W. Hardy purchased the property at 16th and Main Street and a few months later, Hardy Salt commenced operations in and around the site that was the origin of Manistee’s once thriving leather industry.