{"id":5992,"date":"2025-12-15T15:33:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/?page_id=5992"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:08:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:08:40","slug":"spencer-f-hall-1857-1925","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/features\/spencer-f-hall-1857-1925\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer F. Hall 1857-1925"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Racine Journal-News, December 15, 1925<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death Summons Spencer F. Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pioneer Bicycle Maker and Expert Mechanic Dies at Family Home, Early This Morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Turned Out Hall Specials<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer Frederick Hall, aged 68 years, died suddenly at the family residence, 1401 Park avenue, this morning. He was born in South Wales and had lived in this city since 1881.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Hall was an expert machinist and his mechanical genius was known throughout the county. For many years he conducted a machine shop in Main street, between Fourth and Fifth street, where the first “Hall Special” bicycle was built. He disposed of a considerable number of them which were known to be far superior to the factory made machines then on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of years ago he moved his shop to 415 Fourteenth street, in the rear of his residence, and there it was that he continued in the bicycle business for some years and then branched out into automobile building and repairing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a member of Racine lodge No. 18, F. & A. M., Eastern Star, Royal League and Sons of St. George. Deceased was one of Racine’s most loyal citizen, over working in its interests and doing what he could to advance it along with other cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is survived by his widow, one brother, Frederick Hall, and one sister, Mrs. Bessie Mahoney, Juneau, Wis. The funeral will take place Thursday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock at Masonic temple, Wisconsin street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1401 Park Avenue at 14th and Park. This is the corner I would wait for Clara the crossing guard when I was going to Winslow School in the 1970s. I have a vague memory that someone once told me that this was the house of an inventor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back of 1401 Park Avenue at 14th and Park. I wonder if this rear section was his mechanics shop, or if there used to be more. Or maybe it was in the existing garage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From the 1908 Sanborn Map … you can see where the machine shop was perfectly. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Here at the back of 1401 Park Avenue, you can see there is no longer a machine shop up against the property line. The garage is set back. However, you can still see that there is quite a wide curb cut for where the machine shop used to be.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Here on an aerial view of 1401 Park Avenue, you can see that what at first appears to be a wide apron in front of the existing garage (2023) seems to have been the slab that the machine shop rested on. Notice that the curb cut is as exactly wide as the slab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In the 1921 Racine Directory, the Spencer F. Hall machine shop is listed at 415 14th Street, and it even has its own phone number. The machine shop is not listed in the 1906 Racine City Directory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Racine Journal-News, December 15, 1925 Death Summons Spencer F. Hall Pioneer Bicycle Maker and Expert Mechanic Dies at Family Home, Early This Morning. Once Turned Out Hall Specials Spencer Frederick Hall, aged 68 years, died suddenly at the family residence, 1401 Park avenue, this morning. He was born in South Wales and had lived in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":33,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5992","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5992"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6009,"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5992\/revisions\/6009"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vindustries.com\/racinehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}