This Month in History: Johnson Electric Regulates Temperature in Historic Building

March 28, 2024

Share

April 9, 1896: Library, museum on national register

On April 9, 1896, the Johnson Electric Service Company (Johnson Controls’ original name) contracted with C. B. Kruse Heating Co. to provide temperature regulations for the new Milwaukee Public Library and Museum.

The Public Library and Museum was designed by famed Milwaukee architects Ferry and Clas in a combination of French and Italian renaissance styles known as Neo-renaissance; it featured a U-shape design to provide a common entrance for the library and the museum.

Construction costs for the monumental building, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, were $780,000. Johnson Electric Service Company's billing came to slightly under $3,000.

Share

Related Items

Portrait photograph of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt

This Month in History: March 1933

Johnson Controls founder Warren Johnson and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt shared a common relative, Captain John Johnson.

Poster of Johnson Control Automatic System to commemmorate "Growing with Canada since 1912)"

This Month in History: February 1962

Johnson Controls Ltd. was featured in an article entitled "Automated Control Growing Business" from the February 17, 1962 edition of The Financial Post of Toronto, Ontario.

A poem written by Henry W. Longfellow 32 years earlier

This Month in History: January 1905

On January 1, 1905, company founder Warren S. Johnson made the first of 365 entries in a daybook that he would keep throughout that year.

Warren Seymour Johnson, founder of Johnson Controls

History

In 1885, long before anyone talked about carbon footprints or climate change, Warren Johnson launched a company to explore new ways to harness and conserve precious energy resources.