301 W 9th St
Dubuque, IA 52001, USA

Commercial & Industrial Buildings, Klauer Manufacturing Company Factory, 301 Ninth St Dubuque, Dubuque County, IA

Born November 28, 1842, in Coblenz, Germany, Peter Klauer immigrated to America with his parents in 1854. They moved immediately to Dubuque, where Klauer apprenticed to Thomas Heney in the tin trade five years later. In 1870 he and his brother opened a sheet metal shop on Iowa Street near the Central Market between 12th and 13th, manufacturing, selling and repairing cornices, stoves and furnaces on a limited basis. Klauer`s business expanded steadily. In 1890 he incorporated the Klauer Manufacturing Company and two years later erected a three-story factory a block up the street from his original shop. In this building Klauer stamped out architectural sheet metal products such as ceilings, cornices, roofing, siding, conductor pipe, gutters, metal frames, furnaces, culverts and irrigation flumes. He maintained a retail outlet with his son-in-law A.P. Kress at his old plant to sell the products the company made. In 1903 Klauer acquired the immense factory of the defunct Iowa Iron Works on Ninth and Washington streets. By 1911, the company operated thirty divisions, each producing a separate type of architectural component. That year Klauer bought the property across Ninth Street from his existing factory. In 1912 he built the original portion of this building. As a prosperous businessman and an active Democrat, Klauer ventured into other financial and political activities. In addition to the presidency of his own company, he was president of the German Trust and Savings Bank, vice president of the Iowa Coffin company, city trustee, director of the city library, county supervisor and committee chairman for the courthouse erection. He participated actively in the Catholic Church and was president of the Alphonsus Society and the Shooting Club. Peter`s son, William H. Klauer, joined his father in the business in 1887, succeeding the elder Klauer as president after his death c.1920. The Klauer Manufacturing Company remains in business today in this building. The structure is most important in its association with one of the city`s older surviving manufacturing companies, but its extensive additions in recent years have compromised its architectural integrity.