Phoenix AM Pipe Works Corn Cob Pipe (NOS)

Description

From an old magic shop buy-out.

New old stock!

The Phoenix American Cob Pipe Factory at Second and Vine Streets in Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri, is locally significant under Criterion A for INDUSTRY. From completion in 1912 until 1953, the factory housed the capacious production of the Phoenix American Cob Pipe Company, one of Missouri’s three largest manufacturers of corn cob pipes by the late 1940s. Since Missouri was then responsible for the world’s corn cob pipe production, this made the factory one of the three largest global producers as well. Even before the factory was opened, the corn cob pipe was a peculiar product of Missouri, spawned by advances in techniques for transforming abundant agricultural byproducts into affordable smoking devices. German immigrant Charles Oscar Strutz had manufactured pipes in Chicago before relocating to Missouri and becoming majority owner of the nascent Phoenix American Cob Pipe Company. Under Strutz’ leadership, the company relocated away from Washington Missouri, rich with competitors, to Boonville, where the locals raised capital and labor was more readily in supply. In Boonville, the company truly hit its stride, launching popular new products, raising output and thriving in an industry where most small competitors were defunct by the middle of the Great Depression. In 1953, the Phoenix American Cob Pipe Company merged into a competitor, and production of corn cob pipes at the factory ended. Today, the Phoenix American Cob Pipe Factory remains the only extant building associated with the company, and demonstrates its association through its retention of historic material integrity.