Historical Marker to Be Unveiled for W.D. Crooks and Sons Door Plant
Published 10.16.2000
The site where a local company made Williamsport the "Door Capital of the Nation" for 85 years will be honored with a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker on Oct. 26.
The W.D. Crooks and Sons Door Plant was located at the present site of the Bush Campus Center at Pennsylvania College of Technology. Founded in 1886, the firm crafted high-quality wood-veneer doors for the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Pentagon, the National Art Gallery, the state capitol and many public buildings around the nation before it closed its own doors in 1971.
The Campus Center is named for Alvin C. Bush, a former state legislator and the chairman emeritus of the Penn College Board of Directors, and he is the husband of Elizabeth Crooks Bush, a daughter of one of the former operators of W.D. Crooks and Sons.
The firm's Williamsport location allowed it to take advantage of the area's hardwood resources to produce highly specialized products using skilled craftsmen. At the height of its operation in the 1940s, W.D. Crooks and Sons employed 125 people.
Mr. and Mrs. Bush will be the guests of honor for the unveiling ceremony, which will take place at 11 a.m. at the north entrance to the Campus Center.