The Charlotte Handbooksourced, dated, checkable

Grinnell Company-General Fire Extinguisher Company Complex

Grinnell Company-General Fire Extinguisher Company Complex: Other, National Register listed 2003-12-10.

Two-storey brick industrial building on a corner with a flagpole, adjoining a lower modern extension, with power lines overhead.
Grinnell Company / General Fire Extinguisher Company complex. Bagatar · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Address1431 W. Morehead St., Charlotte
Architectural styleOther
National Registerref 03001275, listed 2003-12-10
Research depthdossier, independently sourced

What we established, and from where

  • The complex occupies two tax parcels covering about one and a half acres between West Morehead Street and Bryant Street.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • The complex's office and manufacturing buildings were designed by the Greenville, South Carolina architect J. E. Sirrine.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • Within ten years of its invention, Frederick Grinnell's automatic sprinkler system had been installed in more than 10,000 buildings.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • Frederick Grinnell was credited with forty patents for improved automatic sprinkler and automatic fire alarm systems.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • In 1953 Grinnell gained a controlling interest in American District Telegraph Company, then the largest manufacturer of centrally monitored alarm systems in the United States.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • Grinnell closed its Charlotte operation on West Morehead Street in March 1999 as part of a plan to consolidate its regional facilities in Norcross, Georgia.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • By 1930 an eight-block stretch of West Morehead Street contained seven warehousing facilities as well as a range of manufacturing and foundry operations.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

  • As recorded in the 2003 nomination, the Grinnell complex was the only example of this sawtooth-monitor industrial building form remaining in the city.

    independent National Park Service / NC SHPO · checked 2026-09-18

The primary source

The National Register nomination is the fullest account of this property that exists, written by a researcher and reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Office. The nomination (National Park Service).

Official record

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