Lipe Machine Shop (Syracuse, New York)

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In today's scene of rust-belt disinvestment and the near total devastation of Syracuse in which we find the Lipe Machine shop, it is difficult to believe that this modest building was "once known as 'Syracuse's Cradle of Industry,' where inventors and entrepreneurs worked and exchanged ideas."
"In 1880, Charles Lipe set up his machine shop in the building. From his invention of the two-speed bicycle gear that was to be come the prototype for early automobile transmissions, the Brown-Lipe Gear Company was formed. It later became Brown-Lipe-Chapin and eventually a division of General Motors."
"It is reported that Henry Ford came to the Lipe Machine Shop to oversee the construction of parts for his first car. Here Herbert H. Franklin met John Wilkinson, designer of an air-cooled automobile engine and grandson of the man who named Syracuse. Their encounter led to the founding of the Franklin Motor Company, which became the largest employer in the area. Until 1934, when it fell victim to the Depression, the company was the only one in the country to make air-cooled passenger cars."