A building that housed one of Ottawa’s most famous businesses is about to get a new life. The old Warner Fence Company building on North King Street is up for rezoning. It’s the Warner Manufacturing Building. City Manager Richard Nienstedt, has more information:
Rick Dretz will renovate the building and preserve its history.
Warner Manufacturing started business in Ottawa in 1904 and were very well known for Hit and Miss Flywheel engines and log saws as well as windmills, fencing, gas station pumps and lifts, refrigeration units, brake shoes, tree and brush saws, tractor mounted PTO driven saw rigs. They provided saws, implements and tractors for over 47 years. The Warner Company reportedly became the largest woven wire fence factory in America, with its principal competitor the U. S. Steel Corporation. The factory was destroyed when the Marais Des Cygnes River flooded in 1951. The factory was never rebuilt and the Ottawa Manufacturing Company ceased to exist in 1951
