Today's photo of a sand-cast, ferrous-metal manhole cover on the Tate Street side of the UNCG campus in Greensboro. Pomona is a neighborhood west of Greensboro near Market and Spring Garden Streets. It is the community where John Van Lindley built his commercial greenhouses in 1889.* A google search for Pomona Foundry, Inc. answers some questions, but poses others about the Pomona Foundry and the neighborhood.
Pomona Foundry is a company acquired by Acme Castings, Inc. of Huntington, CA, in 1969. Thanks to the very fine online history of Acme Castings, we know that at the time it was acquired, Pomona Foundry was located 32 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. However, at the time of production, this Pamona Foundry manhole cover was molded in Pomona, NC, the community just west of Greensboro. Finding out when and why Pomona Foundry was moved to California in the first place is a question we have. Secondly, an adjacent Pomona manhole cover is stamped 'Greensboro, NC.' When did Pomona get incorporated into Greensboro. Perhaps one of our readers can help us piece together this puzzle. At any rate, it lets us get a fuller picture of the once thriving Pomona community, worthy of being cast into metal as the name of a Guilford County community. We're wondering if anybody in California knows about J. Van Lindley, the Pomona greenhouses, Pomona Cotton Mill, Dillard Paper, the terra cotta tiles made in Pomona, the Boar & Castle, and all those Pomona area places, most of which remain only as memories.
What an interesting post today!
Posted by: Duncan | Saturday, November 03, 2012 at 10:25 PM