Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company, North Plant, 5000 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Significance: The North Plant housed the second major factory of the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company. Atwater Kent was an important twentieth-century inventor and manufacturer of radios and electrical components for automobiles. The company was the largest producer of radios in the world in the late 1920s. The plant is roofed with 470,000 square feet of "Super-Span Saw-Tooth" roof trusses patented by Walter Ballinger. Ballinger and his firm contributed significantly to the architecture and engineering fields. Today, the Ballinger firm claims to be the oldest continuously practicing architectural and engineering firm in the United States.
Survey number: HAER PA-306-A
Building/structure dates: 1929 Initial Construction