Howe Scale Company / Howe Center

In 1857, John Howe reorganized the Brandon Iron and Car Wheel Co. as the Howe Scale Company upon buying the 1856 scale patents of Frank Strong and Thomas Ross. Howe’s durable and accurate ball-bearing platform scale weighed everything from livestock to railroad cars. The thriving business produced 8,000 scales in 1864, but by 1869 Howe was bankrupt.

New owner Nathan Sprague revitalized the company he renamed the Brandon Manufacturing Co. In 1877 board members John Page and George Merrill moved it from Brandon to 1 Scale Avenue in Rutland, between the Rutland & Burlington and Rutland & Bennington railroads. Howe Scale Company, as it was again known, was chartered in 1878 with 300 employees casting four tons of iron daily.

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Howe Scale Company prospered in the early 20th century, and by 1910 the Rutland complex employed nearly 800 with offices in 23 major cities. It also faced the challenges of unionization, technological innovation, ownership changes, and foreign competition. In 1962 Howe Scale merged with Richardson Scale Company of New Jersey, creating the largest scale company in the US selling exclusively to the industrial market. Plagued by oil shortages, strikes, safety concerns, and competition, Howe-Richardson Scale Co closed in 1982.

In 1989, Joseph and Barbara Giancola purchased the 18-acre complex. The Giancola family redeveloped the manufacturing site as the Howe Center, a place for business, industry, education, and community.