In 1959, the Logan Engineering Co. was making a variety of industrial metal lathes at their main plant at 4901 West Lawrence Avenue in Chicago's Jefferson park neighborhood.
Timeline:
1935:The company is founded in Chicago at 4541 Ravenswood Ave. The firm initially made hoist controllers.
late 1930s: The company moves to a new 14,000 square foot plant at 4901 West Lawrence.
1940: The company begins to manufacture small lathes for Montgomery Ward.
1941: The company begins manufacturing lathes under its own name.
1949: The plant at 4901 West Lawrence more than quadruples to 62,000 square feet.
1969: The company is sold to Houdaille Industries.
1970: The Chicago plant is closed and manufacturing is moved to Tennessee by the new parent company.
1979: A group of senior Houdaille managers, assisted by KKR, take the company private in a leveraged buyout (LBO).
1982: The economic recession and increased Japanese competition begins to significantly affect Houdaille's profits, especially in the machine tool area.
1985: Unable to continue to service the debt incurred in the LBO, Houdaille sells off or closes its entire machine tool division. Some parts such as Strippit-DiAcro in Buffalo are sold. Other parts, such as Burgmaster, were completely shut down.
Logan seems to have been integrated by Houdaille into the Powermatic division before the big divestiture happened. Some later Logan lathes do have a badge reading "Logan lathes by Powermatic; A Division of Houdaille Industries".
1986: The Powermatic division of Houdaille is sold to DeVlieg Bullard.
1999: The Powermatic line is sold to by DeVlieg Bullard to Jet Machinery.
2002: Jet / Powermatic becomes a part of Switzerland-based Walter Meier Holdings.
Now: At some point at or after the sale of the Powermatic division by Houdaille, the Logan line was discontinued. The precise point at which this happened in unclear.
Verdict: Logan Lathes no longer exists, shut down after a roughly 50 year lifespan. The exact reason is difficult to pinpoint, but the end was set in motion by a financial maneuver known as a Leveraged Buyout by a parent company's executives as advised/guided by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).
The original 1935 headquarters at 4541 N. Ravenswood Ave. in Chicago is still standing. The huge plant on West Lawrence Ave. in Chicago has been razed and seems to now be residential housing.