One King West, Toronto

wylk

A Toronto hotel, One King West, includes a former bank (Dominion Bank, 1914). One floor below the main level there is a large vault with a 4-foot-thick door:

It is peculiar because the bolts can be seen but the boltwork is hidden (additionally there are only 20 bolts instead of the more common 24). The only other one I’ve seen like this is in the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland (which has 16 bolts) and is made by York. So, tentatively, the Toronto vault is probably a York?

I haven’t run across any patents for this style of boltwork. Can anyone help?

Doug MacQueen

I believe that is a Remington Sherman door having seen pictures of one just like it, but as you say it is strikingly similar to the Cleveland York. I, too have found nothing in the patents for either door. If I remember correctly, York did take over Rem Sherm but that happened later. The overall design of both doors was both innovative and more modern looking than other doors of time, especially if the Toronto door is from 1914. Both doors use pins in the jamb that mate up to pins in the door to push and pull the boltwork. There is definitely a connection between the two but I have yet to figure it out.

Doug MacQueen

I think I have found the connection here. Frederick S. Holmes, who was a very active vault engineer during that period designed several doors of this type based on what I have found searching his name. If you have “Lure of Lock” he includes some door pictures in his article at the back of the book. Still haven’t found any patents though for this type of door.

wylk

I do have Lure of the Lock and will re-read Holmes’ article.

Attached is another image of One King West, which shows pins on the door (left side of image); are these the ones that operate the boltwork? I’m also intrigued by the long rod which seems to go to the time lock, and the small indicator reading “Open”.

wylk

I found some candidate patents. Joseph E. Casserly was issued a string of US patents, numbers 811,695 through 811,701, in 1906. -696 and -699 look like the mechanism could easily be placed out of sight. These were all assigned to Remington & Sherman which seems to have been absorbed later by York.

Doug MacQueen

Yes, I have seen those. What I haven’t found is the jamb mounted locking method, except in a later 1930’s York patent for a totally different type of door. If the design was used only on the Fed door, I would say it might not have been patented but we know that isn’t the case.

wylk

Jamb-mounted locking was also used by Remington & Sherman, so when York took them over they might have continued and improved on it. For example, here is a Remington & Sherman door with jamb-mounted controls (circa 1915):

The controls and the boltwork-operating pins resemble the round door at One King West.

I assume the other patent you refer to is 2,081,316 which is a revolving door as used at the NY federal reserve, and assigned to York. Similarly there is 1,478,085 assigned to Remington & Sherman though the locks are in the revolving door, and then there’s 1,574,295 by Laucks and Wilkinson (Wilkinson is the inventor in 2,081,316) but assignment is to Laucks.

I haven’t seen any patents for the jamb-mounted controls outside of revolving-door models.

Doug MacQueen

Yes, now I do remember seeing those other patents. Nice find on that Rem Sherm rectangular door by the way. It is that mechanism that I can’t find any patent for. And here you can clearly see the pins operating on the central circular bellcrank. So far there are the two R-S doors, Toronto and Denver that were both pre- WWI and the Cleve Fed York door that was 1922. From what I remember reading, York didn’t takeover R-S until later than this, but maybe it did occur earlier. Also, I can believe that Holmes was possibly the engineer in all 3 cases and therefore the connection and the reason they all use this mechanism. What is strange is that no patent is showing up for it.

wylk

I keep trying to find out when R&S disappeared. The last patent I could find which is assigned to them is 1,478,085, filed in 1922. There is mention of them in a 1926 issue of Architecture and Building, and as late as 1929 in banking directories but perhaps the publisher didn’t realize they were no longer in business so that’s not terribly definitive. Philadelphia telephone directories and/or city directories might help but I don’t believe any are online (are there any Philadephians in the group?). Aside from Google and Google Books, are there any suggestions for further searching?

wylk

I ran across this image of the Cleveland FRB door during construction. Note the boltwork-operating pins in the door, as well as the jamb-mounted controls. Just another link between York Safe and Lock, and Remington & Sherman.

Doug MacQueen

Yes, that is some door. I have “played” with it a couple times. And took several pictures which I cannot find. To my knowledge it is the heaviest round door ever made. And to think it was installed after the building was built. Years ago, I had a friend who was just a 16 year old kid when he worked as part of the rigging crew when it was installed in the early 20’s.

wylk

Two more things –

I have verified with the One King West hotel that the door is in fact a Remington & Sherman, and that the vault engineer was Frederick S. Holmes.

I found a note in a 1926 magazine that the Bronx County Trust Company installed a vault which included Holmes electric protection, and the “vault was installed by Remington and Sherman.” I note the use of “installed” rather than “manufactured”; an image in the magazine looks almost exactly like a Diebold door I examined earlier the same day (please note I am not a locksmith/vaultsmith, this was pure luck). I’m thinking perhaps in R&S’ later years (1922-1925) they became more of a reseller/marketer than a manufacturer and their eventual absorption by York was to gain access to their patents and reputation. The magazine was Architecture and Building, volume 58 number 4, April 1926, page 45 and plates. This is about the only mention of R&S that I can find after 1922 excluding some banking directory entries.

VaultDoors

I found a floor plan for the One King West vault area and added some detail. Please let me know if any terms are incorrect:

Here is a pic and video gallery I compiled for the One King West vault door.

Adrian Weber

That is an interesting floor plan, make sure not to make these on banks that are still in business, it may get you into trouble 😃:

Just kidding of course, well done!

wylk

In one of the images on Flickr, notice the addition of a clock in the upper-right:

This certainly postdates construction, it looks much newer than 1914. In more recent images the clock has been removed but you can see where it was:

It’s kind of a shame that it’s gone. Sometimes that’s the difference between restoration and preservation.

VaultDoors

This pic shows where the two locking bolts (with top holes) engage the electrical contacts at 110° and 70°:

Here is the crane hinge pin (journal) emerging from the sleeve so I assume there is a bottom pin as well that is not visible. This leads me to believe the hinge sleeves were attached to the door then it was ‘dropped’ into place atop the pins:

Here is the Cleveland Federal Reserves crane hinge without hinge pins, from a Popular Science article:

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
In one of the images on Flickr, notice the addition of a clock in the upper-right:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10071[/ATTACH]

This certainly postdates construction, it looks much newer than 1914. In more recent images the clock has been removed but you can see where it was:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10072[/ATTACH]

It’s kind of a shame that it’s gone. Sometimes that’s the difference between restoration and preservation.

It looks like a small hole was drilled into the frame presumably for an electrical cord to power the clock and they scratched up the frame upon removal. The clock was mounted flush with the top of the frame but overhung the right side…which is a rather odd way to mount something given that there was enough room to mount it flush to the right…

[unknown]

VaultDoors

Adrian Weber wrote
That is an interesting floor plan, make sure not to make these on banks that are still in business, it may get you into trouble 😃:

Just kidding of course, well done!

😃: Thanks! I am not a locksmith, just a safe/padlock/vault door enthusiast. Vault doors are works of art and I have been curious about them for a long time. There just doesn’t appear to be a comprehensive resource on vault doors, which is why I started the ‘Vault Door Book’ post. I am working on a ‘Vault Door Anatomy’ file that labels components and their use. I have been gathering information found in vault door patents but I still have many questions.

[unknown]

wylk

VaultDoors wrote
I found a floor plan for the One King West vault area and added some detail. Please let me know if any terms are incorrect:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10070[/ATTACH]

Here is a pic and video gallery I compiled for the One King West vault door.

It’s my understanding that modern usage is more often “Safe Deposit” than “Safety Deposit.”

The “Safety Deposit Room” (as seen in the Realtor video) looks more like something the hotel installed for patrons rather than anything original. It might have originally been a “Coupon Room” or something else.

While the time lock currently has three movements, it probably originally had four (which was frequent on such large doors). I don’t have any old images to support this but here is a drawing that suggests four:

[unknown]

VaultDoors

Great observations, thank you! I updated the vault plan: