Standard Iron Works.

Biographical / Historical Notes

In 1885, business partners Moses Hughes and W. G. Riffenberg began to buy up real estate in Block 137 of Horton’s Addition to San Diego, with an interest to starting a local iron works company. Ownership fluctuated over the next several years in a series of partnerships and dissolutions involving Moses Hughes, W. G. Riffenberg, A. Ames, Patrick Joseph Wallace, and William Gehring. In 1888 Hughes & Co. was officially formed. In 1891 that partnership was dissolved and Standard Iron Works was announced in its stead.

The shop, originally located at the corner of Seventh and L Streets, focused on metal casings, house fronts, agricultural castings, and mill and mining machinery. In 1909, they moved to 1821 Colton Ave at the foot of Beardsley Street. A fire swept the plant on Christmas Day in 1912, and they had to rebuild.

At the end of the 1890s, the company was taken over by Enoch Winsbey. The company was later passed on to his son, Charles Winsbey, and then his grandson Charles Winsbey Jr. Under their care the company expanded considerably. During World War I, they made cast iron water fittings for nearby Camp Kearny. By 1938, they were making gold mining machinery, Dodge transmission machinery, and other specialty items. By the 1950s, the company was best known for making all of the equipment used in commercial fishing industry processing plants, including automatic tuna flakers and can washing machines. They sold their products all along the Pacific coast line, as well as to canneries in Maine and South America.

In 1964, Charles Winsbey Jr. sold 15% of the operation (their share in San Diego fire plugs and manhole covers) with plans to start making “space-age” items of stainless steel and aluminum. In the same year the plant was part of a strike by the Iron Workers Union Local 627.

From the guide to the Standard Iron Works Collection, 1885-1964, (San Diego History Center Document Collection)