It is now home to the United Way of Tompkins County.īy the late 1960s, with younger members of the Smith and Livermore families uninterested in managing Ithaca Gun, the company was put up for sale. Paul died in 1952 at 78, and, in his will, gave the family’s large house on Aurora Street to the community. “Uncle George” stayed with Ithaca Gun as Chairman of the Board until his death in 1950 at age 104. George’s son, Paul, also joined the company after graduating from Cornell Law School. George Livermore (“Uncle George”) was offered 50 percent of the company by Leroy, and he and the Smiths alternated in the executive positions. Leroy’s son Louis (“Lou”) came into the company as a teenager, and Lou’s son Charles, an aviator and pilot with American Airlines, came into the company after retiring as a flier. Leroy was himself involved in the design of guns and patented four “hammerless” shotguns in 1887-1889. By 1886, Leroy Smith and his brother-in-law, George Livermore, bought out the Baker interests and set up the Ithaca Gun Company. They began making the “Ithaca Baker” shotgun in 1883, in a building next to the flume. William Baker, along with Ithacans John Van Natta and Dwight McIntyre, bought the water power rights on the creek. The rushing creek plunged through the tunnel, and could be diverted through smaller dams on the flume to power turbines that turned wheels, belts and shafts for mechanical power. Thanks to Ezra Cornell’s 1832 tunnel and dam, there was a constant source of water power. This location had originally been the “Hub and Spoke” company, manufacturing agricultural implements.įall Creek had long been a manufacturing site in Ithaca. By 1877, Lewis and Leroy took the business to Syracuse working with Lyman, producing “Baker’s Patented Double Breech-Loading Gun.” The business moved again to Manlius Station, outside of Syracuse, and in 1883, Baker and Leroy came to Ithaca, where they acquired Water Power Lot #6 on Fall Creek, intending to make guns there. Leroy Smith, son of Lewis, worked in the business, as did his younger brother, Lyman. Baker had designed and patented several improvements to the working of guns, and he and Lewis Smith began manufacturing them in 1863, first in nearby Marathon, and then in Lisle.
He then started a general store and soon connected with William H. Lewis Steven Smith was a tanner in Center Lisle whose business failed when he made an incorrect estimate on delivering tanned hides. But aside from those industrial relics, Ithaca Gun has mostly receded into history, except for its ongoing reputation with gun owners and buyers. The checkered grip panels are made of plastic and were manufactured by the Keyes Fiber Co.Ithacans still see the remains of the Ithaca Gun Company’s factory on East Hill near Ithaca Falls, especially the tall factory smokestack. This weapon does employ a slide hold open mechanism to inform the operator that the last round has been fired. This sidearm weighs in at just about 2 1/2 pounds and has an overall length of 8.25 inches and a barrel length of 5.03 inches. The pistol also features a thumb safety located at the rear of the frame behind the left grip panel. An empty magazine will easily eject from the pistol under its own weight. The pistol utilizes a push button magazine release that is located on the frame at the bottom rear corner of the trigger guard. This pistol is fed by a single column 7 round detachable box magazine. The sight system includes a square blade front sight that is milled as part of the slide, and a square notch rear sight that is housed in a dovetail slot and drift adjustable for windage only. The steel frame has a grey parkerized finish. The pistol has been designed to operate as a single action firearm that utilizes an external hammer. The M1911A1 is a recoil operated, self-loading, semi-automatic pistol that has been chambered for the. This M1911A1 was manufactured by the Ithaca Gun Company in late 1943 according to historical records.