Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. of Cincinnati built some of the most decorated safes ever made in America, painted doors and all, and its bank locks and time locks ended up in the Supreme Court. If your safe says Hall’s, here’s the firm’s story and how to tell roughly when yours was made.
1867
Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. incorporated
50,000
safes sold by 1872, the firm’s own figure
8 acres
of factory floor in Cincinnati, 1875
$1,270
paid by the US Senate for its Hall’s safe, 1880
Key takeaways
- Joseph L. Hall (1823–1889) started making safes with his father in Pittsburgh in the mid-1840s, moved to Cincinnati around 1848 and incorporated Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. in 1867.
- The works at Plum and Pearl Streets, Cincinnati, employed “machinists, workmen, and artists”: the painted scenes and gilding on Hall’s safes were part of the product.
- Hall’s bank locks and time locks fought Yale and James Sargent in court; the Supreme Court found for Hall’s side in 1885 and 1890, but against Hall in 1883.
- In 1892 the firm became part of Herring-Hall-Marvin. “Hall’s Safe Co.” (1896–1927) was a different company, set up by Hall’s sons.
In This Article
Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. at a glance
| Country | United States (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then Cincinnati, Ohio) |
| Founded | Mid-1840s in Pittsburgh (sources say 1845 or 1846); in Cincinnati by about 1848; incorporated 1867 |
| Founder | Joseph L. Hall (born Salem, New Jersey, 1823; died Cincinnati, 1889), with his father Edward Hall |
| Earlier names | Hall, Dodds & Co. (from 1851); Joseph L. Hall & Co. (to 1867) |
| Works | South-west corner of Plum and Pearl Streets, Cincinnati, opposite the Plum Street railroad depot |
| Known for | Fire and burglar proof safes, bank vaults, bank locks, time locks, lavishly painted and gilded doors |
| Related firm | Consolidated Time Lock Co. (from 1880) |
| Fate | Merged into Herring-Hall-Marvin, 1892. Hall’s sons later ran the separate Hall’s Safe Co. (1896–1927) |
| Notable patents | US 67,046 (1867, conical bolts and dovetailed doors); US 136,239 (1873, safe-door hinges); US 173,121 (1876, Henry Gross’s time attachment) |
History of Hall’s safes
From Pittsburgh to Cincinnati
Joseph L. Hall was born in Salem, New Jersey, on 9 May 1823, and he didn’t start out in safes. The family moved to Pittsburgh, where he went to work at eight as an errand boy and later spent years on river steamboats. Around 1846 he joined his father, Edward Hall, making fireproof safes, and the business moved to Cincinnati soon afterwards.1,2
The start date depends on who you read. A promotional profile of 1872 gives Pittsburgh 1846 and Cincinnati 1848; Cincinnati guides of 1875 and 1894 say the house was established in 1845.2,3,4 In 1851 the father withdrew, selling his share to William B. Dodds, and Hall, Dodds & Co. was formed: fifteen men, two safes a week. By 1867 the business traded as Joseph L. Hall & Co. and was incorporated that year, in May according to a 1912 biography, as Hall’s Safe and Lock Company, with Hall as president and treasurer.1,2
Timeline
- 1845–1846 Joseph L. Hall and his father make safes in Pittsburgh.
- c.1848 The business moves to Cincinnati.
- 1851 Edward Hall withdraws; Hall, Dodds & Co. formed.
- 1867 Incorporated as Hall’s Safe & Lock Co.; patent 67,046 for conical bolts.
- 1875 Time locks added to the range.
- 1880 Consolidated Time Lock Co. formed; the Senate buys a Hall’s safe.
- 1889 Joseph L. Hall dies on 10 March.
- 1892 Merged into Herring-Hall-Marvin.
- 1896 Hall’s sons form the separate Hall’s Safe Co.
- 1927 Hall’s Safe Co. goes bankrupt.
The works at Plum and Pearl Streets
The factory pictured at the top of this page stood at the south-west corner of Plum and Pearl Streets, opposite the Plum Street railroad depot. In 1872 it was turning out fifteen to twenty safes a day, a long way from the two a week of 1851, and was about to be enlarged; the company said it had sold more than 50,000 safes.2 By 1875 it covered nearly eight acres of floor space and employed 700 “skilled machinists, workmen, and artists”, with branch offices in every leading American city.3 A family biography of 1900 puts the workforce at about 1,200 when Hall died.5
Cincinnati was a safe town. Across the same crossroads stood Macneale & Urban, whose partners included a W. B. Dodds, and a few streets away was the works of Mosler, Bahmann & Co., ancestor of Mosler safes.3
An 1872 description of a Hall’s safe gives the selling points. The doors were built of dovetailed plates that fitted into the jambs so closely that a wedge had no purchase and there was no crevice for nitroglycerine. The body was layered iron, welded iron and steel, and “crystal steel”, bolted together from the inside, with “Hall’s patent concrete” as the fire filling.2
Hall’s patent of 23 July 1867 covers exactly this: dovetailed door and casing edges, and conical hardened-steel bolts screwed through the stacked plates and keyed inside, so a burglar would have to cut out each one in turn.6 Another patent, of 1873, describes a crank-shaped hinge that let a heavy door move straight into its seat before swinging, so the dovetails would close without gaps.7
The great fires of 1871
Hall’s reputation was made in the fires of 1870–71 at Urbana, Chicago and the burned-out towns of Michigan and Wisconsin. The 1872 profile, written in the company’s favour, claims that safes made under Hall’s patents:2
“were proven to be the only ones which were absolutely secure”
The Great Industries of the United States, 1872
Treat that as advertising. We have found no independent fire test or insurance report from 1871 that ranks Hall’s above its rivals, and the same profile says that no Hall’s safe had ever failed, which no maker could honestly promise.
Bank locks, time locks and the courts
Locks were half the business. A 1912 biography credits Hall with more than thirty patents, eleven of them for bank locks; a 1920 family memoir says more than sixty-five.1,8 The factory’s signs advertised “Hall’s Patent Victor Bank Locks”, and the company claimed its combination locks, some with no spindle through the door, had beaten every lock-picker who tried them.2
Hall entered the time lock business in 1875. His early time locks followed the design patented by Henry Gross of Cincinnati on 8 February 1876, in which clock movements hold the lock’s latch until the set hour, and in January 1880 he formed the Consolidated Time Lock Co. to keep that business separate.9,10 Gross is also credited with the Hall Premier combination lock of 1869.9
The patents led to three Supreme Court decisions, worth knowing because they’re often misreported:
- Hall v. Macneale (1883). Hall sued the rival Cincinnati firm over his conical bolts. He lost: he had sold safes with such bolts, one to a banker in Lafayette, Indiana, and one to the treasurer of Lorain County, Ohio, more than two years before he applied for the patent in 1867.11
- Sargent v. Hall Safe & Lock Co. (1885). James Sargent claimed Hall’s time lock infringed his 1877 patent. The court found no infringement, partly because Hall’s lock used a sliding bolt.12
- Yale Lock Co. v. Berkshire National Bank (1890). Yale sued a bank over a time lock made under the Gross patent. Hall joined as a defendant, his executors carried on after his death, and the Supreme Court decided for the defence on 5 May 1890.13,14
Time locks were the banks’ answer to robbers who kidnapped cashiers to force them to open the safe, which is why the patents were worth fighting over.14
After Joseph Hall: the merger and Hall’s Safe Co.
Joseph L. Hall died on 10 March 1889 and his son Edward C. Hall took over.1 In 1892 the company was sold into the merger that created Herring-Hall-Marvin; the Consolidated Time Lock Co. was kept out of the sale and stayed with the family.9,15 In 1894 Edward C. Hall was president of the merged company and William H. Hall its treasurer.4 The story of the merged firm is in our entry on Herring-Hall-Marvin safes.
Joseph Hall’s sons Edward C., William H. and Charles O. Hall left Herring-Hall-Marvin and in September 1896 formed a new Ohio company, Hall’s Safe Company. Herring-Hall-Marvin sued over the name. In 1908 the Supreme Court let the brothers trade under their own name, but only with a statement that they were not the original Hall’s Safe & Lock Company or its successor.15 Hall’s Safe Co. made safes and time locks until its bankruptcy in 1927.9 So if your door says “Hall’s Safe Co.”, it’s the sons’ firm, not their father’s.
The painted Hall’s safes
What you notice first on an antique Hall’s safe is the paintwork: black or dark japanned doors with gilt lettering, scrolls and corner ornaments, framed panels of landscapes, ships or flowers, and the owner’s name in gold. The 1872 engraving above shows door panels with small scenes and urns of flowers, and the 1875 guide lists “artists” among the workforce.2,3
Custom work went further. The safe Cincinnati’s Young Men’s Mercantile Library ordered carries the library’s name in gilt across the top and a painted sailing scene on the door, with “Hall’s Safe & Lock Co.” in gold below the handle.16 Vault doors were treated the same way: a Hall’s door in Milwaukee, dated to about 1886, has its maker’s name in red and gold, a framed mountain landscape and “Hall’s Patents” painted on the steel.17
The finish is fragile. Many Hall’s safes have been repainted, which hides the original scenes and lettering; before you strip or repaint one, photograph every surface, including the back and sides, and read our guide to restoring an antique safe.
Did you know?
The US Senate’s Hall’s safe spent about thirty years in a private garage after being auctioned in the 1970s. When it was moved for conservation after its return in 2008, a painted medallion of Justice, Liberty and Legislation under an eagle, the Senate seal of the day, was found on its back.18,19
How to identify and date a Hall’s safe
As far as we know, nobody has published a register of Hall’s serial numbers, so you’ll be dating yours from the name, the cities and the patent dates painted or cast on it. Those three clues do most of the work.
Clue 1
The name on the door
“Hall, Dodds & Co.” or “Joseph L. Hall & Co.”: before 1867. “Hall’s Safe & Lock Co.”: 1867–1892. “Herring-Hall-Marvin”: 1892 on. “Hall’s Safe Co.”: 1896–1927, a different firm.1,15,9
Clue 2
The cities
“Cincinnati, O.” alone is common. Some doors add a branch city: the Senate safe reads “New York and Cincinnati”, the Milwaukee vault door “Cincinnati, Chicago”. A branch city tells you where it was sold.18,17
Clue 3
Patent dates
“Hall’s Patent” panels and lock plates often carry dates. The latest date shown is the earliest the safe can be, not its year of making: an 1873 hinge patent fits a safe built in the 1880s.7
Locks, dials and time locks
Bank safes and vault doors often have Hall’s own combination locks; the Senate safe has a keyless permutation lock patented in 1870, set with a sequence of letters, numbers or symbols.18 “Victor” on a lock can be Hall’s Victor bank lock of the early 1870s, so don’t assume it means the separate Victor Safe & Lock Co.2
Time locks are the easiest Hall’s parts to date. Those marked “Joseph L. Hall” come before about 1882 and those marked “Consolidated Time Lock Co.” from about then; the time lock business was folded into Hall’s Safe Co. in 1906, so a “Hall’s Safe Co.” time lock is twentieth-century. Collectors’ records give serial ranges for the early Hall and Consolidated movements, starting at 1001 for the first two-movement Joseph L. Hall locks.9
For the general method, including addresses, paint and construction, see our guide on dating old safes in the reading list below.
Not sure what you have? Send us photos of the door lettering, the lock and any numbers and we’ll help you place your Hall’s safe.
Notable Hall’s safes
The United States Senate safe, 1880
In 1880 the Senate paid Hall’s $1,270 for a safe 70 inches high, 48 wide and 28 deep (178 × 122 × 71 cm), with an inner safe, shelves, drawers and cash racks, inlaid wood inside and “United States Senate” in gilt on the front. The financial clerk kept the payroll in it, probably until 1935, when the Financial Room moved and a new safe was bought.18
It was sold as surplus in the 1970s and offered back to the Senate in 2008, which describes it as a four-ton safe and the heaviest piece in its curatorial collection. Spare a thought for whoever had to move it. The back is lettered “Hall’s Safe & Lock Co., New York and Cincinnati”.18,19
The Centennial Exhibition, 1876
According to the Senate’s curators, Hall’s Safe and Lock Company exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, advertising its “advanced” and “patented” technology to some nine million visitors.19
Cincinnati and Milwaukee
The Young Men’s Mercantile Library safe in Cincinnati and the painted vault door in Milwaukee, both pictured on this page, are two of the best-photographed survivors.16,17
Myths and unverified claims
Hall’s was founded in 1867.
1867 is the incorporation. Hall was making safes from about 1846, in Cincinnati from about 1848.
Hall won his conical bolt patent case against Macneale & Urban.
The Supreme Court ruled against Hall in 1883: he had sold such safes too early.
Only Hall’s safes survived the 1871 Chicago fire.
That claim comes from promotional writing of 1872, not from an independent test.
Hall’s Safe Co. is the same firm as Hall’s Safe & Lock Co.
Hall’s Safe Co. was a new company formed by Hall’s sons in 1896.
Hall beat Yale in the Supreme Court in 1889.
The decision came on 5 May 1890, after Hall’s death.
I have a Hall’s safe: what now?
Weight
How heavy is it?
Large ones are very heavy: the Senate calls its 70-inch safe a four-ton safe, about 8,000 lb (3,600 kg).18 See how much an old safe weighs before moving one.
Opening
Combination lost?
Call a qualified safe technician, in the US for example a member of SAVTA. Drilling or forcing an antique lock can destroy it and the painted door with it.
Value
Is it worth anything?
Collectors pay most for original paintwork, legible lettering, a working lock and a known history. Repainting usually lowers interest, so keep what survives.
Our guide for owners of an old safe covers insurance, moving and servicing, step by step.
Frequently asked questions
Who made Hall’s safes?
Joseph L. Hall’s business in Cincinnati, Ohio, incorporated in 1867 as Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. From 1892 it was part of Herring-Hall-Marvin.
How old is my Hall’s safe?
If the door says “Hall’s Safe & Lock Co.”, it was made between 1867 and 1892. The latest patent date you can find and any branch city narrow it down from there.
What is the difference between Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. and Hall’s Safe Co.?
Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. was Joseph L. Hall’s company (1867–1892). Hall’s Safe Co. was formed by his sons in 1896 and lasted until 1927.
Are Hall’s safes serial numbered?
Many carry numbers, but no published register links them to dates. Record the number anyway and send it to us with photos.
How do I open an antique Hall safe without the combination?
Use a qualified safe technician. They can usually open it with minimal damage and may recover the combination.
Sources:
- Charles Frederic Goss (ed.), Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788–1912, vol. 4 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1912), pp. 191–193, biography of Joseph L. Hall, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Horace Greeley and others, The Great Industries of the United States (Hartford: J. B. Burr & Hyde, 1872), chapter “Safes and Safety Locks”, pp. 1011–1019, with engravings of the Hall factory and a Hall’s safe. A promotional profile of the company, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- D. J. Kenny, Illustrated Cincinnati: A Pictorial Hand-Book of the Queen City (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1875), pp. 247 and 269–270, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- S. B. Nelson (publisher), History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati, 1894), section “Headquarters for Safes”, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- A Biographical History of Miami County, Ohio (1900), biography of Albert Acton Hall, transcribed by the Troy Historical Society. ↩︎
- Joseph L. Hall, US Patent 67,046, “Improvement in connecting doors and casings of safes”, 23 July 1867. ↩︎
- Joseph L. Hall, US Patent 136,239, “Improvement in safe-door hinges”, 25 February 1873. ↩︎
- Memoirs of the Miami Valley, vol. 3 (1920), biography of A. Acton Hall, transcribed by the Troy Historical Society. ↩︎
- Mark Frank, “Hall and Consolidated Time Lock Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1875 through 1927” and “Hall’s Safe Co. triple movement”, my-time-machines.net (time lock collection). ↩︎
- Henry Gross, US Patent 173,121, “Improvement in time attachments for locks”, 8 February 1876. ↩︎
- Hall v. Macneale, 107 U.S. 90 (US Supreme Court, 5 February 1883), Legal Information Institute. ↩︎
- Sargent v. Hall Safe & Lock Co., 114 U.S. 63 (US Supreme Court, 30 March 1885), Legal Information Institute. ↩︎
- Yale Lock Manufacturing Co. v. Berkshire National Bank, 135 U.S. 342 (US Supreme Court, 5 May 1890), Legal Information Institute. ↩︎
- Anne Day and David Erroll, “The Glory of American Locks”, Invention & Technology 22, no. 2 (Fall 2006). ↩︎
- Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. v. Hall’s Safe Co., 208 U.S. 554 (US Supreme Court, 24 February 1908), Legal Information Institute. ↩︎
- Hallsafe, “Hall’s Safe Mercantile Building Cincinnati”, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. ↩︎
- Hallsafe, “Hall’s Safe & Lock Co Vault Door” (Milwaukee, about 1886), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. ↩︎
- US Senate Collection, “Safe, U.S. Senate Financial Clerk”, Hall’s Safe and Lock Company, about 1870–1880, accession 51.00024.000 (read via the Internet Archive copy of November 2024). ↩︎
- Office of Senate Curator, “History Secured with the Return of Senate Safe”, senate.gov (archived copy). ↩︎
