If your safe says Herring, Marvin or Herring-Hall-Marvin, it belongs to one family tree. Herring-Hall-Marvin joined three of America’s biggest 19th-century safe makers: Silas Herring’s New York firm, Marvin of New York and Hall’s of Cincinnati. Here’s the history of all three, and how to read and date the name on yours.
1841
Silas Herring starts selling Wilder’s Salamander safes
30,000+
Herring safes sold by 1867, by the firm’s own count
1892
Herring, Hall’s and Marvin merge
1959
Diebold buys Herring-Hall-Marvin
Key takeaways
- Silas C. Herring (1803–1881) made his name in New York selling plaster-filled “Salamander” safes from 1841, then his own “Herring’s Patent Champion” safes.
- In 1892 Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. of Cincinnati sold out to the new Herring-Hall-Marvin Company, which joined it with the Herring and Marvin businesses of New York.
- Production moved to a new works in Hamilton, Ohio, and from December 1900 the firm traded as the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. until Diebold bought it in 1959.
- The exact wording on the door (Herring & Co., Marvin & Co., Herring-Hall-Marvin Co., “Hamilton, O.”, “Division of Diebold”) is the best dating clue, because no serial register has been published.
In This Article
Herring-Hall-Marvin at a glance
| Country | United States (New York; Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio) |
| Predecessors | Herring & Co. and its partnerships, New York (from 1841); Marvin & Co. / Marvin Safe Co., New York; Hall’s Safe & Lock Co., Cincinnati (1867–1892) |
| Founders | Silas C. Herring (1803–1881); the Marvin family; Joseph L. Hall (died 1889) |
| Merger | Herring-Hall-Marvin Company, 1892; assets taken over by the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. in December 1900 |
| Main works | Hudson Street, New York (Herring, 1849–1883); Cincinnati (Hall’s); Grand Boulevard, Hamilton, Ohio (from 1896 until after 1959) |
| Known for | Salamander and Champion fire safes, Marvin’s spherical bank safes, bank vault doors and counters, Safecraft furniture safes |
| Fate | Bought by Diebold in September 1959; government antitrust case 1959–1963; Hamilton building demolished in 2013 |
Silas Herring and the Salamander safe
Silas Clark Herring didn’t start out in safes. He was born in Vermont in 1803 and came to New York in 1834 as a grocer, and his grocery business was wiped out in the great fire of December 1835, and in 1841 he became agent for Enos Wilder’s “Salamander” safe, an iron chest lined with plaster of Paris. He bought the sole manufacturing rights in 1844.1 The rights came from Daniel Fitzgerald’s patent of 1843, assigned to Wilder; Herring paid a royalty of one cent for every pound of safe sold in New York, and the patent survived a challenge in the US Supreme Court in 1850.2 The full story is in our history of the invention of the fireproof safe.
Herring sold hard. His safes went to London for the Great Exhibition of 1851, catalogued as a “Salamander safe, Wilder’s patent”, and won a Prize Medal.3,4 Two of his former workmen, the brothers James and John Taylor, founded J. & J. Taylor of Toronto in 1855 and advertised themselves as “late of S. C. Herring’s”. By 1867 the firm claimed that “more than thirty thousand of Herring’s Safes” had been sold, against two or three a week when it started, in every state and in more than thirty foreign countries.5
The Hudson Street factory
Herring’s first workshops were on Water and Washington Streets. In 1849 he bought a triangular plot between Hudson Street, Ninth Avenue and 13th and 14th Streets and built a five-storey factory there, extended to its full flatiron shape before 1860. The firm used it until 1883, and it still stands at 669–685 Hudson Street in the Meatpacking District, one of the earliest surviving factory buildings in Manhattan.1 In the 1860s the salesrooms were at 251 Broadway, on the corner of Murray Street, with branches in Philadelphia, Chicago and New Orleans.5
From Salamander to Champion
Wet plaster had a fatal flaw: it kept the inside of the safe damp and slowly rusted the iron. Herring took out his own patent on 18 May 1852, renewed in 1866, and from 1854 filled his safes mainly with a dry powder made from the chalky residue of soda-water making, discovered by a Philadelphia chemist named Spear.5,6 His catalogue of 1867 put it simply: “The old Salamander gave way to the Champion”.5 The new safes were sold as “Herring’s Patent Champion”, and owners’ letters praising them survive from fires as early as 1860.5
The partners changed over the years, which is handy if you’re dating a plate. Letters of 1860–61 are addressed to Herring & Co.; by 1866 the New York firm was Herring, Farrel & Sherman and the Philadelphia house Farrel, Herring & Co. The catalogue credits its dry-filled safe to Herring’s patents and to one of John Farrel’s, dated 7 February 1865.5 For thieves, Herring built burglar-proof safes with an outer skin of wrought boiler plate, an inner safe of hardened steel and a casting of Franklinite iron between them, reinforced with steel rods.6 His 1867 catalogue already offered bankers’ chests and vault doors combining wrought iron, steel bars and “Spiegel Eisen”.5
The Battle of the Safes, Paris 1867
At the Paris Exhibition of 1867 Herring hung a challenge on his bankers’ safe, and Samuel Chatwood of Bolton took it up. On 13 July 1867 each maker’s men attacked the other’s safe. Chatwood’s workmen wedged open the doors of Herring’s safe in 29 minutes, but by the agreed terms the test object had to come out of the inner chest, which took them much longer; Herring’s men broke into Chatwood’s safe through a side joint.7,8
On those terms the clock favoured Herring. The Engineer in London, which thought the margin could fairly be argued away, still timed Chatwood’s safe at 235 minutes and Herring’s at 254, and conceded that “the time of being broken into, to the extent exacted by those conditions, and small as was the difference, was in favour of Herring”.8 The committee’s majority found for Herring, and the American commissioners’ report lists a bronze medal for Herring, Farrel & Sherman’s fire and burglar-proof safes.7,9
The British side saw it differently. The two English members of the committee had withdrawn, protesting that Herring’s drawings didn’t match his safe, and a Paris tribunal declared the verdict void in 1868, with costs against Herring.8,7 George Augustus Sala told Chatwood’s version in The Battle of the Safes (1868).10 Our entry on Chatwood safes tells the contest from the Bolton side.
“The old Salamander gave way to the Champion.”
Herring, Farrel & Sherman, 1867
Marvin & Co. and the Marvin Safe Co.
Marvin came out of the same Wilder patent. An account of 1870 lists Stearns & Marvin, successors of Roberts & Rich, among the New York firms that also made the Wilder safe.6 Surviving safes marked “Marvin & Co.” carry an “Alum Patent” dated 27 March 1855.9 In 1869 Marvin & Co. advertised “Alum and Dry Plaster” fire and burglar safes, bank vaults, vault doors and combination locks, with warehouses at 265 Broadway, New York, 721 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and 108 Bank Street, Cleveland.11
Later the business traded as the Marvin Safe Company. According to New York newspaper reports gathered by the historian Tom Miller, its factory at 326 West 37th Street burned in February 1885, and Willis D. Marvin built a six-storey replacement on South Fifth Avenue (now West Broadway) in 1886, employing more than 250 men.12
Marvin’s spherical “cannonball” safe
Marvin is often credited with the original round “cannonball” bank safe; one safe dealer’s history says it was designed and patented by the Marvin Safe Company in 1863.13 We haven’t found that patent. What we can document is a Marvin spherical safe that still survives in Keeseville, New York, with a patent date of 19 March 1867 painted on its front.14
Its local newspapers tell a lively story. In February 1872 burglars broke into the Keeseville National Bank’s vault, “took a turn at Marvin and Co’s. Spherical Burglar Proof Safe and retired in disgust”. The damaged lock later jammed, and in March 1873 the bank needed an expert from New York, a day of work and gunpowder to get its own money out; the local paper declared the safe “the champion article of the world”. In July 1877 masked burglars tied up the watchmen, blew the safe open and took about $80,000.14 Round safes and the explosives used against them are covered in our history of safe-cracking.
The 1892 merger
The third partner was the biggest. By the Supreme Court’s reckoning Joseph L. Hall had been building safes since the late 1840s, and in 1867 he and his partners formed Hall’s Safe & Lock Co., an Ohio corporation with its works in Cincinnati. Hall died in 1889.15,16 The firm’s story, from its Cincinnati works to its Chicago fire testimonials, is told in our entry on Hall’s safes.
On 4 May 1892 Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. sold everything, including trademarks, trade rights, goodwill and the business “as a going concern”, to buyers who passed it the same day to the new Herring-Hall-Marvin Company. The Hall family took part of the price in shares. Hall’s son Edward C. Hall became president of the combined company and another son its treasurer.15,16,17
The arrangement didn’t last. The Hall sons were pushed out of office in 1895, resigned on 1 August 1896 and the next month set up a rival Hall’s Safe Company in Ohio. Herring-Hall-Marvin sued to stop them using the Hall name, and in 1908 the US Supreme Court ruled that it had bought the right to use “Hall”, but not the sole right: the sons could make safes under their own name provided they didn’t pretend to be the old company.16,17 So if your safe says “Hall’s” and was made after 1896, it could come from either firm.
Timeline
- 1841 Silas Herring becomes agent for Wilder’s Salamander safe in New York.
- 1849 Herring builds his factory on Hudson Street, New York.
- 1851 Prize Medal for Herring’s Salamander safe at the Great Exhibition, London.
- 1852 Herring’s own patent; the “Champion” replaces the Salamander.
- 1867 Herring’s challenge contest with Chatwood in Paris; Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. incorporated in Cincinnati.
- 1892 Herring-Hall-Marvin Company formed; it buys Hall’s on 4 May.
- 1900 A new Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. takes over the business in December.
- 1943–1951 The Hamilton plant machines uranium for the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Commission.
- 1959 Diebold buys Herring-Hall-Marvin in September.
- 2013 The Hamilton factory building is demolished.
The Hamilton, Ohio, works
Herring-Hall-Marvin moved its manufacturing from Hall’s old works in Cincinnati to a new plant in Hamilton, Ohio; ground was broken there on 1 September 1896.1618 By 1905 the county history listed “the Herring, Hall, Marvin Company” among Hamilton’s leading manufacturers, alongside the Mosler Safe and Lock Company and Macneale & Urban, the three safe makers that made Hamilton’s name as the “safe capital of the world”.19,20 The works stood at 1550 Grand Boulevard: a three-storey building of roughly 300,000 square feet.21
The corporate name changed once more. The Herring-Hall-Marvin Company’s assets were bought in December 1900 by a new company, the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company, which is the name found on most 20th-century doors.16,15 New York remained the sales headquarters: 400 Broadway around 1904, and 41 East 42nd Street in the 1920s and early 1930s.22,23
Did you know?
Around 1904 Herring-Hall-Marvin teamed up with the furniture maker Gustav Stickley to sell “Safecraft”: oak and mahogany desks, bookcases, wine cabinets and even flower stands with a fire-proof safe hidden behind the wooden door, complete with combination lock, “Dynamite Trigger” and ball-bearing hinges. An oak writing desk weighed 452 lb (205 kg) and cost $140; an oak chest weighed 1,100 lb (499 kg).22
Later production leaned towards banks. The 1956 catalogue from Hamilton offered push-button, electrically operated “5-Star” vault entrances, drive-in windows, depositories, bank counters and safe deposit boxes, with branch offices in fourteen American cities.24 Between 1943 and 1951 the plant also machined uranium metal for the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Commission, which is why the US Department of Energy cleaned the building in 1994–95.21
Diebold and the end of Herring-Hall-Marvin
In August 1958 Diebold of Canton, Ohio, bought Herring-Hall-Marvin’s Canadian company, and in September 1959 the Hamilton company itself.25 Catalogues printed that month already read “Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., Division of Diebold, Inc., Hamilton, Ohio”.26
The Justice Department sued the same year, arguing that Diebold and Herring-Hall-Marvin were two of only three American makers of bank vault equipment. Diebold replied that its new subsidiary had been failing, and the district court agreed that it was “hopelessly insolvent and faced with imminent receivership”; in May 1962 the Supreme Court sent the case back for trial.25,27 A consent judgment of 10 May 1963 ordered Diebold to try for a year to sell the Hamilton plant, tools, patents and “the exclusive right to use the name ‘Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company'” as a working business, and released it from that duty if no buyer could be found.28 We haven’t found a record of a sale. The Hamilton building was demolished in 2013.21
How to identify and date a Herring, Marvin or Herring-Hall-Marvin safe
We know of no published serial-number register for Herring, Marvin or Herring-Hall-Marvin, so dating starts with the words painted or cast on your safe, and it pays to read every one of them. Our general guide to dating an old safe explains the method; these are the clues specific to this family of makers.
Clue 1
The firm’s name
Herring and Marvin names on their own mean 1892 or earlier. “Herring-Hall-Marvin Co.” points to 1892–1900, “Safe Co.” to 1900 or later.16
Plate wording by period
| “S. C. Herring”, “Salamander”, “Wilder’s Patent” | 1840s to early 1850s6 |
| “Herring’s Patent”, “Herring’s Patent Champion” | From 1852; Champion recorded from about 18605 |
| “Herring & Co.” | Recorded 1860s; the firm used the Hudson Street factory to 18835,1 |
| “Herring, Farrel & Sherman” / “Farrel, Herring & Co.” | Recorded from 1866 (New York / Philadelphia)5 |
| “Stearns & Marvin” | Mid-19th century, a maker of the Wilder safe6 |
| “Marvin & Co.” | 1855 or later; recorded 1869–18729,11,14 |
| “Marvin Safe Co., New York” | Recorded by the mid-1880s, to 189212 |
| “Hall’s Safe & Lock Co., Cincinnati” | 1867–1892; see Hall’s safes |
| “Herring-Hall-Marvin Co.” | 1892–190016 |
| “Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co.” | December 1900 onwards16 |
| “Division of Diebold, Inc.” | September 1959 onwards26 |
Treat the dates as guides, not rules. Old stock, plates and transfers didn’t go in the bin after a name change; they were used up, and dealers sometimes put their own names on safes.
Addresses on plates and paperwork
| 139 Water Street, New York | Herring’s store, early 1850s5 |
| Hudson St, 13th and 14th Sts and Ninth Ave | Herring factory, 1849–18831 |
| 251 Broadway, corner of Murray St | Herring, Farrel & Sherman, 1866–675 |
| 629 Chestnut St, Philadelphia | Farrel, Herring & Co., 18675 |
| 265 Broadway, New York; 721 Chestnut St, Philadelphia; 108 Bank St, Cleveland | Marvin & Co., 186911 |
| 400 Broadway, New York | Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., c.190422 |
| 41 East 42nd Street, New York | Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., 1920s–1930s23 |
| Hamilton, Ohio (1550 Grand Boulevard) | Works and, by the 1950s, general offices24,21 |
Look low down as well as high up. Marvin safes often carry the name in two places: painted across the top and cast into the castor brackets, as on the safe in Bogotá.
Locks, serial numbers and doors
Early Herring safes were sold with other makers’ locks: owners’ letters mention Jones’ lock in the 1840s and Hall’s burglar-proof lock in the 1860s, and bank safes of the 1860s had double combination locks.5 Marvin was advertising its own combination locks by 1869.11 A key-only safe with a Herring or Marvin name is likely to be older than one with a dial, but locks were often replaced, so check the lock’s own maker’s name and patent dates.
Serial numbers do appear on these safes, but without a register they can’t be matched to a year. Write the number down anyway: comparing dated examples is how a reference list gets built. The walk-in door pictured here shows the typical 20th-century lettering, “Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., Hamilton, O.”, in small gold capitals near the top.
Myths and unverified claims
The 1867 Paris contest proved one safe clearly better.
Both sides claimed victory: the times favoured Herring by 19 minutes, but a Paris tribunal voided the verdict in 1868.
Marvin patented the cannonball safe in 1863.
We found no 1863 patent. A surviving Marvin spherical safe carries a patent date of 19 March 1867.
Every “Hall’s” safe made after 1892 is a Herring-Hall-Marvin.
From 1896 the Hall sons’ rival Hall’s Safe Co. made its own safes, and the courts let it keep the name.
A Herring-Hall-Marvin name means the safe was made before Diebold.
Diebold sold Herring-Hall-Marvin equipment as a division from September 1959.
I have a Herring, Marvin or Herring-Hall-Marvin safe: what now?
Weight
How heavy is it?
Heavier than it looks. An owner reported a Herring safe of 1852 at 1,600 lb (726 kg), and even Safecraft furniture safes weighed 222–1,100 lb (101–499 kg).5,22 See how much an old safe weighs.
Opening
Combination lost?
Call a qualified safe technician (in the US, a SAVTA member). Many of these safes have relocking devices, which Herring-Hall-Marvin advertised as a “Dynamite Trigger”; forcing the door can lock it for good.22
Value
Is it worth anything?
Collectors look for original paintwork, gold lettering, a working lock and early names such as Herring’s Patent Champion or Marvin & Co. Be realistic about size, though: moving costs often decide whether a large safe is worth selling.
Not sure which name is on yours, or what it means? Send us photos of the lettering, the lock and any serial number and we’ll help you date it.
Frequently asked questions
How old is my Herring-Hall-Marvin safe?
It was made in 1892 or later. “Herring-Hall-Marvin Co.” suggests 1892–1900, “Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co.” 1900 or later, and “Division of Diebold” September 1959 or later.
Can I date a Herring-Hall-Marvin safe by its serial number?
Not yet: no serial register has been published. Use the name, town and any patent dates, and record the number so dated examples can be compared.
Who made Herring safes?
Silas C. Herring’s New York firm, from 1841, trading as Herring & Co. and in partnerships such as Herring, Farrel & Sherman, until it joined Herring-Hall-Marvin in 1892.
Who made Marvin safes?
Marvin & Co., later the Marvin Safe Co., of New York, which grew out of a firm making the Wilder Salamander safe and merged into Herring-Hall-Marvin in 1892.
Is Herring-Hall-Marvin the same company as Diebold?
No, but Diebold bought it in September 1959 and ran it for a time as a division, so late safes and bank equipment carry both names.
Sources:
- New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Gansevoort Market Historic District Designation Report (LP-2132, 2003), entry for 669–685 Hudson Street, “Herring Building”, pp. 88–89, citing NYC directories, the Dictionary of American Biography and the New York Times, 25 June 1881. ↩︎
- US Supreme Court, Gayler v. Wilder, 51 U.S. (10 How.) 477 (1850), including the 1839 assignment of Fitzgerald’s patent to Enos Wilder and Herring’s licence at one cent a pound, via Cornell LII. ↩︎
- Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition (1851), vol. 3, United States, exhibit 124 (Silas C. Herring, “Salamander safe, Wilder’s patent”), via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided (London, 1852), Class XXII, list of Prize Medals, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Herring, Farrel & Sherman, Fighting Fire for Twenty-Six Years, Being the Actual Experience of Herring’s Celebrated Safes in More than Five Hundred Accidental Trials (New York, 1867), trade catalogue with owners’ letters, Library of Congress copy via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- One Hundred Years’ Progress of the United States (Hartford, 1870), section on fire-proof safes and safe locks, pp. 396–397, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- safeman.org.uk, “Battle of the Safes: safe-breaking contest, Paris Exhibition 1867”. ↩︎
- The Engineer, 30 August 1867, pp. 169–171, “The French International Exhibition” (report on the Herring and Chatwood safe trial), scan via The Engineer archive. ↩︎
- Early Office Museum, “Antique office safes”, quoting Reports of the United States Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1867, vol. I (Washington, 1870), p. 302, and showing a Marvin & Co. “Alum Patent” safe (photographs: Tom Gazda). ↩︎
- George Augustus Sala, The Battle of the Safes, or British Invincibles versus Yankee Ironclads (London: Tinsley, 1868), via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Marvin & Co., advertisement (1869), in Union Pacific Railroad illustrations, p. 36, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, via Wikimedia Commons. ↩︎
- Tom Miller, “The 1886 Marvin Safe Company Bldg, 468–472 West Broadway”, Daytonian in Manhattan, May 2017, drawing on New York Times reports of 1885–1900. ↩︎
- Safe and Vault Store, “History of antique safes: cannonball to parlor safe” (dealer’s blog). ↩︎
- Jeff Dengler, “The mystery of the chrome iron spherical mini-cannonball safe”, Anderson Falls Heritage Society, September 2020, transcribing the Plattsburgh Sentinel (23 February 1872), Essex County Republican (20 March 1873) and Plattsburgh Republican (14 July 1877). ↩︎
- Donnell v. Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., 208 U.S. 267 (decided 3 February 1908), statement of facts, via Cornell LII. ↩︎
- Hall’s Safe Co. v. Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., 146 F. 37 (6th Cir., 20 June 1906), via vLex. ↩︎
- Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. v. Hall’s Safe Co., 208 U.S. 554 (decided 24 February 1908), via Cornell LII. ↩︎
- Jim Blount, “Opening of Mosler Safe Co. continued festive mood in 1891 as Hamilton celebrated its centennial year”, Lane Libraries, Hamilton, 2014, compiled from the Hamilton Democrat of 1890–91 and S. D. Cone, A Concise History of Hamilton (1901) (archived copy). ↩︎
- Bert S. Bartlow and others, Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio (1905), industries of Hamilton, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Butler County Historical Society, “The safe capital of the world” (2025). ↩︎
- US Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management, “Hamilton, Ohio, Site” fact sheet (2021) and site page. ↩︎
- Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. and Gustav Stickley, Safecraft (New York and Syracuse, c.1904), with weights and prices list, via Internet Archive (public domain). ↩︎
- American Numismatic Society archives, “Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., 1920–1933 (41 E 42nd St., New York)”, correspondence file, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., “Five-Star” Security Equipment (Hamilton, Ohio, 1956), Columbia University Libraries via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- International Directory of Company Histories, vol. 22 (St. James Press, 1998), “Diebold, Incorporated”, via FundingUniverse. ↩︎
- Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., HHM Herring-Hall-Marvin, trade catalogue, form 400-229 dated 9/59, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
- United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654 (decided 14 May 1962), via Cornell LII. ↩︎
- United States v. Diebold, Inc., 1963 Trade Cases ¶70,738 (S.D. Ohio, final judgment entered 10 May 1963), via US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. ↩︎
