Michigan Ladder Company’s products used at White House, in movies over 120 year history - MLive.com

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YPSILANTI, MI – The Michigan Ladder Company, which recently announced they are closing after 120 years, has a long and storied presence in Ypsilanti.

The company, considered to be the nation’s oldest ladder manufacturer, provided products for the White House, automakers and retailers over the years.

Three men founded the Michigan Ladder Company in 1901, using “several thousand dollars of their own money” along with help from the city to lock down land at 12 E Forest Ave. for five years, according to the company’s history page.

Founders Melvin Lewis, A.G. Huston and Edgar S. Geer eventually made the property at Forest and Huron Street the company’s permanent location. It operated there for 120 years.

Lewis was the company’s president for 45 years. Initially, the company built wooden ladders, but eventually added toys, ironing board, boats and ping pong tables. One table, known as “The Detroiter,” was even featured in the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump” in one the scenes where Tom Hanks’s character plays ping pong.

Michigan Ladder Company closes after 120 years in Ypsilanti

“For years, people would ask us if we made the ‘Detroiter,’” said owner Tom Harrison, who joined the company in 2004 and announced the closure in a Facebook post on Thursday, April 1.

Harrison cited financial difficulties due to the state-ordered closures of non-essential services to curb the spread of COVID-19 as a reason why the company was closing.

The United States Navy bought several of Michigan Ladder Company’s ping pong tables for shipboard entertainment. Even the Harlem Globetrotters would use them for halftime competitions, according to the company’s history page.

Company leadership changed in the 1930s. Arthur Nissly took over until he died from a heart attack at a Christmas staff party in1967. His son, Bob Nissly, who began his career as “a youngster smoking between the lumber piles,” took over that year until his 2005 retirement.

Michigan Ladders were built to hold a lot of weight, including a 3,000-pound car. For the first 40 years, the company sold ladders across the nation but after World War II, demand increased and the company exported to South America and the Middle East. Some of their prominent customers were Ford Motor Company, General Motors, United States Steel, Boeing and Dollar General, according to their website.

Target store employees even use Michigan Ladders, along with White House staff, for repairs and holiday decorations, according to their website. The company also prided itself in Detroit Metro Airport using them to construct the McNamara Terminal.

“Indeed, much of the nation has been built on the steps of Michigan ladders,” according to their website.

Workplace camaraderie

A longtime employee called it an “ugly-beautiful” place to work.

Scott Bruneau was a wood inspector for 43 years at the Michigan Ladder Company. His job was to check each piece of wood for knots or defects, cut out the good parts and scrap the rest for other products within the factory. But eventually, when the company started building more fiberglass and aluminum ladders, he helped assemble them.

“We would do sawmill work in that factory with very old machines. I got concussions there, five hernias, numerous cuts but that was just part of life in a factory like that. That factory floor has my DNA in it from my blood,” said Bruneau. “The amount of employees faded off over the years. The recent two years, we had a core of people and it was such a camaraderie in that place.”

There were also difficulties over the years, according to Bruneau. He recalled a strike in the 1980s when workers sought fair wages and he crossed the picket line.

“It was an intense miserable experience because we had to cross the line and go into work that summer,” Bruneau said. “We would cross the picket lines…run for the entrances. I would see weapons held by people.”

But mostly, Brueneau said he will remember the camaraderie the most.

“There was a forklift operator that was this very gentle and good soul. He was this giant of a man,” Bruneau said. “If you had a look on your face he didn’t like, he would say, ‘Hey, are we still buddies?’ I picked up on that and use that as a tribute to him.”

“There was a matter of pride. I never let my boss down. We always got the job done...you sweat, you’re exhausted, but you grin at the end of the job because you got the job done. That’s extremely satisfying,” Bruneau continued.

Harrison said despite the customer and supplier losses the company faced during the recession in 2008, they were able to bounce back. However, business restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic led him to shut the doors.

“By far, the thing that I will miss the most will be the people. We had an eclectic group of people that we hired over the years. They were a fun group of people,” Harrison said. “It’s very hard to explain but it’s kind of this profound sense of sadness. This whole thing is coming to an end.”

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