Based on my research, Fulton Corporation is the only company that manufactured mailboxes in the early 1970s, has not been acquired by Gibraltar Industries, and is still operating today!
Their website states: “Fulton Corporation is a privately held business that has been in operation since 1906 and under current ownership since 1969.”
I sent Atomic Ranch’s featured photo of the mid-century modern mailbox to the folks at Fulton and asked if they might know who used to manufacture it. The next day, they replied: “I believe we did, at least I see one very much like what you sent, in one of our old catalogs…we stopped making it in 1993.”
My heart stopped…
I asked if they might have one around that they would be willing to sale, but they did not. They were kind-enough to send the catalog page with the picture, as shown in this post.
In early December, I asked if they might be willing to manufacture a small quantity of the “Sleek Suburban” mailbox. At the time, I was thinking of selling them to friends in our mid-century neighborhood.
Unfortunately, they no longer have the dies used to make the Sleek Suburban.
So, I can’t replicate Modernica’s Eames Shell Chair business model: The Fiberglass Chair | The Original Design | The Authentic Material. From their blog:
Modernica uses the original presses and preform machine that were used by Zenith Plastics for Charles Eames production of Herman Miller chairs. The preform machine is the only such machine in existence; it was designed by Sol Fingerhut in 1960. The preform machine was added to the production process in efforts to keep up with increasing sales.
Both the presses and the preform machine are the very same pieces of equipment used to create thousands and thousands of chairs since their very first run in 1950 and now sixty years later, these seminal pieces of equipment are located at Modernica’s new Los Angeles’s factory.
Looks like I’ll have to figure out how to fabricate a mid-century modern mailbox!
mid-century modern mailbox 