North Side Iron Works, 1971 Morris Ave. near Tremont Ave., Bronx, NY, 2016
The North Side Iron Works were listed in city directories at 4235 Park Avenue, the Bronx, from 1905 to 1907. The business was also known as Kiefhaber & Horenburg, the principles being Ernest Kiefhaber (1873/74-1952) and Frederick Horenburg (1862-?).
The elder of the two, Frederick Horenburg, was born in Hamburg, Germany, 16 October 1862. According to his naturalization petition dated 8 July 1895 he arrived in New York 21 May 1889. He appears in several census reports including the 1900 U. S. Census where he was recorded as age 35 born Germany October 1864. In the New York State Census of 1905 he was 43 years old, born Germany, in U. S. 16 years. In the 1910 U. S. Census he was 47, born Germany, immigrated 1889. In these reports he was either "housesmith" or "iron worker." By the time of the 1920 census, however, his occupation had changed to "Machinist, Auto." In 1922 Frederick Horenburg, age 59, born Hamburg, Germany, 16 October 1862, applied for a passport when he lived at 4056 Park Avenue, the Bronx, and when he gave his occupation as machinist.
Fred Horenburg is listed as a "smith" living at 717 2nd Avenue in Trow's New York City Directory in 1892.
Horenburg's partner at North Side Iron Works was Ernest Kiefhaber. Younger than Horenburg, Kiefhaber was also an immigrant from Germany. According to his naturalization petition dated 24 September 1906, Kiefhaber was born 25 May 1873 and arrived in New York January, 1895. He registered for the World War I draft in 1918 as "Ernest Keifhaber [sic], age 44, born 25 May 1874, Germany, a naturalized citizen and Iron Worker, employed at Ernest Kiefhaber, 830 E. 219th Street, New York." He appears in numerous census reports, always identified as an iron worker, until 1930 when, at age 56, he was retired.
The Kiefhaber / Horenburg partnership was listed in city directories from 1906 through 1913. The business name was North Side Iron Works, and there were three locations, 4235 Park Ave., 4175 Park Ave., and 4283 Park Ave. After 1913 Horenburg seems to have left the iron business. The 1913 New York telephone directory listed Lechtman-Chaikovsky Iron Works at 4175 Park Ave., and Trow, 1918, listed Ernest Kiefhaber at 830 E. 219th St. The E. Kiefhaber Iron Works continued at this address or at 820 E. 219th St. through 1924.
In 1925 Ernest Kiefhaber's son, Ernest Kiefhaber, Jr. (1902-1942), established the Kiefhaber Advertising Service at 830 E. 219th St. After his death, this business was continued by his wife, Emily H. (Jennings) Kiefhaber (1904-1958), and two brothers, Henry C. Kiefhaber (1908-1997) and William F. Kiefhaber (1912-1985). Emily Kiefhaber received the following brief obituary notice in the New York Times, 31 Oct. 1958, pg. 29, "Mrs. Emily H. Kiefhaber of 3831 White Plains Road, the Bronx, head of the Kiefhaber Advertising Service in that borough, died at her home Wednesday. Her age was 55. She was the widow of Ernest Kiefhaber, who founded the advertising service thirty years ago. She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Ernette Brown and Mrs. Emily Martucci, and two grandchildren." The Kiefhaber Advertising Service was in business in the Bronx until Henry C. Kiefhaber's death in 1997.
Copyright (c) 2016 Walter Grutchfield