Kilmer House

As the old saying goes, the best place to hide something is in plain sight. That applies not only to missing items in detective novels, but to Johnson & Johnson history as well – specifically, to something as iconic as our first ever building.  Kilmer House readers will remember that we have two drawings of the first Johnson & Johnson building, but no actual, documented surviving photographs. Well, that’s about to change.  Are you ready? Here's the background to the story.  We have this well-known illustration: The first Johnson & Johnson building, by an unknown artist, from our a

Built by Johnson & Johnson in 1926-1927, these buildings are still in use today.  They were among the first structures of their kind in their region to have indoor plumbing, electricity and hot water, and they changed the lives of the families who lived in them.  What were they?  A remarkable collection of homes near Gainesville, Georgia called Chicopee Village. In 1916, Johnson & Johnson acquired a 93-year-old company called The Chicopee Manufacturing Company – a famous textile mill that originally grew out of the Industrial Revolution and the need to make United States textile manuf

The Johnson & Johnson Museum, formerly the company's Powerhouse. Today, the oldest building on the Johnson & Johnson New Brunswick campus – and the only one remaining from the days of our founders – is our museum building.  At first glance, the building may look like the steadfast, unchanging reminder of an earlier era.  But behind the timeless, rich patina of the brick, that peaked roof and those mullioned windows, it’s an example of the continuing path of cutting-edge innovation at Johnson & Johnson.  The museum building originally was the new Powerhouse, built in 1907 to generat

In 1934, Johnson & Johnson built a new plant in Central New Jersey for the Company’s newest affiliate company, Personal Products Company.  What did that plant have in common with the recently completed Empire State Building?  It certainly wasn’t height.  And it wasn’t part of the climax of a famous movie, either.    Give up?  The buildings had the same architect.  It was all part of Robert Wood Johnson’s “factories can be beautiful” plan.  That architectural firm that built the plant was Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, who in 1934 had just compl

Many, many decades ago, in the Nineteen-teens, Johnson & Johnson built a huge electric sign on the roof of one of its buildings in New Brunswick.  The sign was over 31 feet high and 115 feet long.  When it was lit up in color at night, it was a local landmark…especially for passengers on the Pennsylvania Railroad as their trains reached New Brunswick.   The Company used this eye-catching sign to display a wide variety of messages, including best wishes for a Happy New Year. So as we approach 2009, it seems fitting to have our long-vanished sign wish everyone a Happy New Year.  The Johnson

Artist’s Rendering of the First Johnson & Johnson Building The beginning of January 2009 marks 123 years since James Wood Johnson got off a New York to Philadelphia train in New Brunswick, New Jersey to rent space for a new company:  Johnson & Johnson.  Here’s the story: James Wood Johnson It was very early January of 1886…the first or second week of the month, 123 years ago.  James Wood Johnson, one of the founders of the Company, was a passenger on a Pennsylvania Railroad train going from New York to Philadelphia.  He and his brothers, Robert Wood Johnson and E

What did Johnson & Johnson have in common with Robert Livingston, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence? Give up?  They both ran steamboats on the Raritan River in New Brunswick.  And here’s another fact:  Livingston’s tenure as U.S. Minister to France from 1801 to 1804 would have an impact on Johnson & Johnson over 80 years later.  How, you ask?  Because Livingston teamed up with inventor Robert Fulton to invent…you guessed it:  the first working steamboat in Paris. So…what was Johnson & Johnson doing with steamboats?  Wasn’t it

This July marks the third anniversary of the Kilmer House blog.  The first post went up on July 12, 2006 – the first-ever blog post on the first-ever blog for Johnson & Johnson.  And now, three years later, to celebrate that milestone, I thought I’d take you on a behind the scenes tour of some Johnson & Johnson history that’s hidden in plain sight…if you know where to look.  So in honor of three years of Kilmer House, here’s my first video post: I also want to say a huge thank you to the Kilmer House community – all of you worldwide who read the blog, and everyone who