There are not many hours in which the ring of hammer and steel does not waken the echoes in Racine and the name of the city has become to the outside world a synonym for unflagging industry. Various successful industrial concerns have contributed to the reputation of the city in this regard. The F. J. Greene Engineering Works have been in existence since 1892, when the business was established by Fred and George Hodges under the firm style of Hodges & Son. Two years later, or in 1894, Frederick J. Greene purchased an interest in the business and about 1902 he bought out George Hodges. at which time the firm style of Hodges & Greene was assumed. That relation was continued until 1904, when Mr. Greene purchased the interest of Fred Hodges, since which time the business has been carried on under the style of the F. J. Greene Engineering Works. The plant is located at the corner of Douglas and Prospect streets. The property is two hundred and fifteen by two hundred and twenty feet and the three story buildings are all mill construction, supplied with sprinkler system. They have sixty or more employees and they manufacture special machinery, also fabricate structural iron work. In addition they do general job work and repairing, having a completely equipped machine shop. Their business also includes electric plating of all kinds, stamping and screw machine work and they contract -for the fabrication and erection of steel buildings. They have furnished steel and erected most. of the steel buildings in Racine that have been erected in the past few years and also important structures in this part of the state.
Source: Stone, Fanny S. Racine, Belle City of the lakes, and Racine County, Wisconsin : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement; Chicago: S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1916.