Company History
 Globe Electric Company Inc., as it is known today, was started in the late 1920's by Sharpsburg resident Bernard Gottschalk, Jr. The garage at his residence, 200 21st Street was the initial 'shop'. The company quickly outgrew this 'facility' and opened up operations at 1211 North Canal Street as 'Globe Electric Repair Company'. The founder, and his brother Norman, originally did house and factory wiring, radio, appliance, and small motor repairs. Because of his experience in lighting and wiring and his expansive girth, Mr. Gottschalk was often jokingly referred to as 'the heavy light man'.
- After a few successful years the company relocated to 40 North Main Street into a larger building. At this location the company concentrated more on the electrical apparatus repair aspect of the business, electric motor repairs. It was at this location that the flood of '36 visited and Globe, along with most of Sharpsburg was under water. Although most motors were heavy and not likely to float away, and since most were in for repair anyway, the damage to the business was mostly cosmetic to the structure, but devastating to the paperwork. However the company, like so many others, did dry out and continue.
- In the mid 1940's, Mr. Gottschalk purchased some property at the end of 23rd Street where it joined with the northern end of Noble Street. The new location necessitated a spur road off of these two streets which was informally named Gottschalk Street. (That name still shows on quite a few maps.) A new building was designed and built specifically for heavy electric equipment repair. At this point the employee roster numbered about sixteen technicians, some of them deferred from the military action in Europe because of their technical expertise in critical operations. Keep the motors running when there's no steel to make new ones.
- In 1976, Mr. Gottschalk sold the company to his son-in-law, William Connor. Mr. Gottschalk stayed on for a while with Mr. Connor until his death later that year.
Today, not much has changed at the location at 23rd Street as far as the building is concerned. However, the company has kept up with electro-mechanical technologies and has expanded very far into distributions and sales of new equipment, including motors, electro-mechanical and electronic controls, specialty electric panel manufacture, and more…
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