Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company, Factory No. 1, 851 Pennsylvania Avenue, Hagerstown, Washington County, MD

Significance: Kreider-Reisner Factory No. 1 (also known as Fairchild No. 1) was built as a result of a partnership between upstart airplane builders Ammon H. Kreider and Lewis E. Reisner and aviation industrialist Sherman Fairchild in 1929, in order to meet demand for the Challenger, a popular sport biplane. A modern open industrial structure by the late 1920s standards, the factory was constructed in only four months in the former airfield behind the original Kreider-Reisner Shed. Here Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company and Fairchild Aviation Corporation developed and mass produced several innovative commercial aircraft, including the KR-31 and KR-34 Challengers, the F-22 and F-24, and the F-91 Amphibian. Entering the defense field in 1939, Fairchild's PT-19 Primary Trainer and C-82 Packet both earned major Army contracts, leading to tremendous expansion of both the factory and the company. During World War II, Fairchild No. 1 was the center of the "Hagerstown System" of manufacturing as Fairchild subcontracted with over twenty-five businesses throughout the city to assist in the production of military aircraft for the war effort. Although Fairchild closed in the 1980s, the factory survives as a symbol of Fairchild's and Hagerstown's heyday as a major aviation manufacturing center.
Survey number: HAER MD-137
Building/structure dates: 1929 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1931 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1941 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1935 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1965 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1987 Subsequent Work