Crucible Industries grew out of Syracuse’s established steel trade and the expansion of England’s Sanderson Brothers Steel Company into the American market. Sanderson Brothers, which had produced steel in England since 1776, bought the Geddes Steel Works at Magnolia and West Fayette Streets in 1876, taking advantage of Syracuse’s location on the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad as well as the presence of existing metalworking firms such as Syracuse Iron Works and Sweet Steel Works. In 1900, as demand for high-quality steel increased, thirteen manufacturers including Sanderson Brothers merged to form the Crucible Steel Company of America, and C. Herbert Halcomb, president of Sanderson Brothers, became its first president. In 1902 Halcomb left Crucible and formed Halcomb Steel Company near the second Sanderson plant by the Fairgrounds, where in April 1906 he installed and used the first Herroult Electric Arc Furnace, transforming tool-steel production. Crucible had acquired the Halcomb works in 1922 and enlarged the site in 1940. During World War II, workers there produced 75,000 tons of steel per year at peak output, and in 1947 Crucible consolidated all of its production at the Halcomb site beside the State Fairgrounds. As the lone survivor from the era when heavy industry dominated the area, Crucible Industries stands as a reminder of the scale of industrialization and of the region’s major contribution to the national economy.