Atwater Kent

The Atwater Kent brand, founded by inventor Arthur Atwater Kent, revolutionized 1920s radio. Around 1925, the company transitioned from kits to fully enclosed units, building a state-of-the-art, 32-acre factory in Philadelphia that employed 12,000 workers and produced nearly a million radios a year. Their collaboration with high-end furniture makers like Red Lion and Pooley turned radios into elegant living room centerpieces, including models integrated into grandfather clocks. The luxury and premium pricing of Atwater Kent radios became a tough sell as the economy plummeted during the Great Depression. Kent chose to close his radio design operations in 1931 and shuttered the entire manufacturing plant in 1936. The plant was subsequently acquired by Philco.