General Electric Insulator Department on Insulator Drive in Port Covington, late 1940s- early 1950s.

The Locke Insulator Company was founded by Fred M. Locke in 1893 and was the first manufacturer of porcelain insulators in North America. Originally located in upstate New York, Locke was acquired by a Baltimore conglomerate in 1920 and the decision was made to build a new factory near Port Covington. With twenty-four kilns and as many as 500 employees, the 15- acre Baltimore plant attracted the attention of General Electric, which purchased a stake in the company that same year. Working as both an independent affiliate and a wholly owned department of the larger company, Locke’s Baltimore factory produced hundreds of thousands of high quality porcelain insulators for G.E. over the next five decades.

(Take photo from the middle of the median strip on Insulator Dr., looking southeast.)