Company Formation and Background

The Stockade Building System was founded in 1922 by R. Buckminster Fuller and his father-in-law, James Monroe Hewlett. Fuller had come to the venture after losing his position at the Kelly-Springfield Truck Company, where his job had been eliminated. The company represented Fuller's first full-scale attempt to apply industrial efficiency to domestic architecture.

The Product

Stockade blocks were made of fibrous material -- excelsior (also known as wood wool) -- coated with plaster and molded via the "Stockade Pneumatic Forming Process." The blocks featured large vertical holes designed for pouring concrete as weight-bearing support. Their fiber composition allowed contractors to saw holes for joists and beams, making the material versatile for standard construction methods.

Two patents were granted for the process: US Patent #1,604,097 (October 19, 1926) and US Patent #1,633,702 (June 28, 1927).

The product was later marketed under the name "Soundex" and became a Celotex product.

Testing and Production

In 1926, the Stockade system was tested at Tarpon Springs, Florida. Fuller supervised factory production in Queens, New York, and oversaw the construction of approximately 240 houses along the East Coast.

James Monroe Hewlett

Hewlett (1868-1941) was a Beaux Arts architect who graduated from Columbia University and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He worked at the prominent firm McKim, Mead & White and painted the ceiling murals of Grand Central Terminal. Hewlett served as president of both the AIA Brooklyn chapter and the Architectural League of New York. His architectural credentials and social connections made the Stockade venture credible to investors.

Fuller's Ouster

Fuller's experimental ambitions exceeded his financial discipline. Never interested in achieving high profits, Fuller had earned the distrust of the company hierarchy. By 1927, stockholders forced him out of the company he had co-founded.

Personal Crisis and Aftermath

The loss of the company coincided with -- and compounded -- one of the most devastating periods of Fuller's life. His daughter Alexandra had died at age four from complications of polio and spinal meningitis. The combination of professional failure and personal grief triggered severe depression, alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts. Fuller later described entering a two-year period of silence and meditation, after which he launched his lifelong "Guinea Pig B" experiment -- dedicating his life to discovering what one individual could contribute to changing the world.

Archival Note

The Internet Archive holds a 1920 "Stockade Patented" catalog consisting of 15 leaves (42 pages), which predates the conventional 1922 founding date of the company. This suggests the Stockade concept may have existed in some form before the formal partnership between Fuller and Hewlett.