Kalamazoo 225 Parsons St (1917 Gibson building): guitar plant in Kalamazoo, MI, USA · Guitar Story
owned factory
Kalamazoo 225 Parsons St (1917 Gibson building)
Kalamazoo, MI, USA[1]. Built for 3 brands on record.
Gibson 1917-1984; Heritage from spring 1985; USA Harmony from 2018. Geolocated 2026-10-15: 225 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo (Heritage Guitars site footer); Nominatim building match; claim C433. Wikipedia gives Gibson's address as the same street number; Heritage later moved into one of the building's additions, so it may be a different wing of the same complex. USA Harmony not checked.
The point marks Kalamazoo, MI, USA at city level. It shows the town, not the factory gate. Recorded place[1]. Lines run in from where its materials come from (listed below). Each origin is the centre of the region or country on record, not a mill or a forest.
Brands built here
Every headstock this plant has built for, on record. A contract plant can sit behind several brands at once.
What reaches the plant, in what form, from where, and who supplied it. A plant building for several brands draws on the same supply for all of them. 4 of these have no map point and are listed only.
current linkended or undatedorigin, region or country centre
Material
Form
From
Supplier
Customs
Years
Source
Material not namedAdded 2026-10-15 (llm:claude-sonnet-5-5). Premier Guitar (May 2012) says Heritage gets pattern-grade tropical American mahogany from Newman Lumber Company, Gulfport MS, for most necks and solid bodies. Species not stated. A 2012 snapshot, not a start date. Applies to the Heritage era at P025. Source S209 (press, proposed secondary).
Sitka sprucePicea sitchensisAdded 2026-10-15 (llm:claude-sonnet-5-5). Gruhn (via prewargibsonl-5.com) cites 1925-31 Gibson records naming Posey as the main soundboard supplier; The Daily World (2019) says Gibson and Martin got guitar-top spruce from Posey. Records span 1925-1931. The sources do not name Kalamazoo as the receiving plant. Form mapped to blank for soundboards. Sources S210 and S211 (secondary).
Red sprucePicea rubensAdded 2026-10-15 (llm:claude-sonnet-5-5). Gruhn (via prewargibsonl-5.com) names Julius Breckwoldt and Son (Dolgeville NY) among 1925-31 Gibson spruce suppliers; the 1923 spec book used West Virginia red spruce for Master Model mandolin-family instruments. Examples are mainly mandolin-family; Kalamazoo is not named. Form mapped to blank. Source S210 (secondary).
Sources
Every numbered marker on this page points here: the document, its grade and the passages relied on. An era is computed, so it cites the facts it was derived from. A fact marked “no source” has no claim attached yet.
Material not namedPremier Guitar builder profile (S209, 2012): Heritage buys spruce for guitar tops from Fred Tebb and Sons in Tacoma, Washington. Species and form of the spruce are not stated; form 'blank' is a placeholder for tops. The Kalamazoo Parsons St plant (P025) is operated by Heritage in this period. Proposed grade: secondary.
blank
USA (supplier in Tacoma, WA; harvest origin not stated)
Material not namedPremier Guitar builder profile (S209, 2012): Heritage sources ebony and rosewood fretboards from Luthiers Mercantile. Species and origin are not stated, so they stay blank. Proposed grade: secondary.
Material not namedGruhn on Spruce (S210) names Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago among Gibson's lumber suppliers and says Gibson 'purchased bulk hardwoods and spruce from all over the world'. No species, product, year or plant is given, so dates stay null; the form is a placeholder for bulk lumber, and Kalamazoo Parsons St (P025) is assumed from the 1917-1984 era of the Gibson plant. Read through a summarising fetch tool, so the wording is not verified. Proposed grade: secondary.
sawn lumber
USA (supplier in Chicago; harvest origin not stated)
the Singaporean conglomerate that acquired the rights to, and subsequently relaunched, Harmony in late 2017, along with Teisco.Era: Harmony USA (BandLab/Vista), 2018–now
However, we do know that BandLab Technologies, the same company that has relaunched Teisco, is behind the Harmony brand now.Era: Harmony USA (BandLab/Vista), 2018–now