About Us

Our company actually had its start prior to 1927.  There is however no record of the name used or who the owners were.  We do know in 1927 the company changed hands and changed its name to The Electric Motor Repair Company.

The Company has had several locations over the years.  It moved from its original location on Frederick St. to 514 E. Lombard St., in 1930.  The location on Frederick St. and the reasons for the move are unknown.  The facility on Lombard Street was a four story building with a total of 4000 square feet. In the 40’s, the Company again moved, this time to 340 Fallsway. In 1957, it moved down the street to 109 Fallsway to make way for the extension of the Jones Falls Expressway.  This was also a four-story building which totaled 15,000 square feet.  At this time, the motor shop was in the basement of the building and a flourishing portable appliance repair business occupied the upper floors.  In 1967, the Company moved to 700 E. 25th Street.  The move was brought about by an urban renewal project which turned the site at 109 Fallsway into a park.  The Company’s new facility on 25th street was a 22,000 square foot building housing all operations on a single floor. This location served the company well for 30 years.

In 1975, EMR had grown to the point that one person, Harry Kauffman, could not manage it single-handedly.  At this time, the company was restructured, setting up Divisions and appointing General Managers over each Division.

The Company began as a motor repair shop.  When the Company moved to 340 Fallsway, it was still primarily a motor shop, however, at this time, they began to dabble in Commercial and Industrial Wiring.  In 1945, the portable household appliance department was started.  Blenders, mixers, toasters, irons, etc., along with radio, television and clocks were repaired in this department.  The household appliance department grew and became very dominant in the Baltimore area.  At one point, it was the backbone of this Company, taking in 100 to 150 appliances daily for repair; 550 to 825 a week.

In 1957, the Company began to put an emphasis on commercial cooking equipment.  All along, they had repaired a few commercial items as several of the manufacturers of portable household appliances also made a commercial version of the same product.  These were Cory (Coffee Makers), Waring (Blenders), and Hamilton Beach (Blenders).  The Company saw an opportunity to expand its services into this new market and hired a technician to work outside.  This was the beginning of the Commercial Service Division.The radio and television service was given up in 1966 and in 1988 the original household Appliance operation was closed.  The low cost of new appliances vs. the expense of labor and material to repair them finally brought it to an end.  In the meantime, the commercial cooking equipment business had grown to a significant size.

Today, the motor shop is referred to as the Industrial Division.  It was renamed to better represent the diversity of the Division as it has grown over the years.  The Division not only repairs motors; it sells new motors and variable frequency drives.  The Division has a machine shop capable of in shop and in field machining and balancing.  The Industrial Wiring Operation has become the outside trouble-shooting and repair arm of the Division; working in the customers plant to solve electronic and systems problems.

In September of 2005 the Corporate Office and the Baltimore Branch of the Commercial Division moved to 9100 Yellow Brick Rd in Rosedale, MD.  We outgrew our facility on 25th St. that was shared with the Industrial Division.  The new location is a 42,000 square foot building with office space in the front and very large warehouse space in the back.  This provided much needed space for the future expansion and growth op the Commercial Division. It freed up space on 25th street for the continued expansion of the Industrial Division.    

The Company has grown from 5 employees in 1943 to 240 employees in 2007.  There are presently 8 locations.  The Yellow Brick Road location houses the Corporate Office and the Baltimore Branch of the Commercial Division; the 25th Street location houses the Industrial Division; 6 other Commercial Division Branch locations are: Beltsville, Maryland; Salisbury, Maryland; New Castle, Delaware; Alexandria, Virginia; Manassas, Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  We look for opportunities to grow in the future. As we have in the past, EMR will always work to be the #1 Service Company for the products and territories it services.