Page 19 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

Founding and Separation
PART I THE RUKERT STORY
FACING PAGE:
Portrait of Cap Rukert (circa 1918)
BELOW: (left to right)
A bank note issued by Drovers & Mechanics Bank, which lent the Rukert brothers their first $800; early letterhead for the Atlas Safe Deposit & Storage Company; the stable at George Street (taken in the 1960s); the first newspaper ad with the Atlas name, April 1921.
[1921-1930]
B y 1921, with his deep experience in warehousing, Cap was confident
that he could successfully
launch his own business. He approached George with the idea of a joint venture
and the offer was accepted immediately. George
had saved a little money, but the most important reason for the success of the new undertaking was an $800 unsecured loan from Heyward Boyce of the Drovers & Mechanics Bank. (This sum of money is equivalent to about $11,000 in 2021.)
With the aid of those funds, the brothers rented an abandoned stable at 820-830 George Street in West Baltimore, mere feet from their childhood home. Cap and George were officially in business, naming their venture the Atlas Safe Deposit and Storage Company. This name first appeared in print
in a newspaper ad in The Baltimore Sun on April 22, 1921. Becoming instant warehousemen, they special- ized in storage and the moving of household goods from Baltimore all the way to Boston. They ran their first “help wanted” ad on May 15, 1921. The simple ad, again in The Baltimore Sun, was for “one man with knowledge of crating and furniture moving who would be willing to do general warehouse work.”
Cap and George then used the bulk of their $800 loan to purchase a new moving truck from the Federal Motor Truck Company in Detroit.
This three-and-a-half ton vehicle was custom-painted on both sides with their
company name and an image of Atlas
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