Percom Data Company Buildings

Percom Buildings

9 June 2023

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Percom started at home, grew fast, and went through several buildings in the process, here's the story.

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Buildings

Buildings from start to finish:
1: Portable building in backyard of Harold and Lucy's home on Windsor in Garland. (1976)
2: Small retail shop on Barnes Dr. in Garland. (Nov 77 - May 79)
3: 10k sf industrial building on Kirby St. in Garland (May 79 - Jan 82)
4: 2k sf office space on Shiloh Rd. In Garland (May 80 - Jan 82)
5: 27k sf industrial building on Pagemill Rd in Dallas (May 82 - Jan 84)
6: I remember something about a building on Floyd St but none of us can remember what it was
7: Industrial building on National Place in Garland (Jan 84 - Oct 85)

Portable building

The first 'building' was a shed in the backyard of Harold and Lucy's house on Windsor Drive in Garland as shown on ads in late 1976. This is where the first CI-810, CI-812 and CIS-30+ Cassette interfaces began production. To my knowledge there are no pictures of this building but I'm still looking.

Barnes Dr.

318 Barnes Dr., Garland TX 75042

Nov 1977 - May 1979

This is the first building Percom moved into, not far from their home. It was a small retail shop next to a convenience store. Many CIS-30+ Cassette interfaces were built there. The company outgrew this building pretty quick.

Kirby St.

211 N. Kirby St, Garland TX 75042

May 1979 - Jan 1982?

Percom moved from Barnes into this building in March 1979, it was 10,000sf. The lease was for 36 months at about $2400/mo. There was a reception area up front, a small conference room, several offices including one for Harold and Lucy, and Jane doing purchasing, Betty and Virginia where there too. Beyond the offices through a single hallway was manufacturing, a large open room with no partitions, just row after row of assembly benches. At the very back was a shipping dock and a storage room. Barney who did PCB layout had an office near the back too somewhere.

Here's a news release for the move to Kirby - page 1 and page 2.

When Percom got the Pagemill building, I stayed at the Kirby building and we turned it into the service center that did nothing but repairs. I had 5 people working for me, I was 19.

As of 2001, the sign on the back was still there, although faded.

North Shiloh Rd.

May 1980 - Jan 1982?

333 Shiloh Rd, #105 Garland TX 75042

September 1980 the company grew enough that technical and engineering took over the front offices of the Kirby building and accounting, order processing, and sales moved to an office space on Shiloh Rd just down the street. The lease was for 12 months at $1080/mo. We had a phone system run between the two buildings and someone would yell 'Ring Down' when a call came from there. There was a great Italian restaurant close by.

Pagemill Rd.

May 1982 - Jan 1984

11220 Pagemill Rd, Dallas, TX 75243

Around 1981 Percom had outgrown both the Kirby building and the Shiloh building and decided to lease a new space not too far away on Pagemill road, but technically in Dallas, just north of 635. I think I remember the monthly payment being $12k, it was 27,000sf. There was a bull-pen area with cubical dividers where all of the order processing people sat and around that were offices with Harold and Lucy's offices up front, each accessable by a smaller office for their assistants. Virginia was Lucy's assistant and Betty was Harold's assistant.

There was a hallway on both sides that went to manufacturing in the back. One of those hallways had offices where Jane did purchasing, and Virginia had an HR office, and there was a big break room.

In the back manufacturing area there were a few small offices against the wall then a bullpen area for engineering, then manufacturing had row after row of benches. There was a shiny new wave solder machine also.

Here are some notices for the move to Pagemill - notice 1 and notice 2.

Access Unlimited Store

1980? - Jan 1983?

Access Unlimited was a mail-order and retail business set apart from Percom for distributing products direct to customers outside of the dealer networks. There were 2 storefronts - one was at 401 North Central Expressway #600 and the other was at 10503 Forest Lane near Percom - both Dallas. Sam and Connie were the main operators. Col Joe Levinson was manager over this for a while and he had one of the first car phone systems in the trunk of his Cadillac.

See the Access Unlimited archive.

National Pl.

2703 National Place, Garland,Texas United States 75041

National Place in Garland was a smaller building where Percom lived out its final months. I wasn't there and don't have any first hand knowledge of what went on there. I believe John Hamilton worked there. There's an FCC application dated Aug 1983 which shows this address: https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/CDQ8FQPDCTX

Floyd

Something makes me think there was an office space or building on Floyd St in Garland or Dallas.