"topping out" traditions of the high-steel ironworkers, The

Western Folklore, Fall 2001 by Robinson, John V

In a similar vein, Hands that Built New Hampshire contains another account of one William Abbot, a temperate man who opposed the custom of buying liquor for raisings. When told it would be impossible to get workman without rum Abbot replied, "If there are not enough temperate men in Concord, I'll try and get them elsewhere." Abbot put out a call and reportedly "nearly one hundred men arrived to raise the meetinghouse, without rum" (W.P.A. 1940: 26). To Dillon's original query, "Can a building be raised without whiskey?" The reply would seem to be: "Yes, but it's not easy."

Until recently the tree and alcohol have been directly linked for the ironworkers. The Bank of New York Archives contains a ten page report titled "Brief Narrative History of the Irving Trust Company Building" (1934). Buried among the financial and technical details of the building's construction was this brief account of the building's topping out:

Steel construction was completed in July 1930 .... As customary on such occasions, the steelworkers celebrated the completion of their labors by erecting a pole surmounted by a broom. It is said that their usual ceremony included the opening of a barrel of beer, but as these were prohibition times, this was omitted. (9)

I was puzzled by the use of the broom in the topping out of the Irving Trust Company Building. What did it mean? Was it merely a symbolic equivalent of the tree? The use of the broom remained unclear to me until I ran across another reference to the broom custom in Richard W. O'Neill's book High Steel, Hard Rock, and Deep Water (1965). O'Neill writes, "At a topping out party it's whisky for all. If the owner won't buy whisky, the men put a broom on top of the steel" (62). O'Neill's reference makes it clear that the broom is used to protest the lack of alcohol and had been in use since 1930.

I have anecdotal evidence that traces the broom back to Germany. A friend, Ralph Wilcoxen, who has some personal knowledge of German building customs, informs by email that

in Germany it is a custom for the owner of a house to treat the workers to a party after the topping out. Occasionally an owner may plead poverty and refuse to honor the tradition. When this happens, and it is rare, the workmen place a broom atop the house instead of the evergreen tree. (2002)

But how did the broom come to be used, what does it symbolize, and why? A Dictionary of English Folklore (2000) in a reference on brooms reports, "when a man himself puts out the broom, it is understood that he invites his friends to carouse with him . .. the broom in this case being the equivalent to the bush (the old sign of an inn)" (35). Clearly there is a connection between the broom and libation but why the broom is used as an invitation to carouse in one context and used to protest the lack of libation in another context is a mystery to me. How did the inversion take place, and what does it symbolize?

The tradition-if not the phrase "a tree, a treat"-has survived among the ironworkers to the present day. While the tree is still present, the treat (the topping out party) has become a strictly nonalcoholic affair. Due to potential liability, contractors are hesitant to throw parties on company time for the people who work for them. When the party is observed it is almost always in the form of a catered lunch. Since no modern ironworker would expect to be served alcohol at a topping out the use of the broom has fallen into obscurity. Nowadays the drunken revels are, as Hamlet would say, more honored in the breach than in the observance.