Posted By:
J HullI seem to recall in reading what I could find on ATC, that they had NY locations (at the least) in New York City and in Rochester. I've assumed Factory 649 was in New York City, which had many tobacco manufacturing locations (especially cigar makers) during that time period. I have no idea whether it had 649 of them, but I have no problem believing it had at least 649 manufacturing establishments.
I also used to assume that the factory numbers were designated by ATC, but as I mentioned above, actually they were imposed upon ATC by the U.S. Treasury through the Bureau of Internal Revenue. I've done some research on tobacco regulation of that era, and it's really amazing how much regulation there was. The Revenue Bureau published a volume on the tobacco industry every few years during that era. Those books might shed some light on some of these matters. The only place I know of that still has copies, however, is the Library of Congress.