Hawthorne identification help

[Twelve]

Hello kind folks of RRB,

I recently picked up a sweet deal for a song and could use a little help identifying it's manufacture and year. Yes, I've searched and searched the archives but I'm getting conflicting assessments. I'll attach pics and turn to you to decide (and help). The stem and sprocket pictured I believe to be original and I have all the parts including a new departure hub and wheels to rebuild this bike. Obviously, the handlebars and fork pictured are not original. The fork could not be saved unfortunately. Thanks in advance.

 

[Twelve]

Although these numbers didn't aid in my research, I'll post them anyway. Maybe someone can decipher them better than I could. I've found a pic of a '37 that had similarities but I've also found pics (of one) that was a '48.

On the seat tube: 0 (or O) 32374
On the BB: 64EH

 

[rms37]

The frame was manufactured by H.P. Snyder. Dating it is more difficult as that style was produced just before and after WW2. Snyder continued with rear facing dropouts on their early postwar frames and transitioned to forward facing units by the end of the forties. The clues available to date the frame more closely are the serial numbers and the head badge.

The headbadge is the style used by Montgomery Ward in approximately 1948 and 1949. Prewar badges were different and the first postwar badges were the same as the prewar units but with the mounting holes at the top and bottom instead of on the sides.

The information provided by the serial numbers (and locations) are a bit mixed. The seat tube stampings were done in about the same time period that the badge suggests. A possible decoding for the bottom bracket number is 1946, derived from reversing the two digits in that number. This is a pattern I divined some time ago from several examples of late pre and early postwar Snyder frames but there is not enough data to substantiate that this reading actually has merit

Taken together I would say the frame is definitely early postwar but might date anywhere from 1946 through probably as late as 1948.

 

[Twelve]

You sir are awesome. Thank you.