The Volkswagen Company’s planned construction of a plant in Chattanooga will not be the first time a mega-plant has located in the Scenic City.
Sixty years ago, the DuPont company opened its large manufacturing facility off Access Road.
While the media attention was not as intense in the 1940s as in 2008, the construction of the nylon-producing plant was also a watershed moment in the city’s history.
Numerous jobs became available, and dozens of nearby homes were constructed off Access Road, Hixson Pike and even North Dayton Boulevard, due no doubt in part to their proximity to the plant.
The Delaware-based company had purchased the roughly 500 acres of land in 1944.
According to newspaper articles at the time, the company had planned the plant as a post-World War II project.
However, because of the rapidly growing demand for nylon for textiles and tires after the war, DuPont realized it could more quickly increase production by expanding its Martinsville, Va., plant.
The demand continued to grow, so in July 1946, DuPont began moving forward with plans for the Chattanooga plant, which was estimated at $20 million in 1946 dollars. Just as with the Volkswagen plant, a DuPont corporate official was estimating that the Chattanooga plant could eventually employ around 2,000.
When the company began operation around the clock in July 1948, it had 900 workers.
Ground-breaking ceremonies were held on Dec. 2, 1946.
Among those local officials who took part – and likely helped recruit DuPont – were County Judge Wiley O. Couch (who was the equivalent of a county mayor), Chattanooga Mayor Ed Bass, Vice Mayor E.R. Betterton, Chamber of Commerce volunteer vice president Roy McDonald , Harry Carbaugh of the chamber’s industrial committee and others.
The executive director of the Chamber was J.U. Nichols.
Exactly how Chattanooga recruited DuPont, and how DuPont decided to locate in Chattanooga, could not be uncovered.
Chattanooga was commonly known as the Dynamo of Dixie in the 1940s and was a leading industrial city in the country, despite its medium size.
The Chattanooga facility was to become the third plant to produce nylon in the country -- behind one in Seaford, Del., and the one in Martinsville – and the sixth in the world.
The plant officially went into production on July 19, 1948, with Charles Mears serving as the first plant manager.
After taking a media tour shortly before production began, Fred Schneider of the Chattanooga Times was obviously impressed both with the size of the plant and the large number of steps involved in producing nylon.
“Press representatives who were taken for a tour through the huge industry yesterday wondered that a project of so great a size and intricacy could have been actually carried to completion in such a comparatively short time,” he wrote.
He also described the nylon producing process that was to take place in the plant in 1948. He said that a nylon salt raw material would arrive in a liquid form via railway car at the Chattanooga plant after being produced synthetically with the aid of coal at a plant in Belle, W.Va., and with natural gas in Orange, Texas.
At the Chattanooga plant, the liquid would first be blended with diiamine, and would then be carried to a tank, where water would be extracted and titanium dioxide added to make the material white.
After the rest of the water was taken out and heat and pressure were applied in another area, the material would be turned into a molten, ribbon-like plastic. After that, it would be cooled, hardened and ground into small flakes.
It was then converted back into molten form and placed into a spinning machine before coming out as a thread-like material and wound on spools.
The material was then stretched into an elastic state and placed into boxes with the words “Nylon Division, Chattanooga, Tenn.” on the outside. From there, it was to be shipped by rail and truck to textile manufacturers.
Mr. Schneider also pointed out that the main manufacturing building had 254,320 square feet of space on the ground floor alone, and part of the structure was five stories tall.
It also had a hallway 743 feet long, he said.
A health clinic and cafeterias were also on the mammoth grounds.
The facility was also mostly air conditioned, which was considered progressive for the time.
Over the years, the DuPont plant would change in size and focus. It would grow into one of Chattanooga’s major employers, although its workforce size would ebb and flow with the economy and with demand for its products.
Information on the company’s Web site said the Chattanooga plant later produced nylon-based yarns for tire filaments and soft-sided luggage as well as resins for automotive and electronic components.
It also completed a $250 million renovation in 1997 that created 300 more jobs.
The plant also became known for its world safety records without an accident.
Many Chattanooga area citizens also found economic safety and were able to retire comfortably after decades at the plant. Used to working with their hands, a few later became vendors at area craft fairs and sold their hand-made items.
The expansive DuPont land also benefited the Chattanooga community as a whole. Part of the land was used for DuPont Elementary, and the wooded area across Access Road from the plant was set aside as a 200-acre preserve.
It was the first land in Tennessee certified by the National Institute for Urban Wildlife.
Athletic fields and city of Chattanooga public works operations later used part of the wooded land.
DuPont has impacted Chattanooga significantly over the years, and local residents are hoping for an even greater benefit from the Volkswagen plant.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net