South Charleston Ordnance plant/ Industrial Park history
A modern view of the industrial park. Photo sourced from clio.com
Everybody in the Charleston area knows about the South charleston ordnance center AKA Industrial Park. How much do you really know, though? Did you know the buildings were originally built for WWI by the Navy? I can't say for certain exactly what year because I've heard and read different things, some say it was built before the war but others say during the war. My personal opinion is that it was started during the war, I say that because I know that it wasn't completed in time to produce a lot for WWI.
In 1922 the plant was closed because of the naval treaty of 1922. It was reopened in 1939 and contributed a lot to WWII. They produced tiny tim rockets (air to ground rockets), torpedo flasks and more than 130,000 of the huge gun barrels for navy ships.
The war was over in '45 and from 1946-1961, the place was basically just storage. In '61, the Navy sold the place to FMC (Firetrucks, machinery and chemicals). Back in those days, FMC produced tanks for the Vietnam conflict.
The complex was later leased to American Motor Corporation for car body parts stamping. In 1979, the lease was taken over by Volkswagen for stamping parts for the Rabbit. In 1988 Volkswagen closed its doors but some of their employees came together to form South Charleston Stamping and Manufacting plant and they ... Stamped more car parts.
In 1997, SCSM was bought by mayflower . Mayflower stamped out parts for a bunch of companies including Mercedes, GM and Freightliner but they were bought out by union staming and assembly in 2004. In 2006 a guy from Cleveland bought that plant and invested millions in state of the art robots for stamping car parts. Nothing really happened until 2012 when Gestamp leased the equipment.
Car part stamping isn't the only thing that goes on in the industrial park though. Clearon's tableting and packaging plant is there and has been since '97 or so (thats where my dad works). Its kind of funny because in a way FMC is there again. See, FMC was bought by Olin and then Olin was bought by Clearon. Circle of life. My Grandpa retired from FMC after 30+ years. Wow
My dad has told me stories he's heard about the "blue man". That's what they call the ghost in the building that people claim to have seen over the years. Dad hasn't seen the "blue man" but says sometimes you can feel his presence and that really means a lot because my dad can be a bit of a skeptic about that kind of thing.
Sources:
Clio.com, south charleston industral park (formally Navy ordnance plant), August 31, 2017
E-wv.com, Charleston ordance center, January 16, 2019.
Edit. FMC stands for food machinery corporation. I could've sworn it was firetrucks, machinery and chemicals, which makes sense because they made all three of those things.
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