Tennessee Coal & Iron Company, Fairfield Works, North of Valley Road, west of Ensley-Pleasant Grove Road, Fairfield

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,37-FAIRF,3-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Eight miles southwest of the Birmingham City Center, Fairfield, Jefferson County, Alabama. The site is generally bound by Interstate on the east and south; Tin Mill Road on the west; and Ensley-Pleasant Grove Road No. 76 on the north. The plants are accessed by exits from I at Valley Avenue and Tin Mill Road. The Fairfield Works site is situated in Opossum Valley at the foot of Flint Ridge to the southeast. The developed portion of the site gently slopes to the southwest. Date of Construction:

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,37-FAIRF,3-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

This report is based upon written documentat i on donated by the B irmingham Historical Society, reformatted to fit HABS/HAER guidelines. Description: Active industrial production facilities include three Q-BOP (basic oxygen process) furnaces, the High-Line, a continuous twin slab casting facility. No. 8 blast furnace, a seamless pipe and other plate mills, Harbison- Walker Refractories brickmaking plant and the Vulcan Materials slag processing plant. To the east of these plants are the stacks of the recently demolished Ensley open-hearth and blast furnaces. To the west of the current operating facilities are the tin, strip and sheet mills, the machine, fabricating and axle shops and storage facilities no longer in use. TENNESSEE COAL & IRON CO., FAIRFIELD WORKS HAER No. AL-37 (Page 2)

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Since its construction in the Fairfield Works has remained the largest steel mill in the southeast. Its blast furnace plant has historically featured the largest furnaces in the South and the No. 8 Furnace, the only furnace currently standing, is one of the largest in the United States. While most of the older structures and facilities have been modified or replaced, the current facilities including a seamless pipe mill, Q-BOP steel furnaces and continuous caster are all "state of the art" modern facilities. TENNESSEE COAL & IRON CO., FAIRFIELD WORKS HAER No. AL-37 (Page 3)

Historical Overview

On November 5, U.S. Steel acquired the entire assets of TCI, then the Birmingham District's strongest industrial corporation with principal iron and steel producing facilities at Ensley and ore and coal mining operations scattered over 20% of the Jefferson County. Following the take over, U.S. Steel began development of new production facilities at a new town, originally called Corey for the president of U.S. Steel, but later renamed Fairfield, due to the president's scandalous divorce. During TCI began construction of a coke by-products plant at Fairfield, when completed it included 280 Koppers-type ovens.

Harbison-Walker Refractories of Pittsburgh, makers of firebrick and tile, completed their Fairfield plant, still operating, during The American Steel and Wire Company also began construction of a plant in During the TCI also constructed an industrial water system and opened extensive new coal mines at Docena, Edgewater and Bayview. World War I increased demand for local steel production. In TCI expanded facilities at Fairfield to roll structural and plate steel cast at Ensley into shapes for shipbuilding. Subsidiary companies in Mobile built 14 ships. TCI's World War I capacity included production of 1.2 million tons of pig iron; tons of steel ingots; tons of rails and tons of bars and plates.

After the war, these Fairfield mills were converted to rail car production and later disassembled and moved to Bessemer to form the nucleus of the Pullman Standard operation, long Bessemer's largest employer. During the TCI's Birmingham plants could still assemble the raw materials for making steel more cheaply than anywhere in the country. And as southern markets increased, TCI expanded the steel-making and finishing operations at Fairfield, supplying 50% of the southern steel market. Completion of a merchant mill in and a sheet mill in provided a major source of steel supply for manufacturers and fabricators throughout the South. With mills operating at full capacity, steel production peaked in TCI produced 1.4 million tons of steel ingots and tons of steel rails.

During blast furnace and coke oven capacities increased and a cotton tie and hoop mill was built. By World War II, TCI was by far the largest producer of primary steel in the region and supplied huge quantities of its products to southern manufacturers of defense items ranging from artillery shells to merchant ships. Additions to the furnaces and mills were made at this time. By the late TCI plants,- extending from Ensley to Fairfield and on to Bessemer, boasted a total annual capacity of 3 million tons of finished hot-rolled steel products TENNESSEE COAL & IRON CO., FAIRFIELD WORKS HAER NO. AL-37 (Page 4) including rails, structural shapes, plates, reinforcing rods, bars, ingots, blooms and billets for forging.

During the coal mines at Concord and iron production facilities at Ensley were improved. TCI employed as many as persons at this time. U.S. Steel retained the TCI name in Birmingham, first as a subsidiary and then as a division until when all of the company's basic steel-making operations lost their separate identity through consolidation. At that time the Ensley and Fairfield Works were combined into the Fairfield Works and the local division offices moved from Fairfield to Pittsburgh. During .the increased competition from facilities in Texas and other foreign and domestic producers reduced Birmingham's share of steel production to 18% of the steel made in the South. Beginning in U.S.

Steel undertook major plant expansions installing three Q-BOP (basic oxygen process) furnaces by These furnaces can produce 200 tons in 30 to 40 minutes and tons annually. During U.S. Steel also installed a new battery of coke ovens and the behemoth No. 8 blast furnace. This computerized operation is capable of casting tons of iron (the equivalent of 80 Vulcan statues) per day. During the U.S. Steel completed construction of a major steel pipe mill at an estimated cost of million. U.S. Steel, now USX's, investments in the Fairfield plants during the are estimated at $1 billion. The continued efficiency and modernization of the Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway were important in the decision to modernize facilities at Fairfield. USX employs persons at the Fairfield plant. The No.

8 Furnace, the three Q-Bops, slab casting, rolling and pipe mills, as well as firebrick and slag processing and transportation facilities, all reworked-rebuilt during the and are in active use. Equipment in the tin, strip, and sheet mills, the machine, fabricating and axle shops and storage facilities is no longer in use. Equipment in these facilities is being sold and scrapped and facilities prepared for reuse. Historical structures may be demolished during the construction of new operations at this active industrial facility. Significant Historic Structures and Groups of Structures Remaining include the following: Furnaces Nos. 5. 6. 7. and 8 Furnaces Nos. 5, 6, and 7 and the remaining structures such as hot blast stoves are being demolished. The No.

8 Furnace, constructed TENNESSEE COAL & IRON CO., FAIRFIELD WORKS HAER No. AL-37 (Page 5) in the late currently supplies iron for the three Q-BOP open hearth furnaces completed in and Daily iron production is to tons; annual iron production is 750 million tons. U.S. Steel Continuous Continuous Twin Slab Caster This slab caster, installed in the to cast single or twin slabs, is unique in the world. During March this plant set a North American record with 10 days heats) of uninterrupted casting. Bv-Products Plant Now U.S. Steel-USX Coke and Chemicals Division Ensley-Pleasant Grove Road (JC 76) at intersection with Tin Mill Road (JC 59) This plant is no longer in operation. Buildings and structures remain.

Harbison-Walker Brick Plant Entrance to west of Ensley-Pleasant Grove Road This plant is still in operation. U.S. Steel-American Steel and Wire Co. Plant Now USX Pipe Mill First plant entrance west of Fairfield, to north of Valley Road The original headquarters building is still standing. The site of the plants has been redeveloped as pipe mill plant in the Pipe, worKs Now USX Pipe Works Valley Road (JC 56) U.S. Steel O BOP Furnaces USX Q Bop Furnaces The three furnaces produce c. two million tons of steel annually. TENNESSEE COAL & IRON CO., FAIRFIELD WORKS HAER No. AL-37 (Page 6) Sources Consulted United States Steel, No. 8 Blast Furnace Fairfield Works. U.S. Steel Facility Orientation Booklet Phillips William Battle. Ironmakina in Alabama, by William Battle Phillips, Monograph No.

3, Alabama Geological Survey, Montgomery, Ala.: James P. Armstrong, Bowron, James. "The Southern Iron and Steel Industry." Iron Age 94 (November Brassert, Herman A. "Modern American Blast Furnace Practice." Paper Presented at the annual meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute, New York, New York, 25 May, Crockard, "Progress in Steelmaking in Alabama." Iron Aae 105 (December . "Five Years of Progress in Southern Blast-furnace Practice." TAIME. vol. Dodd, James Harvey. A History of Production in the Iron and Steel Industry in the Southern Appalachian States. Nashville, Tenn.: Cullom and Ghertner Co., Fuller, Justin. "History of the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, Masters thesis, Emory University, Ledbetter, R. H.

"Blast Furnace Practice in the Birmingham District." Iron Aae 114 (Oct Longnecker, Charles. "The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company." Blast Furnace and Steel Plant 27 (August Tennessee Coal and Iron Division, U.S. Steel Corp. Biography of a Business. Tennessee Coal and Iron Div., U.S. Steel Corp., . Steelmaking at Birmingham. Fairfield, Ala.: TCI, Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad Co. Description of Plants and Mines. New York: Isaac H. Blanchard Co., . Mining and Steel-Making Methods in Alabama. Birmingham: Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, TENNESSEE COAL & IRON CO., FAIRFIELD WORKS HAER No. AL-37 (Page 7) White, Marjorie, The Birmingham District, pp.

17, Field Visit to Flintridge Observation Overlook, Site Visit, Bergstresser, Jack, The Primary iron and steel Industry of Jefferson County.