Central Iron Foundry Site, 1700 Holt Road, Holt

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,63-HOLT,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Holt Road, Holt, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Take McFarland Boulevard to River Road east to Holt. Owner: U.S. Government Date of Construction: Builder/ Architect/ Engineer: Multiple Project Information Information within this written report was donated to the Historic American Engineering Record by the Birmingham Historical Society. Description Today, Tuscaloosa Steel and Empire Coke, a division of McWane Inc., operate a steel mini mill and coking operation at the Holt site on the western and eastern, respectively, portions of the Central Iron site. The foundry site appears abandoned and unused at present with two cupolas and substantial numbers of early century plants and facilities still standing. The furnaces have been demolished.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,63-HOLT,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

While information about the Central Coal and Iron Foundry site is limited, this site appears historically significant for three reasons. Central Iron was once the largest soil pipe plant in the United States. It was also the first fully integrated pipemaking operation in the United States with a coke plant, blast furnaces, and foundry located on the same site. The still operating coke plant (See Empire Coke Plant HAER No. AL-21) is potentially National Register eligible. Since the foundry was shut down before the federally mandated changes of the and a comprehensive inventory of the foundry portion of the site could reveal that significant early features of the plant are still intact. CENTRAL IRON FOUNDRY HAER No. AL-82 (Page 2)

Historical Overview

In Central Iron and Foundry Company, the major producer of cast iron soil pipe in the United States, established the Central Iron and Coal Company as a subsidiary of the parent company located in New York. The Central Iron and Coal Company purchased a acre tract of land along the Warrior River six miles north of Tuscaloosa. Due to the completion of the locks and dams along the Warrior River, this industrial site provided excellent water transport. The site was also accessed by the Warrior Southern Railroad. Construction of the first blast furnace began in along with a battery of 164 beehive coke ovens. The blast furnace with an 85-foot high stack and an 18-foot wide bosh, went into blast in August of producing the first pig iron casts three days later.

Capacity of the furnaces was listed as 150 tons per day. In a soil pipe plant was also built. In a much larger pipe plant was built to replace the original plant. This plant manufactured universal pressure pipe in sizes 2-inch through 36-inch. It was made in six foot lengths and named for the design of its joint. A nodulizing plant was also built in for the "preparation of pyrite cinder from Spain" and a contact was signed with the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company for this production. The community of Holt grew up around the furnace and pipe works. J. Warner Shook, son of Colonel A. M. Shook and a graduate of Sewanee and Boston Institute of Technology, who began his career as a machinist at the Ensley works in the served as vice-president and general manager of the Holt plant.

Coal for the Holt operations came from Kellerman. In the Mobile and Ohio Railroad built a 13-mile long railroad (later extended to 16 miles) to develop this area to support the Holt operations. The Central Coal and Iron Company also purchased mining properties near Woodstock accessible by the Alabama Great Southern Rail Line. In a new coking process patented by Semet-Solvay Company was implemented at Holt and 40 Semet Solvay ovens constructed. The original beehives continued in operation until when 40 additional Semet Solvay ovens were constructed.

The Semet Solvay coking process had been introduced to the United States in the early from Europe where its use began in the About 40% of the iron produced by the Holt furnace was used in the manufacture of pipe, the rest was sold under the brand name of "Warrior," a high manganese iron, and "Tuscaloosa," a straight foundry iron. In the Holt Furnace was closed and early in the Central Iron and Coal Company went into receivership. DeBardeleben Coal Corp. acguired the by-products plant in Henry Ticknor DeBardeleben son of Henry Fairchild and CENTRAL IRON FOUNDRY HAER No. AL-82 (Page 3) Ellen Pratt, born in Prattville) served as President of DeBardeleben Coal Company from its formation in through the merger of DeBardeleben Coal Co., Empire Coal Co. and Corona Coal Co.

in In the company owned acres of coal lands in Walker, Cullman and Fayette counties, engaged in mining on the Black Creek, Mary Lee and Corona seams with an annual capacity in excess of 1 million tons, operated retail coal yards in Birmingham, the byproducts plant at Holt and bunkering divisions at Mobile and New Orleans. McWane/Empire Coke acquired the coking portion of the plant in The foundry site is currently owned by the U.S. Government which acquired it due to the bankruptcy of its former owner. CENTRAL IRON FOUNDRY HAER No. AL-82 (Page 4) Sources Consulted National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. XXXVII, p. 321 Woodward, Joseph H., Alabama Blast Furnaces. pp. Phillips, William B., Ironmakinq in Alabama. p.

191 O'Neal, Emmet III, Interview with Marjorie White, Guy, Jim, Empire Coke Plant Manager, P.O. Box Holt, AL Dyer, Y-.A. , "Cast-Iron Pipe Manufacture in the South," Iron Age 98 (November Moldenke, Richard, "Cast Iron Pipe Manufacture in the South," Iron Age 114 (September Moore, William Davis, Development of the Cast Iron Pressure Pipe Industry in the Southern States, Birmingham Publishing Company, Birmingham, Alabama, Noble, Henry Jeffers, History of the Cast Iron Pressure Pipe Industry in the United States of America, Newcomen, Birmingham, Alabama, (Noble was works manager for ACIPCO at the time.) Field Check,