Celanese Waterworks Building, East side of County Road 373 (Riverside Parkway), Rome

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-148. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

East side of County Road 373/Riverside Parkway 0.3 mile south of the intersection of County Road 373/Riverside Parkway and State Route 53 Spur U.S.G.S. 7.5 minute Rome North, Georgia, quadrangle, Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates: Date of Construction: Engineer: Unknown Builder: Unknown

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-148. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Celanese Waterworks Building is significant in local history as an operating component of a rayon-producing mill recognized as Celanese Mill. The mill employed more than workers in the City of Rome from the time it opened in to its closing in and was consistently one of the top rayon producing mills in the United States during its period of operation. Report Prepared by: Mark Grindstaff, Historian & Jeff Carr, Historian Office of Environment/Location Georgia Department of Transportation Aviation Circle Atlanta, Georgia Date: January 29, CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No.

GA-148 Page2 Background The emergence of the textile industry across the southeastern United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reshaped the rural terrain along the periphery of many southern towns into an increasingly urban industrial landscape comprised of imposing textile mills, community buildings, and worker housing. Beginning in the mills and mill villages emerged in numerous towns across the southern Piedmont from Virginia to Alabama, and by the the production capacity of southern textile mills eclipsed those of New England as more and more southerners abandoned life on the farm for what certainly seemed like steadier and more lucrative employment opportunities in the mill.

1 In the gradual conversion from agriculture to industry, the northeastern fringe of Rome, Georgia's rural landscape became transformed by the distinct architecture of the massive industrial plants, smokestacks, and housing development that characterized Celanese Mill-a rayon producing facility established by Italian financiers and businessmen who had already invested a considerable amount of time and capital into perfecting the production of rayon in Europe. Before Celanese opened its doors in March Rome and Floyd County were already experiencing the gradual emergence of an urban industrial landscape thanks in large part to the effects of the Civil War on the local agrarian economy.

Even though census records from reveal a number of active farms throughout the county, by 124 manufacturing establishments operated in Floyd County (compared with six a decade earlier) making it the second largest manufacturing area in the state.2 From to Celanese's establishment in Floyd County consistently remained among the top five counties in the state with the largest number of manufacturing establishments. During this same time period, the average land area comprising the majority of active farms in the county diminished by nearly 50 percent, from over 100 acres in to between twenty and forty-nine acres from and the average number of wage earners employed in manufacturing was nearly three times that of individuals making their living through agriculture.

3 Despite this dramatic increase in Floyd County's manufacturing sector near the tum of the century, the textile industry's impact on the county's industrialization was minimal. While the Industrial Revolution created many opportunities for entrepreneurial capitalism throughout the 1 Douglas Flamming, Creating the Modern South: Mi/lhands and Managers in Dalton, Georgia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, xxi; see also Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, James Leloudis, Robert Korstad, Mary Murphy, LuAnn Jones, and Christopher B. Daly, Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (New York: Norton, xi. 2 Floyd County was second only to Troup County among the largest manufacturing centers of the state.

3 United States Census Bureau, Annual Report (Washington, United States Census Bureau, CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 3 South, both southern and northern investors viewed investments in Southern textiles as being fraught with risk due to the industry's irregular cycles of supply and demand, haphazard selling operations, and minimal profit margin. 4 With Celanese, this risk appeared even more pronounced since the production of synthetic fiber was a relatively new realm in the textile industry, at least in the United States where cotton textiles comprised an overwhelming majority of mills in the industry.

For nearly twelve years before Celanese Mill appeared in Rome, however, textile manufacturers in the town of Chatillon, Italy, began focusing an extraordinary amount of research into the development and production of artificial silk, and the results of their research proved necessary to the origin of Celanese's history in Floyd County. 5 Improving upon the research of French scientist Count Hilaire de Chardonnet, who is credited with being the first person to actually produce artificial silk in this group of Italian manufacturers and businessmen in established "La Soie de Chatillon"6 in Milan, a textile company dedicated to researching the market potential and actual production of artificial silk.

By enough research was undertaken to justify establishing the first Italian textile plant devoted solely to the production of artificial silk. The first plant was built in Chatillon, where the original research was undertaken, and by two additional plants were constructed in the towns oflvrea and Vercelli. 7 The success of the plants in Italy encouraged Italian financiers to pursue establishing a rayon plant in the United States that would operate as a subsidiary to the main headquarters in Milan. Their efforts resulted in the creation of the American Chattilon Corporation (ACC) in a textile company backed by American capital but consisting primarily of Italian stockholders headed by Senator Ettori Conti, who served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the parent company in Milan.

While cotton continued to dominate the American textile market due to its low cost of production and durability, Conti and his affiliates contended that artificial silk, while possessing many similar characteristics to cotton in terms of chemical composition, could be more aesthetically pleasing and easily "suited to all the caprices of fashion ... ", and, as a result, could successfully compete with cotton in what they regarded as continuously growing industry with ample room for competition.

8 4 Chip Hughes, "A New Twist for Textiles", cited in Working Lives, edited by Chip Hughes (New York: Pantheon Books, 5 For a brief summary of this process as explained by the manufacturers themselves, see "The Story of Manufacture of 'La Soie De Chatillon'," The Rome News Tribune, May 6, 6 In English, this phrase translates to "The Silk ofChattillon". 1 The Rome News Tribune, 2. 8 Ibid CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 4 Documentary evidence explaining the justification behind the ACC's decision to locate the new plant in Rome, Georgia, is scarce, as are primary and secondary accounts providing a generalized history of the mill.

Due to Rome's location at the confluence of three rivers, geographical factors undoubtedly played a prominent role in this decision as the city could adequately provide the water supply necessary to operate the mill. Upon being made aware of the ACC's decision to establish a textile mill in Rome, local citizens generally responded enthusiastically, anticipating that the mill would provide a boost to the local economy. In tum, the ACC promised economic prosperity explaining that by the mill would employ people, have a weekly payroll of and be valued at nearly 9 It was in the generally prosperous economic climate of the that Celanese emerged in April just six months before the Great Crash o Wall Street signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.

Local historian Roger Aycock explains that while the local standard of loving decrease sharply for man of Rom's citizens during the Depression, the city suffered far less than the nation's more highly industrialized areas due to the largely agricultural nature of Rome and Floyd County and a diversity of industry that prevented any mass closings of production facilities. 1 Census data appears to support Aycock's claim, revealing that by Rome and Floyd County's unemployment rate peaked at 9 percent, significantly lower than the national average of 25 percent.

Evidence also suggests that not only did most workers employed in Rome and Floyd County's manufacturing sector retain their jobs through the Depression, but the number of workers employed in the manufacturing sector between and increased by more than 50 percent from in to by and the ACC's Rome mill, with its creation of more than jobs after contributed significantly to this increase. 11 While both Aycock's summary and local census data reveal that the economic effects of the Depression were somewhat less catastrophic for Rome's citizens than individuals in other parts of the country, not all of the city's industrialists emerged from the Depression unscathed. The financiers of the ACC were no exception.

As early as the effects of the Depression on Italy's economy caused concern among the ACC's Italian stockholders who found themselves losing substantial amounts of money in business ventures back home due to a sharp contraction in Italy's industrial production. 12 In America, the number of new textile manufacturers producing artificial silk increase dramatically by as well, intensifying the competition among companies for a percentage of the marked share. Companies such as the American 9 Ibid.

10 Roger Aycock, All Roads To Rome (Roswell, Georgia: Wolfe Associates, 11 United States Census Bureau, Annual Report 12 Fabrizio Perri and Vincenzo Quadrini, "The Great Depression in Italy: Trade Restrictions and Real Wage Rigidities," Review of Economic Dynamics, Volume 5, Number 1 (January CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 5 Viscose Company, established in and DuPont a few years later, consistently dominated the American rayon market, accounting for more than half of America's production of artificial silk between and while that market share of more than twenty- smaller artificial silk- producing companies; the ACC among them, never exceeded ten percent during the same time period.

13 In an effort to minimize the effects of any possible financial setbacks resulting from the Depression or increased competition in the industry, the ACC's stockholders entered into a merger agreement with the Tubize Artificial Silk Company in to form the Tubize Chatillon Corporation Beginning with this merger, the history of what would later be recognized as "Celanese Mill" follows a pattern typical of many American textile manufacturers-a pattern involving multiple mergers, employee downsizing, and, ultimately, the permanent closing of production facilities.

During the early the Tubize Artificial Silk Company established and operated an artificial silk mill in the city of Hopewell in southeastern Virginia and anticipated that merging with the ACC would make them more competitive in this realm of the textile industry. By Tubize ranked seventh among the nation's textile manufacturers in the annual production of rayon, due in part to the continuously successful operations of their Hopewell and Rome plants.

14 For sixteen years, the Rome plant operated under the directives of the TCC before being acquired by the Celanese Corporation in Celanese owned and operated the Rome mill from until a decreased demand for projects made from rayon resulted in the mill's closure in Historic Landscape The historic landscape of Celanese Mill is comprised of both natural and structural features typically found in and around mill villages across the country.

The mill site is located approximately one mile northeast of downtown Rome along the eastern bank of the Oostanaula River and could be accurately described as an "industrial subdivision" that includes numerous industrial and residential structures that were built quickly, cheaply, and retain similar characteristics with regard to their physical form and architectural style. These structures include the primary mill building itself, a waterworks building, an administration building, a general store, a school, two churches, a baseball field, and more than four hundred residential structures reflecting either a Pyramidal Cottage or Bungalow house type.

These houses are situated along a number of irregularly landscaped streets, some of which are arranged in a grid pattern and others which follow a curvilinear alignment. Isolated from the worker housing are two extant and intact 13 Ronald S. Jarmin, "Leaming By Doing and Competition in the Early Rayon Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, Volume 25, Number 3 14 Ibid. CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 6 houses historically occupied by mill supervisors and the foundational ruins of approximately ten other houses used for this same purpose. The final structure associated with the mill is the Chieftains Museum, a ca.

structure primarily significant for its association with local Native American history but which briefly served as housing for the mill Superintendent from through the The Waterworks Building Before the construction of State Route 53 Spur, County Road 373/Riverside Parkway (historically recognized as Eighty Avenue) was the only road providing access to and from Celanese Mill. The road approaches Celanese from the south, and the first building visible to individuals driving along this road was the waterworks building. Constructed in the building was a two story rectangular structure situated on a concrete and brick foundation with a concrete and brick exterior.

The dimensions of the building were approximately x The architect(s) of the building is unknown, although it is documented that Clyde Angle served as the Superintendent of the mill's Water Department from the through at least at which time he developed a written set of standard operating procedures describing how to operate the various pieces of equipment used in the demineralization process. The west front of the structure served as the building's primary facade. Fenestration consisted of a single wooden door that served as a ground level entrance to the building. The upper level was comprised of four asymmetrical bays consisting of three window bays and an entrance bay. The entrance bay consisted of double wooden doors with multi-pane window lights and two wooden panels.

Two of the window bays flanking this upper level entrance consisted of three adjoined sets of fixed multi-pane windows, many of which were broken. The remaining entrance bay on the upper level had been bricked over at the time of the survey. A set of concrete steps leading to the upper level entrance had been removed. The south front of the structure consisted of a settling basin extending across the entire length of the facade, projecting southward for approximately and standing approximately 8' high. The settling basin was constructed of concrete and was comprised of numerous lO'xlO' concrete basins extending to a depth of approximately 8'. A system of iron railings was located along the edges of the basins.

The exterior wall of the south front consisted of seventeen symmetrical bays, two of which were entrance bays leading to the upper level of the building. The first entrance bay was located on the far west side of the wall and featured a single, solid wooden door. The second entrance bay was located five bays west from the eastern end of the building and featured a single wooden door with multi-pane window lights in the upper panel. The CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 7 remaining fifteen bays along the south front featured multi-pane fixed windows, thirteen of which were in sets of two and the remaining two consisted of a single set. Most of the windows along the south front were broken.

The east front of the building consisted of three bays along the building's ground level; two of which were window bays and another larger bay that had been bricked over. The upper level consisted of four window bays, two double sets and two triple sets, featuring fixed multi-pane windows. Most of the windows along the east front were broken. The north front of the building consisted of sixteen symmetrical bays on both the ground and upper level of the structure. The lower level consisted of two entrance bays located equidistant from the east and west comers of the exterior wall. Both entrance bays featured two paneled wooden double doors with multi-pane window lights. The upper level was comprised of sixteen window bays.

The window bays on both levels were in sets of two and were characterized by fixed multi-pane windows, most of which were broken. The interior of the building was inaccessible. However, a glance through the windows revealed that all of the industrial equipment used in the demineralization of the mill's water supply had been removed. There were no distinguishing features present that could have yielded useful information regarding the spatial layout of the various pieces of machinery necessary to operate the water plant, nor was there any concrete evidence to confirm the use of various interior spaces.

The ground floor was divided into two separate work spaces: a larger room where all of the storage tanks, pipes, and other major pieces of industrial equipment were used, and a smaller room that appeared to serve as either a testing room or office space. Along the east side of the building's north front, a set of metal stairs led up to the second floor. This was the only observable set of stairs.identified inside the building. There was no safe point from which to access or observe the upper floor of the structure. Located along the building's north front was a one story, square brick outbuilding measuring approximately 30' and consisting of three symmetrical bays along the south front. The center bay had been bricked over, and the two end bays were utilized as entrances to the structure.

The doors from both entrance bays had been removed. The west front of the structure consisted of two large window bays, both of which had been bricked over except for one line of windows at the top of each bay. The north front of the building consisted of three window bays which had also been bricked over except for the top line of windows. The east front did not feature any bays at all. The interior of the outbuilding consisted of concrete floors and piles of rubble. The proximity of this structure to the primary waterworks building, along with both CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No.

GA-148 Page 8 buildings' significant distance away from the other standing structures associated with the mill, suggests that perhaps this smaller building played an integral role in the water treatment process. However, there is no documentation explaining the historic function of this building or whether it was even significant to the demineralization process at the mill. Overview of the Function and Operation of the Waterworks Building The waterworks building at Celanese housed all of the equipment necessary for the demineralization (or purification) of the mill's water supply.

According to the edition of the mill's annual yearbook Tubize Yarns, the waterworks building produced enough water on a daily basis "to supply a city twice as large as Rome," 15 whose population at the time consisted of approximately people. The yearbook also explains that the processing of water for rayon manufacture at the mill was more precise than the procedure followed in municipal plants, although it fails to elaborate on these differences. 16 In Clyde Angle, Superintendent of the mill's Water Department, drafted a set of standard operating procedures briefly explaining the demineralization process and the functions of the various pieces of machinery in the waterworks building used for this purpose.

From Angle's explanation, it appears that the mill's demineralized water system consisted of three parallel cation (defined as a positive ion) units discharging into a header supplying three parallel anion (defined as a negative ion) unites. These in turn discharge into a common header furnishing mineral-free water to viscose spinning, preshrinking, and yarn purification departments. The cation units remove metallic (positive) ions by an exchange reaction in which the ions combine with a cation resin that liberates hydrogen. The effluent from these units then becomes acidic. When most of the hydrogen within the units is replaced by metallic ions, the acidity of the effluent water decreases.

Once this occurs, the units are taken out of service and regenerated (defined as the reverse of normal service operation). The cation resin is then treated with either sulphuric or hydrochloric acid to remove the metallic ions and replace them with hydrogen. 17 At this point, the acid water from the cation units travels through the anion units which remove the negative ions from the water through a combination of the acid and resin that leaves the effluent water free of ionic solids. Once the resin becomes saturated with acid, the acidic water passes through the anion resin unchanged. At this point the anion units are taken out of service 15 Tubize Yarns (Rome, Georgia: unpublished yearbook, Sara Hightower Regional Library, Special Collections Department, 19. 16 Ibid.

17 Clyde Angle, "Standard Operating Procedure, Demineralized Water Department" Rome, Georgia: unpublished procedure manual, Chieftains Museum, Special Collections Department, 1. CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 9 and regenerated. The regeneration consists of applying sodium or ammonium hydroxide to neutralize the acids that have reacted with the anion resin. Once this occurs, the anion resin is washed free of salts resulting in water that has been completely demineralized (purified). 18 The waterworks building was supplied with water from two sources: a powerhouse located adjacent to the building that supplied hot water at 140 degrees Fahrenheit and an internal source from within the plant itself provided cold water.

These waters were mixed in a set of water blenders located within the waterworks building until the temperature of the mixed water ranged between 87 and 90 degrees. Once the blending took place, the water was deemed fit for use in the demineralizing process. 19 Besides the cation and anion units, the waterworks building consisted of numerous other pieces of equipment used in purifying the mill's water supply. This equipment is summarized below: Two booster pumps were utilized to overcome the common pressure drop through the demineralized water system and to maintain a constant pressure on the header line regardless of how much water the mill was using at a given time.

A sodium sulphite feeder was used for removing excess or residual chlorine from raw water by feeding the water with sodium sulphite before it reached the demineralizing resins. The feeder consisted of a single tank divided into two sections: an upper section serving as a storage reservoir was utilized in the preparation and storage of sodium sulphite solutions; and the lower section ensured that a small stream of water entered above the sodium sulphite solution and was forced out in the raw water line.

Three demineralized water filters were used to remove any suspended contaminants from the raw water supply system in order to prevent them from contaminating the resin used in the demineralization process and to guard against contaminated water reaching the various departments using demineralized water. The filters were arranged parallel along a wall of the waterworks building and dressed with gauze-faced cotton batting, two cotton pulp boards, and one sheeting. The water would enter the filters on the gauze side of the cotton batting, move through the pulp board, and then through the sheeting. 20 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., 3. 20 Ibid, CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No.

GA-148 Page 10 From the time when the building was constructed in to the time of the mill's closure in the waterworks building underwent very few architectural or operational changes. Aside from numerous broken windows and the gradual physical deterioration of the building over time, the general form and design characteristics of the building remained the same until its demolition. Similarly, the building always functioned as a demineralization plant up to the time it was abandoned. The only significant change in the immediate setting around the building was the infill of a swimming pool originally located on the ground just east of the buildings' east front.

Utilized as a "community" pool solely for mill employees and their families, the swimming pool was constructed and opened in and remained in operation until the mill closed. Mention of the swimming pool in found in the and editions of the Tubize Yarns yearbook although there are no photographs available of the pool in public archival collections. Exact dimensions of the pool are not provided in what little written information is available on the structure, and a field survey of the area failed to identify the precise location of the pool in order to determine these dimensions. When the mill closed its doors in the waterworks building, the associated outbuilding along is northern front, and the mill community swimming pool, were abandoned.

Both buildings were demolished in as a result of the implementation of a Georgia Department of Transportation project, which widened County Road 373/Riverside Parkway. CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 11 Bibliography Angle, Clyde. "Standard Operating Procedure, Demineralized Water Department." Unpublished procedure manual, Rome, Georgia: Chieftains Museum, Special Collections Department. Aycock, Roger. All Roads To Rome. Roswell, Georgia: Wolfe Associates, Flamming, Douglas. Creating the Modern South: Millhands and Managers in Dalton, Georgia Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, James Leloudis, Robert Korstad, Mary Murphy, LuAnn Jones, and Christopher B. Daly. Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World.

New York: Norton, Hughes, Chip, ed. Working Lives. New York: Pantheon Books, Jarmin, Ronald S. "Learning By Doing and Competition in the Early Rayon Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, Volume 25, Number 3 Perri, Fabrizio and Vincenzo Quadrini. "The Great Depression in Italy: Trade Restrictions and Real Wage Rigidities," Review of Economic Dynamics, Volume 5, Number 1 (January The Rome News Tribune. May 6, United States Census Bureau. Annual Reports, Washington, United States Census Bureau. CELANESE WATERWORKS BUILDING HAER No. GA-148 Page 12 Chieftain's Modern +- Office 00 Museum Buildings 1 1_ _I l Mill Buildings ~ I I Dirt Road ra c.. Cl) 'O --so ,t. -~ ~1 Outbuilding........_ . Cl) > -_____..I . - ii: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - - - - - - - - - .

Building Waterworks 'O ra 0 t.L I / ~ i C :s 0 (.) CJ CJ CJ CJ CJ Cl CJ CJ CJ Cl Settling Basins Dirt Road Site Sketch N A Date Drawn: January 29, Drawn By: Jeff Carr, Georiga Department of Transporation