The American Viscose Plant Historic District is an industrial park and historic district located in Roanoke, Virginia. The site is the location of the former American Viscose Corporation rayon processing plant that once employed over 5,000 and for a time was reportedly the largest rayon producing mill in the world. The plant's construction began in 1916 with the building of the first of what became three large processing plants of two spinning units each; the second began construction in 1921 and the third in 1925. With the plant's viability decreased by newer facilities elsewhere and rayon's usage supplanted by nylon and other synthetic fabrics, the factory closed in 1958. The property was purchased by an assortment of Roanoke investors in 1961 and has been operated as an industrial park since.
The district consists of 20 contributing resources, including 16 buildings, two structures, and two sites. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. , it was in the early stages of redevelopment into a mixed-use district of residential and commercial use.
History
The American Viscose Company was established in 1909 as the American wing of Courtaulds, a British textile company specializing in silk. The company patented the method of production of viscose (also known as artificial silk, and later, rayon), and built its first United States plant at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania in 1910. Demand was such that in 1916, The Viscose Company (as they'd been renamed in 1915) decided to begin construction of a second, larger plant. A location was chosen southeast of Roanoke, Virginia, partially due to inducements by city government promising infrastructure improvements specifically for the company's needs. The company purchased along the Roanoke River, which provided the large amount of water necessary for the rayon manufacturing process. The Ballinger Company, a Philadelphia-based industrial design firm, was contracted as architects for the project. The plant's first spinning unit opened in 1917 and employed 1,000 workers, mostly women. The company immediately began construction on a second unit under the same roof as the first, which was completed in 1919 and increased the workforce to 1,700. A reservoir, settling basin, and water filter house were constructed around this time as well. That year also saw the first work stoppage at the plant, with employees walking out to earn recognition of a union.
In 1921, the complex expanded again with the construction of two more spinning units inside a second large, one-story building located just east of the first. At its completion the plant employed 3,800 and was producing over of rayon annually, which amounted to 35% of the nation's entire output. A 9,000-kilowatt steam power plant, second filter house, and an expanded settling basin date to this time, as well as a water treatment plant built circa 1923. Buildings for pumping, diluting, and acid regeneration were also constructed in the early 1920s, though likely not by The Ballinger Company (who designed most of the complex but left much of the actual construction to local firms).
Fireproofing concerns required all plant buildings to be constructed of brick, mainly five- and six-course American bond, on a concrete foundation. Additional fire safety measures included a grid of underground pipes feeding 50,000 sprinklers in the plant, as well as a tunnel system by which the company's own fire department could travel between the complex's buildings.
By 1922, over 1,000 women were working at the plant, many of whom had come from surrounding rural areas. In that year The Viscose Company spent $500,000 to build Hillcrest Hall, a four-story women's dormitory capable of housing 200, and equipped with its own lounge, library, cafeteria, gymnasium, and infirmary (the dorm has been razed and is not part of the historic district). The plant itself had its own 24-hour, 2,000-seat capacity cafeteria, as well as an infirmary and athletic fields, and by 1923, a social club with 2,800 members. The company built no other housing for its employees, but by 1925 much of the land in Southeast Roanoke between downtown and the plant had been developed with single family houses. The plant was also the largest employer of residents of Wasena, a neighborhood to the district's west that saw significant growth in the 1920s.