At the heart of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG) was a thriving community of Belgian immigrants. During World War I, masses of Belgian refugees came to the United States, as their home country was torn apart by warfare. Belgium was a historical hub for glassmaking, a trade many immigrants brought with them to America. Belgian glassmakers typically settled in rural areas rich with the necessary natural resources for glassmaking, setting up family-run production studios. These small-time glassmakers would move from town to town as limited materials for glassmaking began to dwindle. Mount Vernon, however, offered Belgian glassmakers a more settled lifestyle, as PPG provided steady work throughout the year. Immigrants quickly rose up through the ranks, their specialized knowledge of glassmaking techniques leading to the creation of several of PPG’s glassmaking patents.

 The Ariel-Foundation Park, formerly a factory site, has been transformed into a multipurpose park hosting a variety of events. The public can attend the park to enjoy a concert series and other community events. Concerts take place during the summer months, highlighted by a gala day-long Fourth of July celebration centered on the Schnormeier Event Center. Another community event is the Rastin Challenge: 4-person teams participate in physical challenges including a stair climb up the Rastin Observation Tower stairs. Money raised supports a scholarship fund for Knox County residents interested in careers in safety services.

Glass is made from three simple ingredients: sand, soda ash, and limestone. If sand is heated to its melting point, its properties change and create glass. By adding soda ash, the melting point is slightly lower, which makes the process more cost-efficient. Finally, limestone is added to make the material more stable—without the addition of limestone, the glass material would dissolve in water. Glass is a particularly interesting material because it is difficult to classify as a solid, liquid, or gas. Molecularly, it is closer to a liquid but appears solid. For this reason, it is sometimes called a frozen liquid.   

PPG worker Phillip Kempton was born in nearby Mount Liberty, Ohio, and attended school in Centerburg before taking up glassmaking as an occupation. In 1961 Kempton joined his father and brother at Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. Along with his brother, he produced clay for the tank kiln, repairing and maintaining it when necessary. Though the job was dangerous and the hours were long, Phillip enjoyed his job and felt a sense of pride and camaraderie with his co-workers. When the plant was shut down, Kempton and his co-workers had to seek other job opportunities.

Built in 1945, the Carpenter Shop is one of the few remaining buildings from the Pittsburgh Plate Glass plant (PPG). With original glass windows made on-site, the shop features panoramic views of the factory ruins. The carpentry crew—made up of around a dozen men—would repair anything in the factory made of wood. Additionally, the carpentry crew built custom wooden crates to transport sheet glass around the world. Having a carpenter shop on-site expedited the shipping process and was more time and cost-effective when machinery broke down. Typical tasks of a carpenter included cutting, working, and joining timber, as well as creating scaffolds for other buildings on-site.

One of the essential jobs of the carpentry crew was making extremely precise maple rulers for the glass cutters. Lloyd Hull, a 31-year employee of PPG, described the carpentry shop as a lively environment, full of both danger and camaraderie. Workers had to adhere to strict rules regarding safety and the operation of shop tools and equipment. Even with proper protocol, accidents still happened—Hull once gashed his hand while operating a mechanical saw. However, the shop had its fair share of good times. Hull recalled that “every once in a while some joker would hang somebody’s long johns from the rafters.” Today, the Carpenter Shop can be rented for small private gatherings.

Sources

Keirns, Aaron J. Ariel-Foundation Park. Mt. Vernon, OH: Foundation Park
Conservancy, 2015.

"Community Foundation Pavilion." Ariel-Foundation Park. Accessed February 22, 2017. http://www.arielfoundationpark.org/index.php/explore-the-park/community-foundation-pavilion#.

Still the tallest architectural structure in Knox County, the smokestack is a centerpiece among the factory ruins that pay tribute to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company’s workers and their families. The 280-foot smokestack once expelled flue gases from the glassmaking facility. It was constructed by way of the slip form method, a continuous pouring of concrete that resulted in a smooth, uninterrupted surface. Lloyd Hull, a 31-year employee of PPG who worked mainly in the Carpenter Shop, recounted stories of pranks and bets between workers in the shop. One incident, in particular, involved the smokestack and a ten dollar bet between two co-workers to climb it. According to Hull, the man managed to successfully climb up the smokestack without any protective gear, but whether he ever received the $10 he was promised has been lost to history.

When the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG) opened a factory in Mount Vernon in 1907, glassmaking was considered a highly dangerous occupation that required a certain set of skills believed to be a man’s work. As in most other industries at the time, there were no women working at the factory until World War II. In 1940, as men went off to war, industrial companies needed to temporarily replace their workers, calling on women to take their place. Considered a prestigious occupation in the community, the women of Mount Vernon hired by PPG were granted one of the higher-paying jobs in town.