But time changed things ...
The Community House and Plant Hospital of Loray Mills,
Gastonia, served a vital need in the mill community in
years past. In the Firestone years (since 1935) the Hospital
was converted to a guest house and later apartments. The
Community House continued to the 1970s as an activities
place, when it was razed to make room for an employees
parking lot. The company sold the other building and it,
too, was torn down.
Under Firestone ownership,
the Community House was later
known as Girls Club or The
Clubhouse, and last as the
Recreation Center until the
building was scrapped in late
1973.
Through the years it had been
the center of plant-community
social life. There were banquets,
dances, programs, recitals, train
ing classes, club meetings, wed
dings and receptions, and family
reunions. For a while the mill
operated a nursery there for
children of employees. It even
served as an emergency clinic
during a flu epidemic. It was a
precinct voting place to the end
of its history.
BUT TIME changed things.
Demand for an activities center
faded away. Last of the host
esses at the old building were
Nellie Stowe, followed by Ida
Byers. Both are retired.
Walter Dockery, retired pow
erhouse operator; John Fletcher,
retired machine shop superin
tendent; and his brother Exlice,
now a Shop bench mechanic,
are among the people who re
member “those days.”
Walt was of a group of retired
men who played checkers in the
lower level of the old building
up to its final use as a recre
ation place in 1973. Today, most
of the same group and some oth
ers who’ve since retired, meet
in a house on Vance Street.
• Employees' children had
care in a nursery at the Com
munity House (upper left) while
parents worked in the mill.
Exlice Fletcher (Shop) and his
brother John (retired from
Shop) are "alumni" of the old
nursery. Exlice thinks that he-
and John are among the chil*
dren in this old photo, believed
to have been made around
1919-20. The Fletcher brothers*^
mother worked in the mill's
spooling department then.
prodttctiTO
THREE DIVISION PLANTS
turned out 148,883,355 pounds
tire fabric during last fizcal
year. It went to Firestone tire
plants and outside customers in
the U. S. and several other
countiies.
$25 milKon in 3 plant areas
• • Firestone Textiles Company U. S. plants put
into its 3 local economies $25,288,530 during the 1977-
1978 fiscal year. For the year ended last October 31,
the company spent this amount for salaries, wages and
purchases of materials, supplies and services at Gas
tonia, Bowling Green and Bennettsville.
Figures for the 3 plants: production was phased out
NC House member
Joe Johnson, Raleigh attorney
and member of the N. C. House
of Representatives from Wake
County, was among 8 state legis
lators under age 40, selected
from across the U. S., to make a
political-exchange visit to the
Soviet Union in late 1978. He
represented the Southeast U. S.,
on the trip sponsored by the
Council of Young American Po
litical Leaders.
Johnson is the son-in-law of
Rosie Francum (Mrs. John)
Fletcher, retired toolroom clerk
in the Firestone Shop. Fletcher
is a retired machine shop super
visor.
Rep. Johnson is a graduate of
N. C. State University and Wake
Forest School of Law. His wife,
Jane Francum Johnson, is a
graduate of UNC-Greensboro.
She was a Merit Award winner
in the Firestone Scholarship
program in her high-school
senior year.
The Johnsons have 3 daugh
ters—Elizabeth, 15; Ivory, 9;
and Briles, 8.
Its parts still serving in Clio
Back in 1974 Firestone at Bennettsville gave an old
firetruck to the Rescue Squad and Rural Fire Unit
of neighboring Clio, S. C. The company had pur
chased the 1942 International, 6-cylinder, 500-gallon
pumper for $1,000 in 1948.
The truck served the plant in its fire-protection
program. At the time the old vehicle changed own
ers, the mileage clock showed 2,630. Clio was to get
a lot more out of it.
Today, though, it serves on through many of its
parts installed on another truck—a present one in
service at Clio.
Gastonia—$14,658,621. Bowl
ing Green—$8,718,000. Ben
nettsville—$1,911,909.
All these expenditures
were involved in the produc
tion of almost 150 million
pounds of fabric, principally
for use as reinforcement in
tires.
Production was mainly in'
polyester, nylon and rayon.
Small amounts of other syn
thetic materials were in
cluded. Gastonia produced
(by rank of volume) nylon,
polyester and rayon and a
small amount of fiberglass
and steelwire. Fiberglass
by April, 1978; wire was dis
continued earlier—in Janu
ary.
Bowling Green produced
fabric in polyester and nylon
principally, with a smaller
amount of fiberglass. Ben
nettsville turned out nylon
fabric exclusively.
Production of the 3 plants
was shipped to Firestone
tire factories in the United
States and Canada; and to
Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica,
Ghana, Kenya, New Zea
land, Uruguay and Valencia.
Also, some fabric went to
Israel (shipped through the
DuPont Company.)
Proposed
merger
From
page 1
No changes are expected for
the vast majority of Firestone
employees, if the merger is ac
complished.
The subject of merger will not
be on the agenda of the Fire
stone stockholders annual meet
ing Jan. 27. A special meeting to
deal with the merger will be
set in the Spring, after final
definitions of the agreement are
worked out.
☆ ☆ ☆
The fire you kindle for your
enemy often burns yourself
more than him.
—Chinese Proverb
Robin
Robinette Caldwell is a senior
at University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill, attending the uni
versity on a Firestone company
scholarship. With a major in
English and a minor in com
munications arts, Robinette will
graduate at the Spring com
mencement. She works part-
time in a Chapel Hill restaurant.
Her mother Doris (Mrs. Lee)
Hollifield of Gastonia was em
ployed in industrial engineering
at Firestone Textiles at the time
Robinette was awarded the
company scholarship.
Volume XXV January. 1979
Number 1 Page 2
• GASTONIA
Claude C. Callaway, Editor
Plant
Offices REPORTERS
Warehouses
Industrial Relalions—Bobbie Baldwin
Main Office—Freida Price
Mechanical Dept.—Carol Payne
Tire Cord Twisting—Elease Cole, Katie
Elkins
Warp Preparation—
Nell Bolick
Warehouse—Harold Robinson
BENNETTSVILLE PLANT
Frances Fletcher, Redona David, Mar
garet McCaskill, Jimmy McCaskill
BOWLING GREEN
Clifton O. Logsdon
Looking around
• Noted; Cafe named Chat-N-
Chew. Product of short-cut sign-
painter on Gastonia establish
ment: GRO & PROD (Groceries
& Produce).
Monthly publication of Ihe Gastonia/ N. C„ plant of Firestone Textiles
Company, a division of The Firestone Tire 8e Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio.
Division Headquarters, Gastonia, N. C. 28052. James B. Call, president. Mem
ber Carolinas Association of Business Communicators.