Olin news
ECUSTA FA PER AMD FILM GROUP
Vol. XXIV, No. 1 FIRST QUARTER 1978
FORTY YEARS AGO THIS YEAR, LAND ALONGSIDE THE DAVIDSON
RIVER WAS CHOSEN AS SITE FOR THE NEW ECUSTA PAPER PLANT
THE TRANSYLVANIA TIMES
l ..i ( ..i>..wJ A Newspaper Devoted to the Best Interest of the People of Transylvania County
Paper Plant To Locate
On Davidson River Site
Ecusta Corporation Will Close
Transaction Thursday Morning
Pure Mountain Water Was
Deciding Location Factor
SPRING FLOWERS TO
BE SHOWN MAY I3TH
Fine Cigarette
Papers To Be
Produced
(This is the first in a series of articles in Olin News highlighting the history of the industrial complex
at Pisgah Forest, in commemoration of the announcement in May 1938 that the manufacturing plant would
be built adjacent to the Davidson River.)
In search of the best, founders of
the former Ecusta Paper Corporation
found the answer to their needs in
Transylvania County.
The people of the communities, the
endless expanse of forested moun
tains, and the inviting streams fed
by those mountains, held promise
that at Pisgah Forest were those
qualities with which to build for the
moment and for the future. The
decades to follow showed the
promise fulfilled, an interweaving of
resources and events, communities
and industry.
Now, four decades later, the Olin
Corporation businesses at Pisgah
Forest are makers of products that
reach markets the world over. Head
quartered alongside the Davidson
River are the Ecusta Paper and Film
Group and its operating components,
the Ecusta Paper and Film plants.
Together they provide employment
for 2,800 persons at Pisgah Forest,
and an annual payroll in excess of
$36,000,000.
The late Harry H. Straus, founder
and first president of the Ecusta
Paper Corporation, exemplified
Ecusta’s corporate responsibilities to
the communities by directing that
the new company pay Transylvania
County ad valorem taxes long before
the schedule for payment that had
THE ORIGINAL FOUR paper
machines of the Ecusta Paper Cor
poration had been completed when
this photo was taken in 1939.
Transylvania’s largest industry, it
was expanded over the years to
today’s industrial complex employing
some 2,800 persons with an annual
payroll in excess of $36,000,000.