I read recently that there was an old Curtiss-Wright airplane plant on the north side of Lambert International Airport facing imminent destruction for new development, and that it was on the National Register, and thought to myself, well, it doesn’t sound too terribly interesting, but I might as well photograph it before it gets torn down for a new factory. First of all, take a look at the photo above; there was an earlier Curtiss Wright plant on the site in the 1930s.
I wandered up to Banshee Road, named after a McDonnell Douglas jet, and snapped some photos. I went home, started doing some research, and soon realized that the story of this seemingly innocuous airplane plant is far more interesting than I thought!
It turns out the plant was designed by none other than Albert Kahn, the famous Detroit architect who design the Packard Plant and the Ford River Rouge Plant. And even more amazingly, the plant here in St. Louis was built around the former plant, opening in 1941, right as the United States was entering World War II. They would build a new section, and then dismantle the old section underneath the roof of the recently built portion, allowing assembly to continue unabated. Adolphus Busch and William Lemp would be impressed!
Below, when complete, the plant churned out the P-40, among other fighters, that helped along with the Army Munitions Plant, make St. Louis a critical cog in the American war machine. Judging from the vast swathes of farmland, most of the employees must have driven or carpooled out from the city or inner ring suburbs. I was not able to determine if there was a bus or streetcar line. Maybe readers will remember.
Kahn, of course, had pioneered the new style of manufacturing in America that required huge swaths of land for sprawling plants, ones that were more amenable for suburban locations. Now, in fairness, the assembly of airplanes need lots of room, and they also need to be close to airports, but I can’t help but think that these plants near the airport prefigured the Big Three’s construction of automobile manufacturing plants after World War II in Hazelwood, Fenton and Wentzville.
The plant was designed to avoid shift workers from bumping into each other, and there was even a cafeteria that would look familiar to everyone reading. It was modern.
Curtiss-Wright is an interesting company. It is in fact a direct descendent of the Wright Brothers’ company that constructed early aeroplanes, but it failed to make the jump to jet engines after the 1940s so instead reoriented to aviation-related products. It is now a multibillion dollars corporation that is doing quite well for itself. You can read more about its history here.
There are some great photos of workers from the plant during World War II.
This photo is fascinating, showing African Americans working in the plant. I wonder if they were segregated on the assembly line floor.
The gate to the “front” of the plant, which faces south and includes an office wing, was blocked off, so I chose to focus on the assembly portion of the building. I read there is even a “historic parking lot,” which is a first in all of my reading on architecture in America.
Is it sad this complex is going to be torn down? Well, yes, but we need to stay competitive and build facilities that bring high-paying manufacturing jobs in aerospace back to Lambert, just like we did when Curtiss-Wright chose Lambert way back in the early Twentieth Century, when St. Louis was competitive and won out over other cities.
