Update: The buildings have been demolished.
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.
It appears they were segregated, there are no Caucasians in that circle.
I suspect so, as well.
Great article! My Grandmother was one of the women who worked at Curtiss-Wright during WWII! I am going to try to find out more about this part of her story. Thank you for this – please let me know if you have any research ideas/sources.
From 1964 to 1980 I worked in Bldg 2 of McDonnell Douglas and the freight elevators said “Curtiss-Wright.” The Tooling Departments were in the basement, which was also a bomb shelter stocked with water and food.
Interesting…the National Register Nomination didn’t mention anything about the basement. Thanks!
I started in November 1982 and remember seeing the Civil Defense shelter and boxes and boxes of food.
I was doing some research about what my father’s experience at Curtis Wright may have been like during World War II. He was a recent mechanical engineering graduate from Rutgers University in New Jersey when he arrived there. He didn’t talk much about that time. However, what he did say was all positive. It sounded like he lived right in St Louis. It seemed that whoever the man was that they reported to, he introduced them to the city and its symphony. From this experience, my father came to appreciate classical music. And he made it a part of our lives. He also attained a pilot’s license–for small planes. So, I was happy to find your website and these photographs. Thank you for this.
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
Despite what the application for historic preservation says, no P-40s were ever built in St Louis. I haven’t been able to find out where the author of that application got his information but it’s definitely wrong. Not that it would have made much difference in the outcome of the application. It was agreed that the site was historically significant, but the “remedy” for tearing it down was the creation of a photographic display wall showing images that are already available online.
The buildings have been torn down now. I wasn’t able to get permission to take one last look through them, and neither was the local Boeing Historian.
Thanks for the update–glad I got up there to photograph them before demolition.
During WW I my parents met on a bus that brought workers from Alton area over the bridge to work the night shift at Curtiss-Wright. I have a picture of my mother and some other female workers . I think they were “inspectors”. My father, a tool and die specialist, used to say that they wore the trousers the best. I would share the picture if there is some way to add it here, please, The woman in the colorful blouse is my mother. She used to tell the story that the woman who does not have her hair tied up got too close to a machine and was partially scalped.