U.S. Pipe Foundry Demolition

Mary Barnett: 16th Aug 2009 - 22:50 GMT

Peter: 17th Aug 2009 - 04:57 GMT

i remember driving into chattanooga from nashville on 24, rounding the lovely scenic moccasin bend only to be greeted by (in giant rusty black letters hung crookedly on swoot-covered corrugated tin siding):

U.S. PIPE & FOUNDRY CO.

and how if you stared at the base of the siding as you passed, you could usually catch glimpses of the flaming slag within.

in the intervening years, ive also remembered the foundry similarly when passing a nyc firehydrant, many of which are marked U.S. PIPE & FOUNDRY CO. too.

Mary Barnett: 17th Aug 2009 - 13:26 GMT

yes, I -oddly- check all firehydrants now to see if they are made in Chattanooga. There are some rather old large ductile iron pipes under the streets in NYC made in Chattanooga.

If you find hydrants that say Mueller they are probably made here as well.

Michael Joe Moore: 10th Nov 2009 - 15:35 GMT

Do you have more pictures of the demolition of the foundry? I would love to see more. Thanks!

Michael Joe Moore: 16th Dec 2009 - 16:07 GMT

I am a foundry manager at a foundry in Statesville NC. I also do watercolors of foundry scenes. I am looking for some pictures of the outside of US PIPE in Chattanooga before it was torn down to use as reference material for a watercolor painting I am doing for the TN chapter of the American Foundryman Society.

Do have any that you could email me to use?

Thanks for any help you can give.

anon (c-76-123-121-252.hsd1.tn.comcast.net): 2nd Feb 2010 - 05:47 GMT

hi - i haven't been up on city noise in a few months. will be posting more demolition shots soon. Michael - what sort of arrangement did you have in mind?

Kenneth D. Wilson: 10th Dec 2010 - 22:26 GMT

I first became aware of USP&F in Chattanooga during 1954 -1958 when I was stationed in the USAF in Florida. I would drive by the UP&F works on ole U.S. 41 on my way to Mt. Vernon, Indiana, my hometown, plus the return trip to my USAF base in Florida. Since 1995, my wife and I would drive by the USP&F plant on I-24, and now what remains of the USP&F plant, while driving to the Atlanta area to visit our kids.

How sad it is to see such a grand historical plant as USP&F being torn down. I'm a ALCOA retiree and I understand the production of metal products very well, blast furnaces and all that goes with it.

I'm very sad for all of the employees that worked at the USP&F Chattanooga plant and their loss of their livelihood---GOD BLESS them each and everyone..

As I always say---PROGRESS---UGH & UGH!!!

Most Sincerely, Ken Wilson, Evansville, Indiana

Oscar Perales: 20th Oct 2011 - 19:20 GMT

I recently came upon a set of branding irons with the letters U S P F. The letters are clearly foundry made and not wrought iron. Searching on the Web leads me to believe these were made at this foundry. I wonder if there is any interest from someone out there in acquiring these branding irons?

Nancy: 12th Aug 2012 - 19:10 GMT

I've always been a little obsessed about this beautiful shell of a building and just yesterday ,as we were coming home from a trip to Marietta we found our way back to it and got some pretty shots of the sun streaming through some of the now shattered windows.

Former US Pipe - Chattanooga Worker: 17th Nov 2012 - 13:43 GMT

Oscar, branding irons (in the traditional sense such as cattle irons, etc) would not have been used at the foundry. All casting marks were stamped into the mold and the marking was not "USPF". At least, not in the last 30 years of the plants life. For the Chattanooga Plant, the casting mark was C with a crescent moon symbol and then F....for Chattanooga Foundry. Aside from that, the only other markings not part of the casting pattern were the date stamps, done in xx/xx/xx or xx.xx.xx or xx-xx-xx, depending on the casting line, casting process, etc.