Memories will live long after Building 82's demise

Jan 11, 2009 (The Charleston Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- UK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Union Carbide's Building 82 is scheduled to disappear in a cloud of dust early next month. The memories of those who worked there for Union Carbide will last long after the detonator sends the red brick tumbling down.

"Carbide took care of their employees," 39-year employee Gladys Duncan said. "It was a wonderful place to work."

Her boss, Ben King, was particularly protective of Duncan. "I was the first girl to go out into the plant, with all of those engineers.

"Once there was a fire on the island, and all of the men went to watch. Of course, I wanted to see, so I went, too. Ben King asked me what I was doing out there, and he told me I could take the rest of the day off. He was always watching out for me."

Duncan, 89, enjoyed the camaraderie of the building, and she honed a skill that she uses now at her home at Edgewood Summit.

"Every noon hour, some of the engineers and I would play bridge," she recalled. Today, she's in several card groups and is a favorite sub for others.

Built in 1948, the 106,000 square-foot red brick tower was the centerpiece of the chemical industry in the Kanawha Valley. Appraised for $5.2 million in 2005, the building garnered controversy since Dow, parent company of Union Carbide, decided to sell it in 2005. When a buyer wasn't found, the company donated the building to the University of Charleston.

Mary Virginia DeRoo's work in Building 82 involved drawing master copies of all of the forms used in the company. She was transferred to Textile Fibers as a secretary in 1953, and recalls her part in product testing.

"I was there when they developed Dynel," DeRoo said of the synthetic fabric that was Carbide's answer to competitor DuPont's popular Orlon. "I was the only woman in the department.

"My boss asked me to find a dress pattern to make. I had to have it approved -- it was a sheath with a V-neck and a collar," she said. "They gave me three pieces of Dynel fabric with three different finishes and I made three dresses from that same pattern."

DeRoo was then asked to wear the three versions of the dress, in rotation, for a three-week testing period.

"They wanted to test it for the things that you look for in fabric today. You want to know if it will stretch, if it pills, that sort of thing. The bottom line was, I had to make the dresses!" she said, smiling. "I was a secretary, but modeling the clothes came extra."

DeRoo met her husband, John, during his summer stint at Carbide between his junior and senior years at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After college, John worked across MacCorkle in the Process Safety division, but he would enter Building 82 each day to use a tunnel that went under the street to get to his office.

There were two tunnels that ran from Building 82 under MacCorkle Avenue. One was used for pedestrian traffic and one housed pipes and other mechanical necessities. Bridges connected the mainland with the island.

"Only the higher-ups got to park on the island," DeRoo said. "The ordinary workers, the ordinary engineers and all, parked at Building 82 and took the tunnel."

Other couples say Union Carbide -- and Building 82 -- were instrumental in their courtships. Mary Katherine Kolwick Damron met her late husband Tom there.

"I started working at Carbide in '46, and moved into Building 82 sometime in the '50s. I started in the mailroom, moved to the printing department. I worked with the Teletype machines to send telegrams for a while, and then it was back to printing," she said. "I ended up marrying a guy I worked with, so they had to split us up."

It was against company policy to date a co-worker.

Damron ended up in Accounts Payable as a keypunch operator. "Back then, when you had a job, you had a job for life. That doesn't happen anymore."

But she admits it was a different era in many ways. "Men and women were treated differently. They sort of suppressed the women. No way could they do to the women now what they did back then," she said. "It was a real man monopoly."

Marsha Graves, assistant to the executive director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, remembers visiting her mother at Building 82.

"She worked there for 35 years, and my dad worked at the Institute plant," Graves recalls. "Right off the lobby of Building 82, off to the left, there was a Carbide store. They called it The Plastic Store but they sold all sorts of things.

"My mother bought her first set of stainless flatware there, but obviously they had plastic stuff, too. That's a phrase that ran through my life -- hearing Mom say she would pick up something at The Plastic Store."

Graves and her brother, Rob, regularly would visit their parents, Joanne and Carroll Atkins, at work.

Damron uses a metal baking pan she purchased at the store in Building 82. "I just used it today. I always ask myself why I didn't buy two of them."

The building housed a cafeteria on the 10th floor and the company touted that its three elevators traveled at 700 feet per minute. "We had a 15-minute break in the morning and 15 in the afternoon with a half-hour for lunch," she said. "If we went up there to the cafeteria to eat, we ate mighty fast. Lots of days, we brown-bagged it."

"There wasn't much time, though. Some days we worked 12 hours, because everything in the chemical industry was going great," Damron said.

Many people worked on Saturdays, according to Duncan, during World War II. "We got time-and-a-half on Saturdays. After the war, Carbide gave everyone raises to compensate for not working on Saturdays."

University of Charleston spokesman Andy Spradling said the school, which owns the building, is selling the land to a yet-undisclosed buyer. The school looked at refurbishing the building, but it cost too much, he said.

The demolition, once planned for mid-January, has been pushed back because of fiber optic lines that must be moved before the blast takes place.

South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens understands there are mixed feelings in his community about the loss of Building 82.

"A lot of the senior citizens are saddened, as it is a big part of our history. But I'm excited about the prospect of development," he said. "This is the most important piece of real estate available on the entire length of Route 60."

Mullens put rumors about the tunnel to rest. "Both ends are concreted shut. That was done a while back."

Reach Sara Busse at sara.busse@wvgazette.com or 304- 348-1249.

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