See McDonald for a history of this plant and the 1918 McDonald/US Steel/National/Ohio Steel plant.
Rick Fleischer posted just the comment:
A different colorization instead of exposure because the smoke is different. But the two artists were obviously getting details from the same photo.
Jason Wells posted two photos with the comment: "Before and after pics of us steel ohio works Youngstown Ohio."
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| Robby Beck posted YS&T (Republic) Campbell, OH [There is a lot of controversy in the comments as to whether or not this photo is of YS&T or Republic. One comment flat out said that both YS&T and Republic where in Campbell and it was Campbell that had the blast furnaces. But I found no other information about a Republic plant in Campbell.] John Jauchler: By my reckoning there were at least five integrated steel mills in the Youngstown area. Republic Hazelton Works was at 1290 Poland Avenue in the Hazelton neighborhood of Youngstown. YS&T Campbell Works was at Wilson Ave. at South Bridge St. in Campbell. YS&T Brier Hill was across town where the present-day US 422 and OH 711 cross (present-day Vallourec Star plant). USS Ohio Works [these notes] was directly across the river from the YS&T Brier Hill plant; this is where the famous photo of the blast furnaces being toppled was taken. And then a few miles away was Republic’s Warren Works, which was the last furnace operating in the Youngstown area. Tim Grau: Youngstown was the third largest producer of steel in the first half of the 20th century. |
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| Rick Damico posted “Carnegie Steel Works, (Ohio Works)” Youngstown, Ohio - 1915 postmark Postcard collection |
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Bradley A. Lacko posted US Steel Ohio Works Took this one from the Internet 3 years ago Had to look it up to remember which mill it was  Kenneth Treharn: All torn down. Just a big empty area. Whenever I'm driving with someone through the area, I tell them about the huge fully integrated Steel Mills in that area. Carnegie/US Steel Ohio Works had 4 Blast Furnaces, Sinter Plant, 14 maybe 15 Open Hearth Furnaces, Blooming mill but the finishing Mills were 3 miles away in McDonald. Behind this Mill, about one mile NE was Brier Hill Steel/Youngstown Sheet and Tube. It had two Blast Furnaces, a Coke Plant, 12 Open Hearth Furnaces, Blooming mill, Round Mill, Rod and Wire, Metal Products. There main product was Big Oil Country Seamless pipe. The specialty high grade steel was produced into Round billet then shipped to Campbell Works State of the Art Seamless Mill. At the time of shut down, YS&T's Oil Country Seamless pipe held the record for the World's deepest oil well. We were told, the pipe was so good, if a Oil well was winding down, they'd pull the YST seamless pipe out of the ground and reuse it. Bob Diamond: Kenneth Treharn USS had 2 blooming mills. A 40” Mill for rolling slabs for the McDonald #18 mill and a 43” Mill for rolling billets for the McDonald bar mills. The 43” Mill was fun to watch as it was a 3-high lifting table mill. As I recall , it only rolled 1 ingot size, a 19x22, 7700 #. |
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| Phil Jadlowiec posted Ohio Works Youngstown Ohio Lawrence Roth: A lot of model T's in that photo. Joseph Maslach: Super cool! I worked there and people don’t know that they had a Steam Engine that ran the 40” Mill table that came from the First Worlds Fair Fairest Wheel in New York- this was removed (scarped) replaced with electric motors. Allot of history at the plant. Bradley A. Lacko posted Ohio Works, Carnegie Steel Looks like I took this from an old post card |
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| Andrew McQuade posted Some good old american steel industry propaganda. Bought this a few years back, was told it came out a mill in the mid west. Anyone seen one/can identify the furnaces? Robert Mike Shontz USS Steel Ohio Works, Youngstown Ohio Timothy James https://youtu.be/pgJm3s-JjRc Carl Jacobson Andrew, I worked in the Open Hearth Furnaces at the Ohio Works. The last heat of steel was melted in March of 1980. These Blast Furnaces would have shut down the same day. This iconic photograph is from 1983, I think. There were heater stoves for a fifth blast furnace that were still standing. My understanding is that the fifth furnace was part of the WWII production effort and was removed sometime after the war. We only used two of the Blast Furnaces, they were around 22' diameter and 23' diameter hearth size. The other two were older and smaller and not in use anymore. Richard Allison I lived in Canfield that was outside of Youngstown and I vaguely remember the Ohio Works in the 1960s. I did not realize the blast furnaces were that small. They would have never survived with the 40 ft. diameter furnaces today. It is so sad that what happened in Youngstown but I understand with the necessary raw materials all coming in had to come by rail and made all the mills uncompetitive. I see that now but didn't then. |
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| Greg Cadman posted Mark Leskovec: USS Ohio Works, in Youngstown, an entrance at a Salt Springs Road entrance on the south end of the complex at geo coordinates 41.107279, -80.676804. |
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| Cool Ohio posted The Steel mills at Campbell, Ohio. Mark Leskovec: This is USS Ohio Works in Y-town, not YS&T Campbell. The picture is taken with the photographer's back to Salt Springs Road at the Bridge Street entrance. At this link this picture identifies it as being at the USS facility in Y-town, of which there was only the Ohio Works, and even identifies the guy in the car. This picture comes from a whole series you can get on Getty Images of Charlie Grapentine in Youngstown and at USS. https://www.gettyimages.no/.../american.../3166435... [bad link] Damian Irwin Sr. shared [A lot of comments said this was Ohio Works, not YS&T. ] John Bizub: Identify it better the main business building left top of picture Carnegie Illinois Steel Corp , Before USS Ohio Works . The smoke stacks to the left of the 4 large stacks , open hearth building Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. Brier Hill Works! |
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| Raymond Boothe posted This is a photo of the USS Youngstown (Ohio) Works. This plant was one of the oldest and first plants to be eliminated in USS' downsizing. |
I would like to say that our Valley was a mighty industrial powerhouse at one time. Consider the following: The Youngstown Steel District produced more steel than either the entire country of France or Japan. The district once had 47 blast furnaces. The Trumbull Cliffs Furnace in Warren, was the largest blast furnace in the world at one time. Sharpsville, Pa. once had the most blast furnaces of anyplace in the world with 14. Packard Electric makes wire faster than anybody, making enough wire in one week to circle the earth 29 times! Warren, at one time or another had 12 auto assembly plants, and was also #2 in the nation at producing electric lamps with 12 lamp assembly plants by 1920. Warren , also had 65 manufacturing plants within the city. You can imagine how many more Youngstown had, along with the rest of the Valley. More railroad cars passed under Youngstown's Center Street bridge than ANYWHERE in the country, AND was the world's busiest manual interlocking. You may also want to consider the Valley's contribution to the war effort during WWII. Look at all the steel made. In Warren, Thomas Steel made small arms casings, Warren City Tank & Boiler made landing craft. Packard made wiring for Allison aircraft engines used in fighter and bomber aircraft. Mullins Mfg. made 105 MM artillery casings, auxilliary fuel tanks for aircraft, T-21 rocket bodies, Army vehicle and aircraft parts. Ferderal Machine & Welder made Sherman tanks. The company that was in Packard Plt. 8 during WWII is said to have made the Norden bomb sight used in B-17 bombers, which was an analog computer. I could really go on, but when you consider all these things you can see why I say that we were a real industrial powerhouse!
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| 1951 Youngstown and Campbell Quadrangles @ 1:24,000 |
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| Jim Allgren posted Blast furnace demolition at US Steel Ohio Works, Youngstown OH, 1982 Richard Allison: I remember this newspaper photo in the Birmingham paper. I was beginning to work again after USS-Fairfield Works had been shutdown for 18 months and we were happy to be glad to work again after a nasty recession. When this photo was published in our local paper in Birmingham, it was like a punch to the stomach. For 18 months we did not know if USS was going to reopen Fairfield Works again. That could have been us but it did happen in 2015. The workers at Fairfield Works in Alabama have a second chance of building this plant from the ground up from the blast furnaces being torn down and the hot strip was closed forever. Now they have a chance to rebuild with the new No.1 EAF and Pipe Mill. Hopefully, the slab caster there will be restarted there for some other finished product. Tony Mason: Richard Allison Baytown had 3 200 Ton EAF didn’t save that plant. Richard Allison: Tony Mason I know. Sad... USS are experts in shutting down modern plants. No.8 BF was one of their modern blast furnaces. USS is good at operating old, antique facilities but their specialty is running facilities into the ground, new ones too and shutting them down. ET is their crown jewel lol.... Tony Mason: Richard Allison I’ve worked Texas then Fairless Works. Shut Texas after 17 years that was a new plant. John Bizub: Richard Allison I worked at the Youngstown Works 15 open hearth furnaces when they were shutting down operated 4 , 150 ton open hearth with oxygen lances tap 4 hours ! Carl Jacobson: I worked at the Ohio Works till the plant closed, which was 2 years before this photo, in 1980. By 1982 the official unemployment rate was 23 percent. The real unemployment rate was estimated at 50 percent. Between this shutdown, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube shutting down 2 integrated mills and the Republic Steel plant shut down, it was an economic disaster and Youngstown never recovered. The press came up with a cute name to cover up this disaster, just call all of the old mill towns the "rust belt." Reichard Allison shared I remember this newspaper photo in the Birmingham paper. USS-Fairfield Works had been shutdown for 18 months and we were happy to work again after a nasty recession. When this photo was published in our local paper in Birmingham, it was like a punch to the stomach. For 18 months we did not know if USS was going to reopen Fairfield Works again or not. Those blast furnaces could have been us but it did happen to us in 2015. During 1981 and 1982, construction on the pipe mill, billet caster and slab caster were being completed. Rumors were going all around and the biggest rumor was that USS would write off the new pipe mill and two casters as a loss to the company and Fairfield would never reopen. We were in a nasty Great Recession in which blast furnaces and whole companies were being closed. This recession started in the mid 1970s with the oil embargo where the Arabs shut off supply of oil to the US and the damage to the economy turned into a depression for the US steel industry. Subsidized imports of steel did not come from China but from Japan where they had built greenfield integrated steel mills with the help of money from the US government to help Japan rebuild after the war. In 1980, most steel plant in the US still were using open hearths and casting ingots and putting them in soaking pits to be later rolled in blooming mills, slab or billet mills. In 1980 only 20% of steel in the US was poured into a caster. In Japan and Europe, almost all steel was poured into a continuous caster from an LD Converter (BOF of Q-BOP) USS had almost all open hearths and in the 60s and 70s they had invested money in making them all modern for open hearths with oxygen injection. With all the capital money USS spent on open hearths, they were reluctant to invest money in BOFs and casters. USS was late with new, modern technology and equipment to make steel quicker, cheaper and it cost them dearly. With all this going on, the recession was taking it’s toll on big steel companies and first to fall was Youngstown Sheet and Tube in 1977 which was called “Black Monday” where steelworkers were locked out of their plants and plants also shutdown coke ovens too. J&L Steel was sold to LTV which included Republic Steel plants and J&L plants at Aliquippa and Pittsburgh Downtown Works which were closed also in 1977. In 1979, USS Ensley Works was closed with the open hearths and the rail mill closed down. In 1980, the USS-Ohio Works was closed down and the blast furnaces were demolished as in the photo on this post in 1992. After this photo, USS ceased releasing photos of their facilities being demolished because of bad publicity. In 1984, Kaiser Steel on the west coast was closed and also USS-Homestead and USS-National Tube in the Mon Valley, all were torn down. Two years later, USS closed Homestead Works and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Monessen, Steubenville and Mingo Junction were closed. USS-Fairless Works was closed in 1991 and also Lone Star Steel, then Sharon Steel the next year. Other plants like Weirton Steel and Detroit Steel in Portsmouth, Ohio closed along with the blast furnaces on both sides of the Cuyahoga River that belonged to Republic, USS and J&L which closed in 1979 and 1984. To the west the USS-Lorain Furnaces were closed by Republic Steel after being sold in 1989. The bulk of blast furnaces being put off line permanently was between 1977-2002 when Bethlehem Steel closed for good. In 1973 the US produced 111.3 million tons of steel and by 1984 only 70 million tons were produced. Presently the US produces approximately 87 million tons. I remember going to attend a corporate meeting with my company in Pittsburgh in 1979 and we were the largest producer of anhydrous taphole clay to blast furnaces in the US. That year we were told that the US had 118 operating blast furnaces and today we have only about 18. In Alabama during the 1981-1984 Recession, Republic Steel-Gadsden Works was absorbed by LTV Steel and the downfall of this plant started. Sometime in mid 1984 we all got good news that USS-Fairfield Works would resume production with the new seamless pipe mill and casters and the almost new three Q-BOP vessels and No.7 and No.8 Blast Furnaces. Plant orders at Fairfield were up and down and at one point, business got so bad that USS did not want to close the pipe mill but the hot strip orders were bad that the larger No.8 was taken offline and No.7 was put online to make less iron. This went on for a few months when No.7 was in danger or taking itself offline because of hot spots on the furnace shell so No.8 was put online again. The plant was up and down several times when USS decided to close the plant except for the pipe mill and later announced a new EAF to supply the pipe mill. Today, USS-Fairfield is a mini mill in USS strategy and employs only a small fraction of what it used to do. The summary is that aging, old integrated steel mills will continue to struggle and we don’t know if Biden will extend tariffs to protect steel or not but our government has chosen to rejoin the Paris Agreement for Climate Change which is a myth to change the world and control and tax people for government. The small, nimble EAF steel companies will fare much better in the future with cheaper steel with less workers while big, integrated companies will struggle to cut CO2 and phase out all blast furnaces, coke plants and BOFs after 2030. This pain in the future of axing steelworker jobs is unnecessary and purely political on the world stage and our US government has bought into this fiasco. Steel has had a painful journey since the 1960s but provided good jobs and was good for middle class families and now our present government is a threat to the industry, as much as a threat to subsidized steel form overseas. Because the steel companies got bad press since this 1992 photo of the blast furnaces coming down at USS-Ohio Works in Youngstown, Ohio, no more photos like this will be allowed and blast furnace demolitions will be done behind the scenes. John Slowikowski shared a Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor photo #OnThisDay [Apr 28] in 1982, crowds gathered to watch the demolition of four blast furnaces at the U.S. Steel Ohio Works plant, two and a half years after the plant's closing. Dr. Thomas Leary, YSU Professor and Director of the Applied History Program, commented on the event: “People showed up to see the most visual possible symbol that we could get that an era is over. This image has served not just for Youngstown, but for the whole process, for the contraction of the American steel industry." This event was the last time U.S. Steel held a public demolition; the rest were done so without the media. What was the Ohio Works plant is today an industrial business park. Photo courtesy of Ohio History Connection via Ohio Memory. |
Jason Wells posted two photos with the comment: "Part of Republic Steel Youngstown works then and now. Covelli center in bottom photo."
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| Tony Margis posted |
A different colorization instead of exposure because the smoke is different. But the two artists were obviously getting details from the same photo.
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Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor posted Each month, we will be featuring a piece of art/photography from our vast collection. This month's feature comes from our graduate intern Hannah, who is doing an inventory of our art collection. Title: Night View of Republic Steel Corporation (postcard) Steel mills often created postcards in the earlier part of the twentieth century to present to the public an image of a prosperous mill. This postcard of Republic Steel was a successful way to promote the steel industry in its day. The Republic Iron and Steel Company was founded in 1899 in Youngstown, and is currently headquartered in Canton, Ohio. Jim Allgren posted View of Republic Steel in Youngstown at night. The view is looking east/northeast, likely from the Market St. Bridge. You can see the Bessemer converter on the left. For those unfamiliar with Youngstown, this plant sat directly downtown! If you could 'rotate' 45 degrees to the left you be looking into the heart of the city! The site is now occupied by a 6,000 seat arena. Image courtesy of |
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| Ted Gregory shared a Roger Durfee post A pair of B&O geeps bring a transfer from the Conrail yard to their yard, Youngstown, Ohio, May 1977. The Republic Steel ore piles and blast furnaces tower above the scene. Stephen Timko: On "A Brothers" track at Center Street. One of the five RISCO Hazelton Furnaces in the background. Dale Pohto: At what port was this ore typically unloaded for the trip to Youngstown? Stephen Timko: Dale Pohto Cleveland EL River Bed Dock. Roger Durfee: Dale Pohto , Stephen Timko , didn't some if the ore come out of Huron via the N&W at Creston ? Stephen Timko: Roger Durfee Yes. But the bulk came from Cleveland |
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| Ed Cavallaro posted Vallourec Youngstown, the old mill Kenneth Treharn: The building was built in 1908 as an Open Hearth Furnace melt shop that operated till 1980. I started working there in 1968 until it shut down in 1980. |
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| Raymond Boothe posted Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company-Youngstown, Ohio: View of "D" blast furnace (YS&T photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe collection). |
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| Raymond Boothe posted Republic Steel Corporation-Youngstown, Ohio: View of the Republic blast furnaces in downtown Youngstown (Republic photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe collection). |
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| Dave Pratt commented on Ed's "old mill" post That was the old home of 25 years...This is the new home for the last 6yrs. |
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| Ed Cavallaro posted Vallourec new Mill Youngstown Ohio |
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| Jamie Rush posted, cropped Vallourec star Youngstown Ohio 2021 Brian Joyce: Mill at bottom is former YS&T Brier Hill Works. Entire property is former YS&T land as well. Upper mill is smaller diameter pipe for oil industry. Bottom mill is melt shop and larger diameter pipe. |
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| Satellite |
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| US Steel Ohio Works, they were in Youngstown, OH [Contains a link to a talk about the 8 shutdown facilities in Ohio.] |
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| An excerpt from that talk. |
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| An excerpt from that talk, old Brier Hill still makes pipe? |
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| An excerpt from that talk., waste injection wells do cause earthquakes |
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| An excerpt from that talk |
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| RR Trax Studios posted Blast furnace in Brier Hill - can someone help with the name? Demolished in 1997. James Torgeson posted YS&T Jeanette blast furnace. Kenneth Treharn: Originally the Brier Hill Steel Company owned by the Tod family. 1908 +/- a year. There were two furnaces, smaller was Grace. The larger was Jennette, both named after the Tod Daughters. Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company bought the mill in the 1920's. Originally one blast furnace (Grace) and 6 Open Hearth Furnaces. The Mill was so profitable in a couple years they built Jennette and added 6 more Open Hearth Furnaces. I started working there in 1968 till shut down in 1980. Both were running then plus supplement bottles of Hot Iron from Campbell Works. Grace was blown out in the early 1970s, Jennette around 1976. I only ever heard it called Jennette until Springsteen's song creatively changed the name to "Jenny O"??? WP Woodall: George Popovich where was the Blast furnace Grace? Was it in Brier Hill also? George Popovich: WP Woodall don’t know I worked at Republic Steel was on the other side of the town had 3 furnaces the big one No 1 was called the Anna. Carl Jacobson: WP Woodall When you of look at the picture of the Jeanette, there are 2 sets of heater ovens. The Grace Furnace sat at the opposite end from the Jeanette. |
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| Donald Piszczek posted, cropped Donald Piszczek: It’s off of 711 where City concrete is now. Adam Gottschling: Donald Piszczek I was loading stone out of city stone one day and got a history lesson that I was parked where Jenny used to stand! Thought that was pretty cool to realize where I was. Carl Jacobson: You are correct that the Jeanette went out of blast in 1977. However, the Brier Hill Open Hearths, and rolling mills ran until the last day of December in 1979. They used the Campbell Works Blast Furnaces to supply iron for those years. |
Jason Wells posted two photos with the comment: "Youngstown Sheet and Tube Cambell works before and after."
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| Jason Wells posted US Steel Ohio works taken from 680 west Jason Wells: The Ohio works used to be directly across Mahoning river from Youngstown Sheet & tube/Valorc star. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Jason's post Using the street signs, I was finally able to figure out that this is the I-680 4A exit ramp to Madison Ave that has an exit to Crescent Street. |
Jason Wells posted two photos with the comment: "Before and after pics of us steel ohio works Youngstown Ohio."
Steve Cianciolo: Although it is very sad to see Ohio Works demolished as shown in the photos, these photos do not tell the full story. That very same location is now home to a busy industrial park road called: Ohio Works Dr. I worked at the pipe threading facility and it is atleast relieving to see the industry slowly growing up once again.
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Rick Rowlands posted six photos with the comment: "Filer & Stowell 39" x 76" x 60" cross compound engine that drove a 15" continuous mill at the US Steel Ohio Works in Youngstown."
Carl Jacobson: I assume that this is one of the billet mills attached to the 43” Blooming Mill at the Ohio Works. I worked over there as a laborer in the scarfing beds after coming back from a layoff. That was always referred to as a Cross Country Mill as they could roll out the ingots and then send them down to different finishing mills without having to reheat the steel. The sizes that I remember were that on the east side they rolled 2” X 2” bars, in the center, they rolled either 2”X 6” bars or 2” X 8” bars, on the west side they rolled 4” X 4” bars. I am far less than an expert on the 43” Mill, but it was a pretty amazing place.
John Bizub: Remember seeing big wheel operating at 43 inch rolling mill !
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(new window, 9:52)
This video, 15:43, is a superset of the above video that adds home town topics such as a local football game.
An 18:23 edit of the 1944 footage (source)
(new window) The 35th anniversary of the blast furnace demolition. The demolition is at 1:38. Other views are at 2:03.
3:58 video of a Bruce Springsteen song The comments have the lyrics.
Carl Jacobson: For viewers not from the Youngstown area, the Open Hearths closed in 1967, the Blast Furnaces were often called the Haselton Furnaces, they closed in the early 1980's, along with the Coke Plant. The pipe plant survived until 2002. Today only the walls of the ore yards and the pipe mill buildings are standing, but they are empty buildings.
7 photos of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works including the blast furnace making dust
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