New Kensington, PA: 1891 Alcoa Plant and 1930 Technical Center

Plant: (Satellite, on a satellite image I accessed in Sep 2026, parts of the site was still brownland. But it looks like they are building some warehouses.)

Tech Center: (Satellite)

The old and new headquarters buildings were in Pittsburgh.

Sean Brady posted two photos with the comment:

ALCOA PITTSBURG - 1947

INGERSOLL ALUMINUM SCALPING MACH. FOR MILLING SCALE FROM CAST ALUMINUM BILLETS BEFORE ROLLING THEM. IT MILLS OFF 1/4” TO 3/8" IN JUST A FEW SECONDS. CUTTER IS DRIVEN BY 800HP MOTOR.

1

2

alcoa_history
In 1891, Alcoa/Pittsburgh Reduction Co. moved its operations from Pittsburgh to New Kensington.

By 1940, it had grown considerably.

HistoricPittsburgh, cropped
[The birdge is the C. L. Schmitt Bridge.]

In fact, that growth had occurred by this 1925 photo. The operation extended several blocks up the Allegheny River.

HistoricPittsburgh, cropped
[The webpage documents this as Pittsburgh, but the 1940 photo above confirms that this is in New Kensington.]

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

Alcoa (ALuminum COmpany of America) Buildings in the town of New Kensington, Westmoreland County. By the end of World War I Alcoa's New Kensington facility accounted for 3,292 workers or a fifth of the local population and covered over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space on 75 acres. Alcoa had roughly half of the world's capacity in aluminum by 1928.

(Photo from Jimmy Wenger via https://www.facebook.com/groups/133662990118971/)

Jason Beatty: Most of it in process of being demolished. [Sep 3, 2026]

The building in the right background of the 1940 photos appears to be extant.

Street View, Sep 2018

1930:

alcoa_history

The World’s First Aluminum Research Laboratory

On a hill overlooking the Allegheny River and Alcoa's production facility along its banks in Pittsburgh, the company builds a campus-like facility dedicated to finding new aluminum applications, testing its performance and improving production processes.

HistoricPittsburgh, cropped
"The Aluminum Company of America's (Alcoa) Aluminum Research Laboratories in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, contained scientific research equipment, including the Templin precision metal-working machine, used for testing specimens. It is the most powerful machine of its kind in the world and can exert a force up to 3,000,000 lbs. in compression and 1,000,000 lbs. in tension at speeds up to 36 inches a minute."

This research facility is extant.

Satellite

HistoricPittsburgh, cropped
"Description of the photograph reads, 'Alcoa research technicians making strength tests on an aluminum alloy structural beams. Countless tests on aluminum and its alloys are constantly being conducted at Alcoa's laboratories.'"

1903:

alcoa_history

Alcoa Aluminum Gives Flight to Wright Brothers Invention

The world’s first flying machine is powered by an aluminum heart made from Alcoa’s new metal. To save weight, the engine block and crankcase of the Wright Brothers' historic "Flyer" are cast from aluminum supplied by The Pittsburgh Reduction Company.

1916:

alcoa_history

First Aerospace Alloy

Alcoa's first aerospace alloy, 2017-T4, is a critical material for building the historic USS Shenandoah rigid airship. A century later, 2017-T4 is still used for aircraft sheet and plate. More than 90% of all alloys currently used in the aerospace industry were developed by Alcoa research.

1962: I was wondering the other month when the "pop top" was invented. I can remember as a kid having to remember to pack a can opener. I think the pop top was ubiquitous by the end of the 1960s. That original version of the pop top came off the can. They became a serious pollution problem. So they invented a version that hinged a flap out of the way into the can. But note how narrow the opening was. Today's wide mouth was the next innovation.

alcoa_history

The Can Opener Becomes Extinct

Alcoa works with the Pittsburgh Brewing Company to introduce easy-open aluminum pull tabs on cans of Pittsburgh Brewing's Iron City beer. Today, because of innovations like the pull tab, and because of aluminum's recyclability, the canned beverage market is virtually 100% aluminum.

Pittsburgh, PA: Alcoa Headquarters Buildings

Current World Headquarters: (Satellite)

1953 Headquarters Alcoa Building: (Satellite, this has been converted to apartments.)

Technical Center: (Satellite)

I knew that the Pittsburgh area made a lot of steel. I've learned that it also made aluminum.

In fact, one of the inventors of the Hall-Héroult Process (electrolysis), Charles Martin Hall, founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Co. in 1888 in Pittsburgh. [alcoa_history]

The manufacturing facility was in New Kensington. The research facility is still there.

In 1953 they completed the Alcoa Building. It is completely clad with aluminum. It was the headquarters for over 40 years.

HistoricPittsburgh
''The Alcoa Building (center), located at 425 6th Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, used aluminum wherever possible including aluminum furniture, aluminum piping and wiring, and aluminum air-conditioning ducts. Its thirty-story tower is lighter and more efficient than buildings of comparable size at the time of its construction. The entire exterior wall of the structure was built using prefabricated aluminum sheets that contained both windows and the floor zone. These windows swung open in special inflatable rubber gaskets containing neoprene that minimized heat from the sun's rays and also required minimal cleaning and maintenance on the exterior. Construction began in 1951 and was completed in 1953. The architectural firms involved on this project were Harrison & Abramovitz, along with Altenhof & Bown and Mitchell & Ritchey. The Alcoa Building stands on the site of the renowned Beaux Arts-style Nixon Theater and the building is presently referred to as the Regional Enterprise Tower. Mellon Park is in the center foreground."

It was then converted to residential units.

PMC

1952:

alcoa_history

First Aluminum-Sheathed High-Rise Building

Featuring an all-aluminum exterior and many other innovative architectural elements, the Alcoa Building in Downtown Pittsburgh is completed. It will serve as the company’s headquarters for more than 40 years. It also ushers in a new era of high-rise buildings clad in Alcoa aluminum.

The round-corner windows are a maintenance issue. [reddit]

HistoricPittsburgh, cropped
"Sample Section of a Stamped Aluminum Panel for the Alcoa Building"

Then they built a world headquarters on the north side of the Allegheny River between the Andy Warhol and Rachel Carson Bridges.

Boat View, Jan 2021

The Andy Warhol Bridge is on the right.

Street View, Oct 2024

Fort Wayne, IN: 1964 Ward Aluminum Corp.

Building #1: (Satellite, 642 Growth Ave. Just the three story building along Growth, but Google Maps won't let me drop a pin on that building.)

Building #2: (Satellite, 641 Growth Ave.)

Building #3: (Satellite, off-site for heat treating)

Building #4: (Satellite, 630 Growth Ave.)

<add link to knitting mills>

This company grew by buying more and more buildings left over from the Wayne Knitting Mills. [WardCorp_history]

"Ward Corporation is an aluminum foundry with engineering, casting, heat treating and machining divisions. Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana since 1964."  [Facebook Group Intro]

WardCorp_history

Photo, Sep 2025

I wonder who owns the office building in the right foreground. Building #1 is behind it, building #2 is the building on the left, and building #4 is the building in the right background.

Street View, Jun 2019

Apr 2016:

Ward Aluminum Company posted
Our new Furnace is here for setup

Ward Aluminum Company posted four photos with the comment: "New Furnace installation is underway!"

1

2

3

4

1 of 16 photos added by Ward Aluminum Company to the album "New Equipment 2011" about installing this new piece of equipment. [The link to the album to which the photos were added is broke.]

[According to some photos that I saw on their web site, this is a tilt-pour permanent mold machine. I'd like to see a video of it in action.]

1 of 36 photos added by Ward Aluminum Company to the album "Foundry Makeover 2012."

A newspaper article about the founders and owners, Mr. & Mrs. Ward. Unfortunately, I hit a paywall of too many accesses in a 30-day period. But I don't remember accessing the Journal Gazette. Maybe you will have better luck.

This is the post that motivated researching this company. The fact that it has reused several of the Wayne Knitting Mills building was also a motivation.

Victor Tonsor posted two photos with the comment: "Ready to cast on this chilly Indiana morning. Ingot and Carousel lines."

Gary Heimbach: Looks like a nice setup but an empty line does not make any money. What are you melting? what are you melting with? I spent 16 years in an aluminum recycling plant.

Victor Tonsor: Gary Heimbach this is run off two remelt furnaces. Alloy 3004, 356, 5xxx, 6xxx, We have a shredder for rims that goes to remelt. Then for the electric furnaces we run chips fed through the top of the furnace by a network of 16" blow tubes

There are five furnaces where I work. Three EAF and two gas fed furnaces. The gas furnaces feed these lines. Location is Fr. Wayne, Indiana [Does Fort Wayne have any other companies that can melt aluminum? Ward's webpage lists the furnaces, but it doesn't have any photos of the melt department.]

Furnace just got a reline. Took this photo right before start up.

1

2

Paramount, CA: Weber Metals and 33k & 60k ton closed die forge presses

(Satellite, I wonder how many of the industrial buildings back by the tracks are part of their plant.)

WeberMetals-60,000
It was constructed between 2014-18, and it cost $180m.

So the two 50,000 ton presses are no longer the largest in North America.

WeberMetals-history
They forge aluminum and titanium parts for the aerospace industry.

Brian Olson posted two images with the comment: "Here is one I love.  What you are looking at here is a 33,000T close die forge press at Weber Metals in Paramount, California.  The equipment was designed by Pahnke (Germany) and built here in the states by Mesta Machine in the early 1982.  The press had a catastrophic failure a couple years ago.  Normally the component in question would be replaced however because this equipment is in California and the regulation associated with the replacing these components are so extreme that Weber Metals decided to let this machine rot.  I hate to see a young machine die early."

Calum Learn: Didn't Weber upgrade to a 65,000ton press a few years ago?

Brian Olson: Yes. Weber Metals was lucky because the 65,000T press came online just in time for the Mesta 33,000T to die. Weber Metals intended to run both but that is no longer the case.

Christopher Henry: 400 plus tons of liquid steel in a single pour. That's insane.

Bob Daykin: Christopher Henry How the hell do you fill a ladle with that much metal?

Brian Olson: Bob Daykin I was told they had three (3) each 150 ton open hearth and one (1) each EAF which made up the balance. So you would add multiple heats to make one casting.

You can watch the 65,000T press being poured in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOe8KYZXGeg

Francis Hull: Probably one of the last large machines built by mesta before folding.

Brian Olson: Francis Hull It was the last. Mesta Machine lost there rear end on that project due to cost overruns.

1, at Facebook resolution

2

Commented on Brian's post

6:25 video @ 1:12
[It is interesting that this German company had the big pieces cast and machined in South Korea and Britain.]

Rockdale, TX: Alcoa Smelter and 1953-2018 1.5gw Sandow Power Plant

(Satellite)

Greg Mallory posted
Sandow 4, primarily constructed to power the Alcoa smelter in the 1950's near Rockdale, TX. De-constructed and if I'm not mistaken sent to SA.
Michael Matisko: Sandow units 1, 2, and 3 (about 125 MW each) were constructed for the original Rockdale smelter that went on line in about 1952.
Sandow 4 was being commissioned in early 1981 when I made my first trip to Rockdale as an Alcoa engineer. At the time we thought that the new unit would ensure the viability of the smelter. Then came Sandow 5–and Enron.
I was never assigned to Rockdale, but the original configuration of the Sandow plant and switchyard was the design basis for the Warrick smelter’s power plant (3x125 MW, uprated to 3x176 MW) that first went online in 1960.

"Units and In-Service Dates: 121 MW (1953), 121 MW (1954), 121 MW (1954), 591 MW (1981), 581 MW (2009). The power plant uses lignite from the [strip mine] Three Oaks Mine in nearby Bastrop County, Texas. Transmission of electricity to the nearby aluminum smelter stopped in 2008 when Alcoa ceased smelting operations at its Rockdale facility and accused Luminant of power supply issues. Units 1-3 were retired by Alcoa under consent decree in 2009." [gem] 

Luminant
"Over the past 30 years, the unit has generated more than 122 million net megawatt-hours of electricity."

RinerEngineering

 

Steve Kole posted

Euclid Bottom Dump Hauler (1950s Vintage)

Texas Utilities IGC / Sandow Lignite Coal

Surface Mine and Lignite Coal Burning Power Plant along with Alcoa Aluminum Smelter in Background-Rockdale, TX--1977

--Steve Kole Photos-1977

--I have 34-Facebook Albums of Historical Photos

totaling over 1,000 photos.

Majority are in color, many have interesting written descriptions.

To view my 34-FB Albums, follow these 2-Steps.

--MOBILE DEVICES:

Toggle down Facebook Page, select the following:

Step 1.) Photos (Gray oval tab under the word Post)

Step 2.) Photos----Uploads----Albums----Videos

(Select Albums and my 34-FB Albums will appear)

--PC DESKTOP COMPUTERS: Click LINK below:

https://www.facebook.com/steve.kole.988/photos_albums

[This mine: "TXU (IGC) Mine & Power Plant / Alcoa Smelter 1977-1982"]

--FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THE PHOTOS, please acknowledge photos were taken by either

Skeet or Steve Kole as indicated.

--Steve Kole

Email: awssixwheeler@gmail.com 4

Steve Kole shared

 

Steve Kole posted
[Has the same description as the above post.]
Steve Kole shared
Tim Swaren: They don’t leave much room for error on top of that receiving hopper! lol

grist
Alcoa was using the Three Oaks Mine because they had shutdown their own lignite mine. Alcoa is now trying to sell the reclaimed coal mine as industrial-commercial property because the contamination standards are more lax for that use. But this article makes it sound like they have closed the Three Oaks Mine as well.
Groundwater around a landfill has already been contaminated. "The analysis showed that concentrations of arsenic, mercury, cobalt, and lithium were well over the federal limits for human consumption and could present significant risk to public health."

Since it closed in 2018, I'm saving a satellite image while I still can.

Satellite

I wonder how many of these ponds contain toxic material that is typical with ash ponds. And how many of them don't have a lining to protect ground water.

Satellite

Ravenswood, WV: Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical

(Satellite)

Kody Ward posted three photos with the comment:

Happy Anniversary, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Ravenswood! The West Virginia plant began operations November 17, 1957 and today as Constellium, produces aluminum plate, sheet and coil products for a wide variety of industries and applications. At its peak nearly 5000 employees. My grandfather was in attendance for this first pour. He was employee 423 and started in 1956. The upper half of the plant you see in the aerial picture is no longer there. But what remains is 67 acres under roof.

1

2

3

It looks like the upper (North) half of the plant was still there in Sep 2017.

Constellium, Sep 2017

While researching Yankeetown Dock, I noticed on the Google Maps that Kaiser now owns part of the Alcoa Warrick Plant. Did Kaiser buy Alcoa's smelter and they now ship ingots to Ravenswood using the Ohio River?

Satellite