About this Item
The Louisville Alcohol-Butadiene Plant sale materials trace a federally built wartime synthetic rubber facility in Rubbertown, southwest of Louisville along the Ohio River, from original butadiene production from ethyl alcohol to postwar disposal by the General Services Administration. The Binder includes Printed material, photographs and sales brochure that state that the plant was designed and built for butadiene production, with three operating units. The General Services Administration prepared a personalized presentation for Robert S. Ray, Vice President of Brea Chemicals, Inc., with a December 28, 1959 letter from Regional Commissioner John Wm. Chapman, Jr. calling the plant "one of the finest Government properties ever offered for sale" and describing the binder as a presentation taking the company "a step beyond" the general sales brochure. The bid notice offered the plant as GSA Disposal No. G-Ky-465, with sealed bids opening February 9, 1960, and listed approximately 138.8564 acres, 36 buildings, about 211,954 square feet of floor area, production chemicals, tanks, electric meters, transformers, laboratory equipment, office and cafeteria equipment, automotive equipment, and spare parts. The sale materials present wartime industrial capacity, transportation access, utility systems, and salvageable equipment as the basis for private chemical redevelopment. Louisville, Kentucky and Chicago, Illinois: General Services Administration, Region 5, circa 1959 to 1960. Archive of government surplus sales materials for the Louisville Alcohol-Butadiene Plant, including a personalized presentation binder for Brea Chemicals, Inc., printed sales brochure, notice of sale and invitation to bid, legal description, and bid form. The brochure identifies the Rubbertown site along the Ohio River and states that the plant was designed and built for butadiene production from ethyl alcohol, with three operating units rated at 20,000 short tons per year each and a demonstrated capacity of approximately 87,000 short tons per year. The red GSA binder, dated December 28, 1959, is stamped in gilt for Brea Chemicals and contains a letter to Robert S. Ray from Regional Commissioner John Wm. Chapman, Jr., along with typed plant sections and mounted photographs documenting 36 buildings on approximately 139 acres, 211,954 square feet of structures, 12,000,000 gallons of chemical storage, three 6,000 barrel Hortonspheres, Louisville Gas and Electric power, and three Babcock and Wilcox high pressure boilers. The 1960 bid materials offered the property as GSA Disposal No. G-Ky-465, with sealed bids opening February 9, 1960, after its retirement from the National Industrial Reserve, and include sale terms, inspection hours, property boundaries by Camp Ground Road and the Ohio River, Jefferson County land description, deed references, and blank bidder information and payment terms. The plant's original butadiene production places it within the wartime program that expanded domestic rubber substitutes after Japanese advances cut Allied access to natural rubber. The 1959 to 1960 sales materials record the later federal effort to move the property out of the National Industrial Reserve and back into private use. Individualized corporate solicitation, technical plant photography, production capacity figures, and formal surplus disposal paperwork document both the physical facility and the administrative process that moved it out of government control. Red presentation binder rubbed with some surface wear; sales brochure shows light scuffing and handling wear; typed documents show toning, staple marks, and minor edge wear; contents remain legible and complete as present. Overall good condition.
Seller Inventory # 23401
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