Guide to the Logan Beddow Collection 1951-1989
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Logan Beddow Collection
- Creator
- Beddow, Logan
- Collection Number
- MSS 0801
- Extent
- 2.5 linear feet (2 boxes)
- Date
- 1951-1989
- Abstract
- Logan A. Beddow was the last plant manager of Ball-InCon's Washington, Pa., glass and mould plant when it closed in 1987. Since 1951, the plant held a succession of titles: Washington Glass Company, Metro Glass Company's Washington Division, Metropak Containers Co. and Central Mould, and Ball Glass Containers, Inc. The facility primarily manufactured glass beer bottles and flint glass food containers over the course of its 36 years of operations. The Logan Beddow Collection contains materials which document the history of the plant, manuals and design data, and mould and physical plant blueprints.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Sponsor
- This collection has been made accessible as part of an NHPRC-funded Basic Processing grant.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
Washington Glass Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey's Metro Glass Company, began manufacturing beer bottles in Washington, Pa., in July 1951. At that time, Washington Glass Co. was one of several glass manufacturers in Washington. Their facility on Detroit Avenue expanded in 1956, adding a larger furnace, a flint glass container fabrication unit, and another warehouse. In 1957 the Washington Glass Company merged with its parent company creating the Metro Glass Company's Washington Division. Metro Glass Company was officially acquired as a division affiliate of National Dairy Products Corporation, a forerunner to Kraft Foods, Inc., in 1960. The Washington division became known as Metropak Containers Company, and operated a glass and mould facility.
In 1962, the plant suffered a devastating loss from a fire that destroyed all four warehouses, a mould shop, and the new office. However, by November of 1962, the plant was back in full production. By 1970, the Washington facility made all the glass mould equipment for four Metropak Glass plants, and by 1977, Metropak Containers Co. had two Washington area operations and employed over 400 employees. Furthermore, the Central Mould Shop was one of the leading mould manufacturers in the country.
In 1980, Ball Glass Container Group acquired Metropak Containers from Kraft, Inc., which was one of Ball's largest packaging customers. The Washington plant became one of four facilities under Ball Glass Containers, Inc. The Ball Group, which was started by the five founding Ball brothers as The Wooden Jacket Can Co., began its glass making business in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1880. Ball later diversified into plastics, soft drink cans, zinc roofing, blanks for pennies and aerospace equipment.
By 1986 Ball Glass Container was the only glass-making plant in Washington, and operated one furnace capable of producing 230 tons of flint glass per day. In 1987, Ball merged with InCon Packaging to form the nation's largest producer of glass containers for the food industry. However, just a few months later, Ball-InCon Glass Packaging Corporation announced plans to shut the Washington plant. At the time of the announcement the company had approximately 260 hourly employees. The company closed its doors on December 23, 1987.
Logan Andrew Beddow (1928-2006), a son of Logan and Della Hillberry Beddow, was born in Lagonda, near Washington, Pa. His high school education at Trinity High School was interrupted when he joined the U.S. military to serve in Panama. He finally earned his high school diploma in 2001. He and his wife Joan were married June 22, 1951, the same year that Mr. Beddow began working at Washington Glass. Beddow worked through a succession of positions: floor boy, apprentice operator, maintenance department employee, an electrician operator, foreman and assistant superintendent and finally superintendent/plant manager of the Washington facility. Beddow was the last plant manager of Ball-InCon's Washington, Pa., plant when it closed in 1987, and he remained at the plant to care for the property until Ball-InCon was able to dispose of it. Logan Andrew Beddow died February 21, 2006.
Scope and Content Notes
The Logan Beddow Collection contains materials documenting the Ball Glass Container Company's Washington, Pa., glass and mould making facilities which ended operations in 1987. Included are Ball Corporations histories; facsimiles of newspaper clippings concerning the various ownership of the plant; the Washington plant's budget from 1982-1987, manufacturing standards, assorted correspondence and memos from 1975-1988, installation and facilities operations manuals, mould design data, quality control manuals, Washington Plant facilities surveys from 1970-1986, and photographs of industrial images from the 1980s.There is also a flat oversized box containing one aerial photograph of the Washington plant, as well as numerous blueprints of moulds and of the physical facilities of the plant itself. There are also two VHS tapes of Ball Glass footage from the 1980s.
Conditions Governing Access
None
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift from Joan Beddow in 2008.
Archives accession # 2008.0096
Preferred Citation
Logan Beddow Collection, 1951-1989, MSS 0801 , Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
Preliminary processing by Alex J. Toner on 06/04/12.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Subjects
- Washington Glass Company.
- Metro Glass Company's Washington Division.
- Ball Corporation.
- Kraft Inc.
- Washington (Pa.)
- Glass Manufacture-Pennsylvania-Washington.
- Glassware--United States.