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AKA: Bethlehem Steel Company Mill, Seattle, WA; Nucor Steel Seattle, Incorporated, Mill, Deldridge, Seattle, WA
Structure Type: built works - industrial buildings - factories
Designers: [unspecified]
Dates: constructed 1904-1905
The Seattle Rail Car Company first built on 55 acres of Duwamish tideflats land in 1904, finishing "Seattle's Little Pittsburgh" steel plant in 1905. This concern was started by principal investors, E.M. Wilson and William Pigott, Sr., owners of the Seattle Rail Car Company. In 1913, the firm changed its name to the Pacific Coast Steel Company. The giant Bethlehem Steel Company purchased the plant in 1929, and operated it until it was sold to local business interests led by Carl E. Meitzen in 1985. This local group--called CEM Associates--operated the facility for six years, before it was closed. The mill sat idle for several months, until it was bought by Birmingham Steel Company of Birmingham, AL, for $44 million. Birmingham spent $6 million to refurbish the plant and reopened it in 06/1991. Birmingham renamed the facility the "Salmon Bay Steel Corporation." On 12/09/2002, Nucor of Charlotte, NC, purchased most of the assets of bankrupt Birmingham Steel, including this Seattle plant which continues to make steel bar products, such as rebar and merchant shapes. For a time, the plant also was known as In the the Salmon Bay Steel Corporation.
The Nucor Steel Mill will be the focus of an Historic Seattle event, 03/02/2009, called "Preserving Utility: Nucor Steel Plant." The plant was built on filled tidal lands, like much of the industrial section of Seattle, south of Pioneer Square. Between 1985-1990, approximately 550 worked in the Seattle Steel Company plant. After Birmingham bought it in 1991, the new owners kept on 55 of these workers of the 280 that operated the factory. Steel from this plant was used widely on large projects in the area, such as the Pierce County/City of Tacoma Administration Building (1958), Alaskan Way Viaduct (1953) and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1950).
Large-scale additions were made to the Bethlehem Steel Plant in 1957-1958. (See Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio Collection Series: Series: A107988-8;
PCAD id: 9036
