Former Celriver plant crossroads to become commemorative plaza

At the height of production, the Celriver plant on Cherry Road employed as many as 2,500 workers, most of them involved in making synthetic fiber using wood pulp, vinegar and acetone – or as it’s more commonly known, fingernail polish remover.

The sprawling Rock Hill plant covered 250 acres, from the Catawba River to Celriver Road, near what would become Interstate 77.

There was one area at the plant where most of the east-west and north-south pedestrian traffic crossed.

Former plant workers want to commemorate that point with the Celriver Employee Plaza near the Giordano Velodrome and the YMCA building under construction.

On Wednesday at the Brakefield at Riverwalk Events Center, former Celriver employees – under the banner of the Celriver Legacy Project – officially began a $500,000 fundraising campaign for the plaza and a scholarship fund.

“We want to define and document the Celriver plant, particularly the people,” said former plant manager Ed Ewald to a room full of former plant workers, their spouses, and in some instances, their adult children.

The former Celriver workers started the project to remember what the plant meant to Rock Hill and the legacy it created. In some instances three generations of families worked at the plant. In other instances, Celriver salaries and wages – and scholarships – allowed families to send their children to college. Many of those graduates returned to Rock Hill.

The plant operated from 1948 to 2005. After Celriver closed, it was quickly demolished. The plant’s pump house, a brick building that once housed the personnel office, the water tank, and a series of crumbling asphalt parking lots are all that remain.

Plant alumni want residents and visitors to know what once happened at the site, now being developed as Riverwalk, a mixed-used development. The legacy project is working with the Assured Group, owners of Riverwalk.

“We want the plaza to be a place where people come to celebrate and to be inspired,” Ewald said.

The plaza will include artwork and interpretative signage. Project organizers also will be selling commemorative bricks to be installed at the plaza. There will be other naming opportunities for donors.

So far the project has raised $105,600, Ewald said.

The projected cost of the plaza is $200,000 and the legacy project hopes to have it completed by mid-2016.

The remaining $300,000 would be for a scholarship fund for Winthrop University and York Technical College students. Celanese, the owner of the Celriver plant, encouraged its workers to better themselves through education.

Barbara Mills was one who benefited from the Celanese education program. She came to the plant in 1972 with a diploma from Emmett Scott High School to work in the plant’s textile operations section. When she left after 32 years she had worked her way into management.

Celanese “paid every dime,” Mills said. “I didn’t even have to buy a pencil” for a master’s degree in business administration from Winthrop University.

“This makes me feel good,” Mills said after Wednesday’s announcement. “So many of us spent our lives there.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Former Celriver plant crossroads to become commemorative plaza."