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Location DB >
United States >
New Jersey >
Newark >
Mass & Waldstein Company
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Publically Viewable |
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This location has been labeled as Demolished, and therefore can be viewed by anyone.
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Its a fairly large complex, with mostly just burned out shells of buildings. There are rusty ass tanks around, and most of the walls are covered in grafitti.
10.12.2023 - Demolished in part between 2019-21, and the rest disappears between 2021-22.
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Type: Building Complex
Status: Demolished
Accessibility: Easy - it's gone
Recommendation: forget it - it's a parking lot
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rust
unsafe flooring
Squatters
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The buildings cannot be seen from the street, as they are mostly hidden by a large pile of a dirt and garbage. You have a pretty nice view of the brick city skyline from the abandoned railroad tracks above the factory. Also, the main staircase in the newer (1905) building is very small, almost like it was built for little people.
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Martin E. Waldstein was born in 1854 in New York. He was awarded a Ph.D. at Heidelberg in 1875. Waldstein and Adolphus H. Maas were founders of the Maas & Waldstein Company, which was established around 1876. The company had an office in New York at 100 William Street and a manufacturing plant along the Passaic River at 437 Riverside Avenue, Newark near the border with Belleville. Waldstein was also head of the Atlantic Chemical Works, a coal tar products plant in Bayway (Elizabeth), in the early 1900s.
Over the years Maas & Waldstein produced flavoring extracts for soda water, essential oils, lacquers, explosives, colors, and specialized coatings. The firm became the main supplier of nail enamel to Revlon. This business started when Gus Klinkenstein was president. He gave a line of credit to Charles Revson, who was a co-founder of Revlon.
A new building was erected in 1905 at a cost of $4,000. Nitrocellulose for lacquers was made by nitration of cotton. The solvent amyl acetate was manufactured for coatings. These operations required highly flammable and corrosive raw materials. Five men were burned, one seriously, in an explosion in the acid unit in 1915. The men were all of Italian descent and one, Louis Gizzone, was only 16 years old. The explosion hurled the men about the room in which they were working and shook houses in the neighborhood.
In 1916, 125 men went on strike for a 10 hour workday and an increase in wage from $.25 to $.30 per hour. At the time, employees were working 12-hour shifts. But the day after the strike, half the men returned to their jobs and the company hired new workers. The strike was a failure and by the time it was settled, 20 jobs were lost.
During World War I the Butterworth-Judson Company, located in the Newark meadows at Plum Point Lane and Avenue R along the Passaic River (see location no. 6 on map below), received a major order for gun cotton from France. Maas & Waldstein helped to fulfill the contract and built a special plant for this product on property nearby Butterworth-Judson, which likely supplied the acid needed for nitration. The firm earned $2.6 million net income in 1917, 90 percent coming from the gun cotton contract. The firm also made for the French government the highly explosive picric acid, used in artillery shells.
African-Americans were an important part of the workforce. The chemical, explosives and rubber industries of the North needed large numbers of workers during World War I. The proliferation of chemical plants and munitions works in New Jersey and New York gave attractive targets for German saboteurs. Sabotage by German agents was a constant threat after the explosion of the Black Tom munitions depot in New York harbor in 1916. Staffing explosives manufacturing units with African-Americans made it difficult for German saboteurs to infiltrate their ranks. (See "Spies and Dyes")
Agents were sent to the South to recruit African-American men with the promise of good pay and housing assistance. They received $1 for every man recruited with ads such as:
"Men wanted at once. Good steady employment for colored. Thirty and 29.5 cents per hour. Weekly payments. Good warm sanitary quarters free. Best community privileges. Towns of Newark and Jersey City. Fifteen minutes by car line offer cheap and suitable homes for men with families. For out of town parties of ten or more cheap transportation will be arranged. Only reliable men who stay on the job are wanted."
African-American newspapers had an important role in recruiting Southern African-Americans for work in Northern industries. Some ads used blatant scare tactics as in The Chicago Defender’s National Edition, read widely in the South, which placed Northern help wanted ads along side detailed accounts of lynching in the South. The Chicago Defender exclaimed, “To die from the bite of frost is far more glorious than at the hands of the mob.”
In 1918 Maas & Waldstein employed 1,000 men in the wet nitrocellulose area and 100 men in chemicals production. A major fire took place in 1919, caused by friction in the machinery in a long concrete building filled with benzene vapor. This building was near the Passaic River end of the plant and the fire spread to the bridge of the adjoining Erie Railroad. The Kearny Fire Department was called and put out the bridge fire. Newark's fireboat responded and threw water on the buildings from the Passaic River. The fire luckily started when hundreds of employees were at lunch so there were no casualties. Three buildings were damaged. Drums of benzene and alcohol stored in the yards exploded, sending up a shower of iron shrapnel. The entire plant was worth $1,000,000 with the damage estimated at $100,000.
When the war ended in 1918, orders for guncotton and picric acid were cancelled. The manufacturing units that Maas & Waldstein had built on property just south of the Butterworth-Judson plant was now surplus. In 1919 the Tanners Products Company of Chicago purchased the "B-1" plant situated at Avenue R and the Passaic River, near the Newark Transfer (see location no. 30 on map below). Newark was the leather manufacturing capital of the U.S. and provided a ready market for tanning compounds.
The Organic Salt and Acid Company, established in 1917 in Long Island City bought the "B-2" plant from Maas & Waldstein, including a 12-acre plot on the west side of Avenue R (see location no. 22 on map below). The existing buildings were modified and new buildings were erected on the vacant plot. This company made organic chemicals for pharmaceuticals. Their product line included salicyclic acid and its salts and derivatives; ortho, meta, and para cresotinic acids; triphenyl phosphate; tricresyl phosphate; benzyl alcohol; and benzyl benzoate. The company was sold in 1925 to the Purity Commercial Alcohol Corporation. Maas & Waldstein experienced another devastating fire in 1928 after an explosion. The three alarm fire drew hundreds of spectators. The damage was limited by the courageous action of 125 workers to remove 500 drums of lacquer from the danger zone. A total of 25 fire engines and 5 fire boats responded, confining the blaze to one building.
The plant expanded in 1944 with the purchase of three acres with 245 feet of frontage on the Passaic River. A new lacquer was developed for military use in the tropics. The application of this lacquer to communication equipment gave protection from high humidity and fungus.
Gus Klinkenstein was president of the company from the mid-1930s. He was previously director of the research staff which included 9 chemists, 2 engineers, and 8 technicians. Research was devoted to finishes for wood, metal, composites and leather; synthetic resins; and plasticizers. The "Plextone" finishes were introduced in the mid 1950s. These were novel multicolored lacquers for floor and wall coverings. The unusual lacquer looked like colored rice particles floating in water. In 1975 a two alarm fire followed an explosion at the plant.
The plant closed around 1990 and was named a Superfund site. The abandoned facility had approximately 370 containers, mostly 55-gallon drums, containing hazardous wastes. A large number of 5-gallon containers of off-specification paint were stored in one of the buildings. Containers at the facility contained flammable or combustible material, and primary contaminants included paints, lacquers, thinners, flammable solvents, pigments and corrosives. There were the threats of direct contact and fire and / or explosion. The site was secured and leaking containers were repacked. All containers outside the building were restaged and stored inside another building for security. Today the site is still standing with derelict buildings that are popular with graffiti artists and hobos seeking shelter.
(original link: http://www.coloran...MaasWaldstein.html)
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The moderator rating is a neutral rating of the content quality, photography, and coolness of this location.
This location has not yet been rated by a moderator.
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This location's validation is current. It was last validated by
Emperor Wang on 10/12/2023 6:03 PM.
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on Oct 12 23 at 18:03, Emperor Wang validated this location
on Oct 12 23 at 18:02, Emperor Wang changed the following: History
on Oct 12 23 at 18:01, Emperor Wang changed the following: History
on Oct 12 23 at 18:00, Emperor Wang changed the following: History
on Oct 12 23 at 17:58, Emperor Wang changed the following: History
on Oct 12 23 at 17:56, Emperor Wang changed the following: History
on Oct 12 23 at 15:19, fr00tCake added some pictures to a gallery
on Oct 12 23 at 15:18, fr00tCake created a new gallery
on Oct 12 23 at 15:18, fr00tCake changed the following: Status, Accessibility, Recommendation, Description
on Mar 31 12 at 16:42, Opheliaism validated this location
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