Pit casting was essentially a medieval process, dating back 300 years. The mansion is now on the National Register of Historic Places.Īll the 12 plants in the original corporation manufactured cast iron pipe using a method known as pit casting. Pipe acquired the mansion in its 1899 takeover, and this graceful building served as its corporate headquarters until 1953. McNeal also built a significant mansion adjoining the plant. This was a large industrial complex built along the Delaware River in Burlington, New Jersey. The McNeal Pipe and Foundry Company was even older, founded in 1866 by Andrew McNeal. It began with one pit and had eight by the time it was bought up by U.S. It was the first pit cast pipe maker in the South. The Chattanooga Foundry and Pipe Company dated to 1882. Some of the companies that made up the original U.S. Its plants were in Bessemer and Anniston, Alabama, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in Buffalo, New York, and as far west as Ohio and Wisconsin. United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry, however, put together companies operating in different regions of the country. The Birmingham, Alabama, region led the country in iron production, putting out over three times the tonnage of the Pennsylvania region. The iron industry was booming at the turn of the century, with high demand at home and in Europe. The Alabama Consolidated Coal and Iron Company and the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company were already vigorous rivals by 1899, and that year also saw the formation of another large combination of iron and steel companies, Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron, which would become a part of U.S. This was a time of massive consolidation in the pipe industry, which had grown up over the previous 40 or so years, mostly in the South. This new company put together 12 existing companies spread across eight states. Pipe was founded in 1899 as the United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company. Pipe is the key component of Walter Industries's industrial products division.īig Combination at the Turn of the Century Walter Industries is a $1.3 billion conglomerate with interests in home building, home financing, mineral, and industrial products. Since 1969, the company has been wholly owned by Walter Industries, Inc., formerly known as the Jim Walters Corp. Pipe brought in new pipe casting technology, which for the first time made uniform mass production a possibility in the industry. The company also sells to an international market. Pipe also operates many regional sales offices and is involved in markets in all sectors of the United States. Castings division plant in Anniston, Alabama. Pipe operates manufacturing plants in Bessemer and North Birmingham, Alabama Chattanooga, Tennessee Burlington, New Jersey and Union City, California. The company also manufactures pipe fittings, valves, joints, and hydrants. Ductile iron pipe is used principally to carry water and wastewater. Pipe) is one of the nation's leading manufacturers of ductile iron pipe. The United States Pipe and Foundry Company (U.S.