Project 065 ◄| Project List |► Project 067
FBG Project M-066
• Source: Yost (city only)
• Source: FBG-System
Mill for Champion Coated Paper Co
- Hamilton, OH
- Contract: Aug 1906
Completed late 1907 - Engineer: Geo. F. Hardy
- Standing in adapted use
This project, a followup contract with Champion Paper from that for the enormous Canton, NC mill, was the companion finishing mill in Hamilton, Ohio. It was to take the pulp output from Champion Fibre and turn out finished coated paper.
It is another in FBG's list of astonishing projects, this time in sheer scale. The mill was several connected buildings running for more than a quarter mile along the Great Miami River, with a 2,000 foot concrete hydraulic wall holding back the river. The rail lines were elevated to building height on riverside concrete trusses. It was featured across three pages of the 1907 System ad and in a number of photos in 1908's Concrete System. It is one of FBG's projects of a scale to be measured accurately in Google Earth (currently 1230 feet long).
There are notices from January 1907 that a tunnel was built under North B Street to connect the new mill with the existing plant.
It is not clear when the new mill was completed. Notices of labor issues appear in May 1907; a photo of a largely unfinished interior is dated 26 Jun; and a trade notice indicates machinery will be installed and operational by January, 1908. It can be assumed that primary construction was completed by early winter.
As the Canton mill was claimed to be the largest pulp mill in the world, and is still among the largest, the Hamilton mill was believed to be the largest coated-paper finishing plant in the US for most of its working life. It was closed down after Champion merged with International in 2012 and ceased to exist as a company.
FBG Provenance
- Multiple trade notices.
- Ad in System.
Status
- Standing and being redeveloped as indoor sports center.
- Google Street View — from the northeast, over the Great Miami River.
- Google Street View — from the north, along the building front.
Clips
- Butler County Democrat (Hamilton, OH), 14 Jun 1906:
- Butler County Democrat (Hamilton, OH), 26 Jul 1906:
- Real Estate Record & Building Guide, 25 Aug 1906:
- Bridgeman's Magazine, 1 Sep 1906:
- Journal-News (Hamilton, OH), 4 Oct 1906:
- Butler County Democrat (Hamilton, OH), 9 May 1907:
- From System ad, Nov 1907. Note the interior shot is dated 26 Jun 1907:
- Paper Makers Journal, 15 Aug 1907:
- The Hamilton mill today (Google Earth image, Aug 2021). The construction at lower left is an expansion of the sports complex, on the site of what used to be the rest of the Champion Paper plant. The yellow measuring line is 1,200 feet long; it is believed that the original mill ran further to the right (south) by at least one more segment. (Note also the bizarre false-front of the original plant building facade along North B Street and short remnants of each building; the effect is more pronounced if you look around using Google Maps street and aerial views}:
Links
- Concrete System, Frank Gilbreth, 1909. Contains some 50 photos of the plant's construction and additional text. Google Books link
- https://www.spookynooksports.com/hamilton — The indoor sports complex being built in part using the existing Champion mill.