Lamson & Sessions More Than Just Tainted Soil

A reader recently told me they thought our coverage of the has been unfair.

We've primarily focused on the news element: the fact EPA officials believe , potentially leaching dangerous chemicals into the surrounding groundwater.

But what we've not reported in-depth is the long history of successful manufacturing at the property — and how that success helped feed, house and school generations of Kent families.

Manufacturing at the site dates to the 1890s, long before Lamson & Sessions bought out its predecessor, Falls Rivet and Machine Company, in 1921.

Already successful, the fastener manufacturer Falls Rivet (aka Kent Machine Co.) reported employing 125 people in 1913 and "voiced bright prospects for business" in a business survey conducted that year, recorded in his book Portage Pathways.

"Subsequently, the company continued to expand" after the acquisition by Lamson & Sessions, according to records on the firm in the Kent State University Library Special Collections Archive.

What did this mean for Kent? Jobs. Families were fed, children were clothed and homes kept thanks to the brisk business done at 800 Mogadore Road throughout the early, mid and late 20th century.

That brisk business strengthened the community in more ways than one, as the success also fostered civic contributions by the company.

Lamson & Sessions donated some of the land that today makes up Kent's flagship park: .

After floods damaged the historic Stone Arch Dam downtown in 1904 and 1913, "the dam was damaged, all but washed away," Troyer wrote in his book. In 1924, Lamson & Sessions helped restore the the historic dam by subscribing $500 toward the project with the help of then-Mayor Roy H. Smith. (Smith founded Falls Rivet — you might also recognize his name adorning the shelter house at Fred Fuller Park.)

Railroad yards faded and river mills stopped working, but nuts, rivets and fasteners continued taking shape at 800 Mogadore Road as the automobile industry grew.

Throughout the last century, undoubtedly thousands of Kent residents worked at 800 Mogadore Road at one time or another. Some estimates put the max number of employees at the site at one time near 1,000.

Lamson & Sessions continued to enjoy success well into the early 1970s, when about 400 people worked on site and the EPA was just starting to take notice of on the site.

Through interviews with former workers, I heard similar stories about how a father helped a son get a summer job, or how a father-in-law helped his daughter's husband find a lifetime of employment.

I heard tales of how the people there were so great to work with — after all, they were Kent folk. And I heard stories of how the company frequently rented or paid for employees to attend area amusements parks, including Geauga Lake, as part of the annual company picnic.

“It was a very, very nice place to work," Howard Boyle told me. He worked two summer gigs there, thanks to his father. "Very wonderful people. And they produced a tremendous product that was used primarily in the auto industry.”

Today, little trace of that successful manufacturing past remains at the property, other than a sealed-off portion at the southern end where what may be the last of any groundwater pollutants are thought to be sealed behind an underground containment system.

But the future may be bright for 800 Mogadore Road. If the current property owner, Memphis, TN-based Thomas Betts Corp., is successful in cleaning up the property, then a new era of production may return to one of Kent's most successful manufacturing properties.