General Electric Specialty Control Plant
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General Electric Specialty Control Plant
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| Location | 1 Solutions Way, Waynesboro, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 38°05′32″N 78°52′10″W / 38.09222°N 78.86944°WCoordinates: 38°05′32″N 78°52′10″W / 38.09222°N 78.86944°W |
| Area | 25.5 acres (10.3 ha) |
| Built | 1927, 1953, 1960, 1969 |
| Built by | J. A. Jones Construction Company |
| Architect | Whitman, Requardt & Associates |
| NRHP Reference # | 12000180 |
| VLR # | 136-5055 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | March 29, 2012 |
| Designated VLR | December 15, 2011 |
General Electric Specialty Control Plant is a 115 acres (47 ha) historic factory complex located at Waynesboro, Virginia. The complex includes three contributing buildings, one contributing site (the original formal entry drive), and two contributing structures. The historic buildings and structures are a 340,000-square-foot main plant building (1953–1955, 1960), the original water tower, water tank, a group of evolved and interconnected construction sheds built from 1953 to the present, and an airplane hangar (c. 1927). The property, a former airport, was acquired by General Electric in 1953. The Waynesboro plant was one of some 120 individual operating departments created as part of a decentralization effort by the General Electric Corporation. The Specialty Control Plant was responsible for the development of breakthrough technologies in areas ranging from America’s military efforts to space travel to computer technology. The facility was sold to GENICOM on October 21, 1983.
The property was originally on General Electric Drive. After the GENICOM sale, it was renamed GENICOM Drive. In 1994, GENICOM internally reorganized into two separate companies: Enterprising Solutions Services Company (ESSC) and Document Solutions Company (GENICOM). The road north of Hopeman Parkway was renamed Solutions Way while the southern part remained GENICOM Drive at the request of property owners in that area.
In 2000, GENICOM entered bankruptcy and the building was sold to the newly formed Solutions Way Management. The substantially downsized GENICOM operated as a tenant through its 2003 merger that formed TallyGenicom until a further bankruptcy and dissolution in 2009.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Solutions Way Management rents much of the facility to companies for light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution.
In the early 1950s the General Electric Company was a highly centralized operation with six major manufacturing "works", as they were called. They were located in Schenectady, NY; Pittsfield, MA; Lynn, MA; Philadelphia, PA, Erie, PA; and Ft. Wayne, IN. At that time, under Ralph Cordiner's presidency, a major decentralization occurred whereby larger business groups were divided into individual operating departments, with new plants built in many different locations across the country.
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