Bethlehem Lackawanna Steel Mill Brownfields

 place with historical importance, brownfield land

Certified in 2003 as a US Government-aided 'Brownfield' redevelopment area, the former site of the Bethlehem Lackawanna Steel Mill is now the site of the Port of Buffalo, a mixed breakbulk faculty presently expanding its market share in the Great Lakes, several light and medium industrial concerns and a 14-unit wind farm on the property's Western edge called 'Steel Winds'.

Purchased for a cost of $1.1 Million dollars in 1899 this 1,300 acre portion of Lake Erie shorefront property began its transformation into what would become the world’s largest steel mill on July 14th, 1900 with the groundbreaking ceremony presided over by the officers of the Lackawanna Steel Company. Already one of the nation's largest steel concerns, the Lackawanna Steel Co had decided in the waning years of the 1800's to move their operations from Scranton, PA to this new location, drawn by the area's easy access to Great Lakes shipping and the numerous rail lines in the area.

Officially completed and beginning steel production on December 23, 1902, the sprawling steel mill soon became the largest steel production facility in the country, giving Lackawanna Steel the biggest market share in the nation until it was supplanted only by the formation of US Steel. Seeing rapid growth for its first two decades of operation, the mill and its parent company fell on considerably hard financial times in 1918 and throughout 1919, coupled with violent worker strikes and demonstrations for better working conditions and benefits. Returning briefly to profitability in 1921 the mill reached its peak size, covering more than two miles of shoreline in the city of Lackawanna and spilling over into the nearby town of Hamburg, while employing several thousand workers. Lack of investment in new technology by the board of directors came to heavily effect the mill's ability to compete with more modern mills, and after the company posted very large deficits in 1922 it was absorbed by the giant Bethlehem Steel for a mere $60 Million dollars, now believed to be probably less than half what the company was worth.

Bethlehem Steel capitalized on their cheap purchase price of the aging mill and put $40 Million dollars into bringing the facility up to modern standards, gearing it's production to the burgeoning automobile market. As a result of this investment and Bethlehem's considerable industry connections, the mill boomed in production during the 1920's, becoming highly profitable and managing to maintain its operations through the Great Depression years of the early 1930's. Looming war clouds on the horizon towards the end of the 1930's brought increased business to the mill as America geared up for war, and at the outbreak of World War Two the mill was in prime condition to supply steel of all types to American industrial centers working at full capacity. By 1943 the mill once again regained the title of world’s largest steel production facility, sprawling over more than its original 1,300 acres and employing over 20,000 workers on round the clock shifts.

Postwar, the thoroughly modernized mill remained at near-wartime production levels and continued to employ nearly 20,000 workers for the next several decades of prosperity in the US. Further modernized in the 1960's with the addition of basic oxygen furnaces, the mill continued its remarkable output into the 1970's, helping its parent company set production records in 1973 of 23.7 million tons of raw steel and 16.3 million tons of finished steel, totals which trumped those achieved during WWII. The 1970's also brought significantly increased competition from foreign steelmakers in the US market, and by 1977 the decision was made by Bethlehem Steel's officers to allow the Lackawanna Mill to become obsolete in favor of a new facility built in Burns Harbor, Indiana.

Environmental regulations and increased state property taxes further curtailed the mills profitability, and by late 1977 the workforce in the mill had been reduced to 8,500. By 1979 Bethlehem decided to cease investing in new steel production methods at the mill and workforce reductions continued to freefall until the formal announcement in 1982 that the majority of Bethlehem’s operations at the mill would cease. Formally ending operations on October 15th, 1982, the closure of the mill after 82 years in operation spelled disaster for the surrounding communities, as unemployment skyrocketed with laid off steel workers and those who worked in ancillary trades. Property tax rates for the citizens of Lackawanna rose almost as quickly as unemployment, as they were required to shoulder the 66% of the property tax revenue formerly held by Bethlehem Steel. The severe economic depression and resulting exodus of much of the working class which gripped the majority of far Western New York following the closure of the mill lasted for decades.