Walford Industrial Park (Cleveland, Ohio)

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The 10 building, 625,000 sq. ft., 26.9 ac. Walford Industrial Park was formerly the site of the West Boulevard plant of the Industrial Rayon Corporation. It is presently home to a number of industrial, warehousing and other users.

Industrial Rayon Corporation

The Industrial Rayon Corporation originated with the establishment, in 1916, of the Industrial Fibre Corporation, which was affiliated with the Turin, Italy based synthetic fiber manufacturer Snia Viscosa. The Cleveland plant was constructed in the same year. Rayon was the first man-made fiber and was produced from cellulose derived from wood chips.

In 1925, a group of American investors formed the Industrial Rayon Corporation and purchased the Industrial Fibre Corporation. Following the acquisition of the Cleveland plant, the new company built a second plant in Covington, Virginia. The Cleveland plant produced rayon for use in automobile tire cord and industrial belting. In the late 1920s, it was the fourth largest rayon producer in the U.S. and the largest producer of rayon for tire cord.

In 1937, the company built a new plant in Painesville, Ohio, which incorporated a new continuous flow process for producing rayon. During WWII the plant made rayon for parachutes. After the war the demand for rayon slackened.

In 1961, the company, then known as IRC Fibers, was purchased by Cleveland based Midland-Ross, in an effort to diversify. Following the development of other more durable synthetic fiber substitutes such as nylon and polyesters, as well as low priced competition from overseas, the demand for rayon declined drastically in the 1960s. Crucially, General Motors switched to nylon tire cord in all its new car models in 1968.

In 1969, ICR Fibers was sold to American Cyanamid which closed operations shortly thereafter.


www.clevelandmemory.org/irc/more.html