The Keystone Glue Factory, Later Glyco

 
The Keystone Glue Factory
Later Glyco, then Lonza, today Arxada

Located on Trenton Ave in the west end of Williamsport.

Inside the Glue Factory

Ground was broken for the glue factory on May 23, 1907  

Five buildings were constructed, including  storage buildings, drying buildings and a boiler building with six boilers. The coal needed to operate these boilers made Keystone Glue one of the leading consumers of coal in the Williamsport for a time.

To help facilitate the transport of workers, the local trolley company had trolley tracks laid almost to the entrance of the plant and the Pennsylvania Railroad ran a switch to the glue works.

According to the letterhead, in 1926 the company had a factory in "West Williamsport" [Newberry] and South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

An article in the Grit in  1933  described operations at Keystone Glue. The article stated that the  manufacturing of glue was a continuous process  - It's chimneys churned out smoke for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.    Ninety  men  were employed the plant and it reported that more than 4 million pounds of hide glue was produced there.

A Page from The Glue Handbook

Published By Keystone Glue Co in 1934

A new stock room was built in 1932.  It had a battery of 18 rectangular milk-of-lime vats and 12 cylindrical waste vats.  

The Keystone Glue Plant operated until 1950.

In 1952, Glyco acquired the  glue company buildings, making extensive rennovations.

The name Glyco came from “glycols,” one of the types of chemicals produced by the company.  The company  produced materials such as emulsifiers, and numerous other chemical compounds used in a variety of products. 

In January 1986, Glyco became a fully operating subsidiary of Lonza, a Swiss chemical company.

In 1986, Glyco became a fully operating subsidiary of Lonza.  In 2021, the name was changed to Arxada.

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October 1907

April 1952