Demolition of 66-year-old ALCOA office begins

From Staff Reports

The end is near for the old South Plant administrative office building of Tennessee Operations of ALCOA Inc. on Hall Road.

Complete demolition of the building is several days away, but workers have started salvaging significant elements from the interior and exterior of the 66-year-old building, Christy Newman, ALCOA community relations manager for Tennessee Operations, said Wednesday.

There's a hole where the marble-lined front entrance once stood. On Wednesday, the marble at the side entrance still surrounded the aluminum and glass doors.

The company is saving much of the brick and marble from the building, and some of the preserved materials will be used to create mementos that will be sold with proceeds going to the Charles M. Hall Alumni Association's college scholarship fund.

A historical marker will be made of parts of the building to serve as an official entrance to ALCOA's South Plant.

The building was constructed in 1942 and over the years housed departments such as plant management, human resources, engineering and Tapoco dispatch operations.

The structure is no longer habitable and has been vacant since 2004, but the company plans to rehabilitate the land and memorialize the importance of the building to the community's history.

The 1.5-acre property will initially be grassed over, but discussions are taking place with the University of Tennessee's agriculture department to explore planting native grasses, trees, shrubbery and other landscaping on the site as part of ALCOA's "Ten Million Trees" program.

The "Ten Million Trees" program demonstrates the company's global commitment to the environment and offers employees and the community a personal role in helping ALCOA live up to that commitment by planting 10 million trees by 2020.

More information can be found at www.alcoa.com.