EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2018.
MANSFIELD — Westinghouse left a very large footprint in Mansfield.
That is a literal statement and a figurative one: Quite literally there is significant acreage in the city’s streetscape that has been flattened by tons of bricks and heavy machinery. Figuratively speaking, the footprint is measured by how big the shoes are that anyone else could possible fill.
In terms of concrete and brick, the plant began modestly enough in 1918 with five floors on four acres of Fifth Street; in the next decades it grew to encompass 42 acres under 16 buildings.
In terms of human resources and income for families in Mansfield, the factory entered the community with 125 jobs in 1920, and topped out at 8,177 in 1955. At one time in Mansfield’s history, fully one-third of the city’s wage-employed workforce all went to work at that one place.
There were families in Mansfield who were proud to have multiple generations of personnel following their parents’ footsteps into Westinghouse.
A place like that looms large in a community’s sense of well-being, and casts a long shadow through its history.
Here is a look at some ways in which Westinghouse shaped our story.
How do you know the clothes are dry? Your Westinghouse dryer will let you know: listen
Westinghouse, as a source of Mansfield pride, has largely moved into the past.
But the effects of it having been here are not gone at all, and will remain until a generation is born who no longer hears the tales of what it meant to our city — how it built the homes of our community and how it touched homes all across America.
This image of the Westinghouse power plant in 1920 holds special significance to 21st century Mansfield: signifying the dynamic power inherent in a fresh start, both then and now.
One of the flywheels of this massive mechanism stands today, on East Fourth Street, near the factory grounds. Rescued from the rubble, displayed and dedicated by Rex’s Landscaping; the 6-ton cog is maintained as “a tribute to generations of local people who worked at Westinghouse.”
It is an imperishable steel cog which clearly signifies the circle of life, by which the past is slowly re-incorporated into a new, and a next source of community pride.
The images in this article come from many friends: Phil Stoodt, Tom Root, Hal McCuen, Gil Baird, Dee Hautzenroeder, Deb O’Brien, Richland County Chapter Ohio Genealogical Society, Sherman Room of the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library.
