Historic Tuscaloosa's Memory Of The Week: Central Foundry & The Origins Of Holt

Editor's Note: As part of an ongoing partnership with our friends at Historic Tuscaloosa, Patch will be bringing you a quick piece of local history each week provided by those working hard to preserve the memories of our community.

TUSCALOOSA, AL — It's a new year, so let's get it started with our first Memory of the Week for 2024, which takes us back over a century to look at the origin story of one of our communities.

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Located at 1700 Holt Road — near the current home of Nucor Steel's Tuscaloosa mill — the Central Foundry at one time was the largest cast-iron pipe maker in the world, according to Historic Tuscaloosa's Event & Digital Media Coordinator Sarah-Katherine Helms.

Helms said the Central Coal and Iron Co. of South Pittsburg, Tennessee, initially found land near Tuscaloosa and named its site and company village after one of its officers — Frank Holt.

She explained that coal for the foundry came from Kellerman, which is just north of Brookwood in Tuscaloosa County. Helms then said that in 1902 the Mobile and Ohio Railroad built a 13-mile railroad to support operations at the Central Foundry. This would later be extended 16 miles of railroad track.

First opening on the southern bank of the Black Warrior River in 1901, the Central Foundry can trace its roots to New York, eventually spreading to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and Alabama.

The company would go on to open three locations in Alabama in Anniston, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa, with Frank Holt hiring workers from Birmingham and Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the operations in Tuscaloosa.

The Tuscaloosa County School System says Central Iron and Coal purchased additional land and built 350 homes for its workers. It also built a school, though — Holt School — which saw its first graduation class in 1910.

The school system also cited on longtime employee in explaining that the men that came to work at the foundry were called "ironmen" because they had experience in working with iron. This would later be adopted as the mascot nickname for Holt High School when The company later gave control of the Holt School to the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education.

But during those early years, the foundry survived the Great Depression and business boomed during World War II and the Korean War.

One Tuscaloosa News story recalled that the foundry produced cast-iron pipe and fittings for the nation's many new Army posts. This same article says a University of Alabama professor then suggested that the foundry shift from making pipe to making ordnance.

This would ultimately include land mines, artillery shells and hand grenades.

"The demand soared, and the workforce, which included many women, doubled to 1,200," the unnamed author wrote. "Their efforts won them the Army-Navy 'E' Award for efficiency. The women wore the pins on their lapels with the same pride as the men."

Helms said the foundry ultimately declared bankruptcy and closed in the early 1980s.

Click here to learn more about our friends at Historic Tuscaloosa and be on the lookout for the next installment of our Memory of the Week.

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