Chemical is a hamlet in Benner Township, Centre County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. It is a part of

Buffalo Run Valley Buffalo Run is a stream, creek in Centre County, Pennsylvania, Centre County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It flows from Skytop, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Skytop to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, Bellefonte through the communities of Waddle, ...

and the larger

Nittany Valley Nittany Valley is an erosion, eroded anticline, anticlinal valley located in Centre County, Pennsylvania, Centre County, Pennsylvania. It is separated from the Bald Eagle Valley by Bald Eagle Mountain and from Penns Valley by Mount Nittany. The va ...

Geography

Chemical is west of Coleville, south of Valley View, and east of Continental Courts.

History

In 1907 the Chemical Lime Co. opened two limestone plants along the

Bellefonte Central Railroad The Bellefonte Central Railroad was a shortline connecting Bellefonte and State College, Pennsylvania. Constructed in the late 19th century to haul local iron ore to furnaces in the Bellefonte region, it later hauled freight traffic to Penn Sta ...

. A third plant was opened in 1937 with the country's longest rotary kiln at 400 feet. In 1940 the

National Gypsum Company National Gypsum Company is a company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that produces drywall gypsum boards in the US. It has 17 gypsum board plants in the US and presents itself as a fully integrated building products manufacturer. It is a priv ...

, headquartered in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, took over operations, and closed the older plants while expanding the newest plant, nicknamed the "Gyp". The limestone mined at the plant had relatively few imperfections due to a high concentration of calcium carbonate. The three largest limestone companies in Centre County, Standard, National Gypsum, and Warner, extracted over a million tons of limestone and employed nearly a thousand workers at their peak. In the 1950s Centre County was Pennsylvania's largest producer of lime. In 1975 the Gyp was sold to

Domtar Domtar Corporation is a leading, privately held manufacturer of diversified forest products, with a workforce of roughly 14,000 employees in more than 60 locations across North America. While Domtar operated independently for several decades a ...

. Dotmar closed and sold the plant in 1982 during an economic recession that affected steel production. The plant was reopened by Con-Lime in 1983. The Gyp was bought by Graymont, a Canadian company, in 2001. Graymont moved all mining and manufacturing operations to a site in Pleasant Gap.

References

Unincorporated communities in Centre County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania {{CentreCountyPA-geo-stub