Kansas City Soap Plant Chronology
| 1903 | 23 acres of land purchased in spring of 1903. |
|
1904 |
Original plant construction. A critical housing shortage exists and many P&G people are living in tents along the bluff north of the factory. Production of Denver's Best, Ivory, Lenox, and White Water bar soaps begins in December |
|
1905 |
Packaging of soap begins on 1/2/05. Shipment of soap begins on 1/9/05. |
| 1915 |
Pension & Benefit Plan introduced. First Winter Dividend Day and first Summer Dividend Day picnic. Building 2 started. |
|
1917 |
Boiler House stack built Alkali (Building 33) and Silicate (Building 34) Departments built. |
|
1920's |
Plant sits on about 23 acres of land and produces kettle soaps Ivory, Lenox, and White Water bar soaps. Major facilities were the Kettle House, Glycerine House, Lye House, and Silicate House, Framing Houses for packing and warehousing. Building 46 (Tallow Bleach) completed. |
| 1923 | Guaranteed Employment at Kansas City. |
| 1927 | Milled Soap production begins for Camay, Lady Godiva, and Olive. |
| 1929 |
Expanded Kettle House, adding 5 additional large soap kettles. Two full-size Granules Towers were erected to meet Oxydol production schedule. |
| 1933 | Wage Surveys began at Kansas City. |
| late 1930's | Appearance of Dreft and Duz Towers signal beginning of synthetic granules. The north side has not been purchased yet. |
| 1936 | First paid vacation of one week to all hourly employees. |
|
1937 |
Employees' Labor Association organized. Kansas City first packaged synthetic detergent. |
| 1939 | First paid vacation of two weeks to all hourly employees. |
| 1940 | Improved method developed for making Ivory Soap and Ivory Flakes. |
| 1945 | Profit-Sharing Trust Plan began at the Kansas City plant. |
| 1947 | First paid vacation of three weeks to all hourly and weekly employees with > 25 years of service. |
| late 1940's | Making Synthetic Granules built approximately 1947 east of building 2. Hydrolyzer operation built in 1948 west of Kettle House marks the beginning of the end of kettle-made bar soaps. |
|
1945 |
Victory in Europe (VE) holiday. 179 KC Plant employees served in WWII. Victory in Japan (VJ) holiday. |
| 1947 | First Open House Family Day at the plant. |
| 1948 |
Profit-Sharing Dividend Plan - B started at Kansas City plant. 1,582,623 ending manhours without an LT accident. |
| 1950 | Land north of plant purchased and plant size reaches 64 acres. Sodium reduction Alcohol Plant built to support fast growing synthetic granules market. |
| 1951 | Infamous flood of 1951. Plant closed from July 13 until July 25 when Tide production started back up. |
| 1951 | Group Life Insurance began at the Kansas City plant. |
| 1952 | 2,356,105 manhours without a LT accident. |
| 1953 | Fatty Alcohol Department began operations. |
| 1954 | Korean War. 77 KC Plant employees served in KoreanWar. |
| 1956 | First paid vacation of four weeks to all hourly and weekly employees with > 25 years of service. |
|
1957 |
$2,408,000 Zest-making facilities completed 11/57. Basic detergent started in September. Liquid bleach started in December. |
| 1959 | Construction of Warehouse begins. |
| 1966 | Plant at its near maximums of operations and enrollment. Synthetic granules, bar soaps, and Hydrolyzer is in full swing. Building 10 warehouse operations, tallow alcohol and amines production in the Alcohol plant. Amines Department and AGS Department operating. Chlorox is being produced and packed in northeast corner of plant. |
| 1974 | Building 100, northside dressing room, and North Shop are built. Liquids are now made in MSL on reactors and mixers. Chlorox building has been site-cleared and building 30 warehouse is completed. |
| 1980 | Granules operation is shut down. Leased nitrogen generator is constructed west of north side dressing room. |
| 1981 | Dawn packing room is operating in building 10. |
| 1983 | Granules site-clearing has begun. |
| 1985 | Nitrogen generator, west of the North Shop, has been operating 4 years and has its own highway leading to it. A new Tank Farm is being built in Amines. |
| 1987 | Kansas Avenue bridge construction started. Site-clearing of Tide has started. Drop lot north of building 30 has been established. |
| 1988 | Hydrolyzer collar has shut down. |
| 1989 | Kansas Avenue bridge construction complete. Building 1 and Hydrolyzer operation have been site-cleared. The Amines Tank Farm has been expanded. Excavation for ethanol and ammonia tanks for MSL has started. |
| 1991 | Hazardous materials storage has moved to northwest corner of plant as part of upcoming ester distillation construction. Excavation work for movement of methanol, sodium methylate, and epi storage has started. Front parking lot has been expanded. |
| 1993 | KC flood causes plant to shut down for 3 days. |
| 1994 | Building 75 constructed. Est. Distillation expansion complete. Front parking lot complete. North parking lot & employee entrance closed. Building 2A, 3, 4, 5 site-cleared; building 11, 12, 13 site-clearance in progress. |
| 1997 | Alcohol site-cleared. LDL expansion. Business consolidation. |
| 2000 | Distribution outsourced. Reshipper expansion for lines 8, 9, 10 & CLPs. |
| 2001 | Amines expansion complete. SB construction complete. BoHo expansion. Bottle-blowing facility complete. |
| 2002 | MSL, Kettle House & old BoHo demolition complete. |