History fascinates me and I would like to pass on to you my love of the "why things are.” I would liked to tell you about the building you visit or work out in now (2025) but first I have to go back to 1938.

The company, DuPont, was considering 14 locations for their first nylon plant. They finally settled on Seaford, DE and bought 609 acres on the Nanticoke River in West Seaford, DE.

Until DuPont came, Seaford’s principal industries were manufactures of fruit baskets, making fertilizer, can-ning farm products, and the packing of oysters.

Then, December 12, 1939 production started on Seaford’s Nylon plant. The first ever to be designed for an operation never before undertaken. It would cost DuPont $8 million dollars. I was the world’s first nylon plant and was constructed in Seaford due to cheap land, the railroad, the Nanticoke River and it was near to Dupont’s headquarters in Wilmington, DE. There were 850 workers in December 1939.

Novel in the American chemical industry, nylon was the first totally synthetic fiber to be fashioned into consumer products. Basically made from coal, air and water, nylon has properties superior to it’s natural counter-parts (silk). Nylon revolutionized the textile industry and Seaford’s plant was the first!

During its first year, the plant operated around the clock, producing enough nylon for 64 million pairs of nylon stockings. During WWII, military parachutes, mosquito netting, and tents were made in the Seaford plant. Japanese silk supplies were cut off by WWII just as nylon was being produced.

Unfortunately, now the old plant is controlled by the company called Invista with a work force of less than 100.

During its heyday, DuPont had its own newspaper, "The Threadline” with its own staff. The plant ran on 3-8 hour shifts-work never stopped. Our streets were congest-ed during shift changes. Train cars filled with coal moved along the rails to the plant daily and a hospital was built for our community.(*side remark: Seaford’s hospital was rated the only 5 star hospital on the Eastern Shore for 2024!-we even beat Christiana-they were rated 4 star)