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Although this company was not located in Norwood*, it had many ties to Norwood. Even in Norwood's early days, there were workers and managers of this plant who lived in Norwood. H. L. Harrington was mentioned in the 1894 Norwood water works celebration document, Norwood, Her Homes and Her People, as being "with Ault & Wiborg." The company provided the printing inks for that book.
The company was started in 1850 and for a long time was located at Montgomery Road and Dana Avenue (originally named Langdon Avenue), just to the south of the Norwood corporation limits. In 1938 it was described, by the WPA book They Built a City - 150 Years of Industrial Cincinnati, as a unit of Interchemical Companies. On July 19,1990, the plant was destroyed by a terrible explosion, which also damaged many neighboring homes and business, killed one worker and injured seventy-some others. The blast even shattered the storefront windows of stores a mile away on Montgomery Road in Norwood. At that time the facility was owned by BASF and was making chemicals used to coat the insides of cans. The site was cleared and left vacant. In 2001(?) the company donated the land to Xavier University. Tentative plans were to develop a parking lot for the school and a retail development. By 2007, the University still planned to use the land with other properties it has purchased and otherwise acquired nearby in Norwood. It now owns the old Zumbiel land and buildings on Cleneay Avenue and other properties on that street and Montgomery Road. *However, the 1909-10 and 1915-16 Williams' Norwood Directories did list The Ault and Wiborg Company Varnish Works at 1741 Northside Avenue and 1741 Cleneay Avenue, respectively. Northside Avenue and the western part of Cleneay Avenue are the same street. Also, in the 1954 Directory, Ault and Wiborg Corp., paint manufacturer, was listed at 4625 Floral Avenue, north of Park Avenue. A few years later this may have been the address (actually 1742 Cleneay—which is across the street) of The Cincinnati Chemical Company, and even later, the property of the Zumbiel Box Company, and today, the Xavier University. |