Atlantic Steel Company Records
Collection
Collection number: ahc.MSS929
Scope and Contents of the Records
This collection consists of the administrative, financial, legal, and marketing records of the Atlantic Steel Company. Included are minutes for the Board of Directors, the Atlantic Building Systems, Inc. and Dixisteel Buildings, Inc. Boards and other groups. The records also include audit reports, annual reports, land records, catalogs and sales notebooks, contracts, leases, agreements, tax certificates, and insurance policies. The collection contains the records of the Corporate Public Relations and Advertising Department for roughly the 1950s to 1982. These records consist of The Dixisteel Ladle newsletter, subject files, speeches and files documenting company activities, newspaper clippings from the 1970s, correspondence with state and national legislators and other material that provides information on employees and Atlantic Steel history.
Dates
- 1836-2000, undated Bulk: 1901-1982
Creator
- Atlantic Steel Company (Organization)
Restrictions on Access:
This collection is open for research.
Restrictions on Use:
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. All requests to publish, quote, or reproduce must be submitted through the Kenan Research Center.
Administrative/Biographical History
The Atlantic Steel Company was chartered in 1901 as the Atlanta Steel Hoop Company to manufacture steel ties for bailing cotton and hoops for binding barrels of rosin. Lacking a local source for the steel ties and binds used to prepare these products for shipment, eight Atlanta entrepreneurs formed the company. The founders were Dr. Abner W. Calhoun, George W. Connors, Charles E. Currier, John N. Goddard, John K. Ottley, J. Carroll Payne, Samuel T. Weyman, and Frank Hawkins. In 1906 the corporate name was changed to Atlanta Steel Company. The company was reorganized and incorporated as Atlantic Steel Company in 1915 and became Atlantic Steel Industries, Inc. in 1983.
Atlantic Steel was governed by a Board of Directors overseen originally by the company president. From 1901 to 1908 the company had three presidents in succession: Samuel T. Weyman, Charles E. Currier and David Woodward. George W. Connors was the first secretary-treasurer but functioned as the chief decision maker and administrator in conjunction with the Board until his resignation in 1907. Thomas K. Glenn followed Woodward as president in 1908. He reorganized the company and added the Executive Committee, which cooperated with the president in the general management of the operation. Glenn eventually obtained complete control over both the Executive Committee and the Board. Upon his resignation as president in 1922, the position of Chairman of the Board was created to allow Glenn to remain active in company management. The presidents after Glenn were Robert Gregg (1922-1933), Charles F. Stone (1933-1947), Robert S. Lynch (1947-1958), Howard B. Johnson (1956-1965), L. Glenn Dewberry, Jr. (1965-1978), William O. Riley (1978-?), and Jesse J. Webb (?-1998).
The Dixisteel trademark was created in 1922 by Charles F. Stone. By the 1950s Atlantic Steel’s Dixisteel™ product line included cotton ties, nails, bale ties, woven wire fence, rivets, wrought washers, welding rods, metal forgings and stampings, and various types of wire products, mainly barbed and galvanized. The market for fabricated steel buildings had grown significantly by 1960 and a subsidiary, Dixisteel Buildings, Inc. (later Atlantic Building Systems, Inc.), was created to focus on this product line.
Confronted by a slumping steel industry, the company built a modernized plant in Cartersville, Georgia, in 1974. In 1979 Atlantic Steel was acquired by Ivaco, Inc. through a stock purchase. The Cartersville plant was sold in 1996, and in the following year Jacoby Development purchased the property on which the main plant was located in midtown Atlanta. Atlantic Steel ceased operations on December 31, 1998. The site is now the home of Atlantic Station, a multi-use complex of residential units, offices, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Sources: Kuniansky, Harry Richard. A Business History of Atlantic Steel Company, 1901-1968. New York: Arno Press, 1976; CorporationWiki http://www.corporationwiki.com/Georgia/Atlanta/atlantic-steel-industries-inc-4593254.aspx (15 January 2010); Atlanta Steel Co. History, Box 37, Folder 5, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. “Dixisteel in the Making”, Box 37, Folder 9, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Chronology, Box 37, Folder 5, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Jacobs, Hal. “Forging a Forgotten Century,” Creative Loafing, December 12, 1998; Southern Currents http://www.southerncurrents.com/misc/steel.htm (19 October 2009).
Atlantic Steel was governed by a Board of Directors overseen originally by the company president. From 1901 to 1908 the company had three presidents in succession: Samuel T. Weyman, Charles E. Currier and David Woodward. George W. Connors was the first secretary-treasurer but functioned as the chief decision maker and administrator in conjunction with the Board until his resignation in 1907. Thomas K. Glenn followed Woodward as president in 1908. He reorganized the company and added the Executive Committee, which cooperated with the president in the general management of the operation. Glenn eventually obtained complete control over both the Executive Committee and the Board. Upon his resignation as president in 1922, the position of Chairman of the Board was created to allow Glenn to remain active in company management. The presidents after Glenn were Robert Gregg (1922-1933), Charles F. Stone (1933-1947), Robert S. Lynch (1947-1958), Howard B. Johnson (1956-1965), L. Glenn Dewberry, Jr. (1965-1978), William O. Riley (1978-?), and Jesse J. Webb (?-1998).
The Dixisteel trademark was created in 1922 by Charles F. Stone. By the 1950s Atlantic Steel’s Dixisteel™ product line included cotton ties, nails, bale ties, woven wire fence, rivets, wrought washers, welding rods, metal forgings and stampings, and various types of wire products, mainly barbed and galvanized. The market for fabricated steel buildings had grown significantly by 1960 and a subsidiary, Dixisteel Buildings, Inc. (later Atlantic Building Systems, Inc.), was created to focus on this product line.
Confronted by a slumping steel industry, the company built a modernized plant in Cartersville, Georgia, in 1974. In 1979 Atlantic Steel was acquired by Ivaco, Inc. through a stock purchase. The Cartersville plant was sold in 1996, and in the following year Jacoby Development purchased the property on which the main plant was located in midtown Atlanta. Atlantic Steel ceased operations on December 31, 1998. The site is now the home of Atlantic Station, a multi-use complex of residential units, offices, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Sources: Kuniansky, Harry Richard. A Business History of Atlantic Steel Company, 1901-1968. New York: Arno Press, 1976; CorporationWiki http://www.corporationwiki.com/Georgia/Atlanta/atlantic-steel-industries-inc-4593254.aspx (15 January 2010); Atlanta Steel Co. History, Box 37, Folder 5, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. “Dixisteel in the Making”, Box 37, Folder 9, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Chronology, Box 37, Folder 5, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Jacobs, Hal. “Forging a Forgotten Century,” Creative Loafing, December 12, 1998; Southern Currents http://www.southerncurrents.com/misc/steel.htm (19 October 2009).
Extent
27.8 linear ft.
Language
English
Arrangement of the Papers
This collection is organized into two series: I. Administrative files, arranged alphabetically by topic, and II. Public relations files, arranged alphabetically by topic.
Acquisition Information:
Gift of Connor F. Nelson, 2000 (2000.196); Atlantic Steel Industries, Inc, 1998 (1998.121), 2000 (2000.199); Neil Harmon, 2004 (2004.236).
General Physical Description note
(52 document cases, 5 record center cartons, 1 negative box, 5 oversize volumes, 2 oversize folders)
Processing Information:
Collection processed in 2009.
- Account books -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- American Iron and Steel Institute
- Atlanta Steel Company
- Atlanta Steel Hoop Company
- Atlantic Steel Industries, Inc.
- Auditing -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Dewberry, L. Glenn
- Dixisteel Buildings, Inc.
- Glenn, Thomas Kearney
- Gregg, Robert
- Iron and steel workers -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Ivaco, Inc.
- Johnson, Howard B.
- Lynch, Robert S.
- Riley, William O.
- Steel industry and trade -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- Stone, Charles F.
- Webb, Jesse J.
Creator
- Atlantic Steel Company (Organization)
- Title
- Atlantic Steel Company records
- Author
- Inventory prepared by Joan S. Clemens
- Date
- January 2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center Repository