Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Newark Paint Plant

Here we find ourselves, reminiscing about the now abandoned factory walls that once pulsed with vibrant colors. The irony is delightful and surreal. A property that once contributed world-class paints for an array of applications from household to military-grade, now wears a patchwork of graffiti, as aerosol artists exploit its crumbling facade. Today, the site is cordoned off by a formidable galvanized steel gate, its adjacent grounds appropriated for tractor-trailer parking and storage, while the building itself remains in a state of disuse. Over the years, it has served as a temporary shelter for the homeless, a playground for mischievous teenagers, and a backdrop for adventurous photographers and explorers. Access to the property has now been barred, in stark contrast to a time when you could casually tread the train tracks onto the site.

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company’s Newark Operations

The property in question, situated at 29 Riverside Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, was home to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company's paint and varnish operations. The 7.6-acre site, a synthesis of residential and commercial/industrial, was utilized from 1902 to 1971 for manufacturing paint, resins, linseed oil, and varnish. It was the Patton Paint Company, which was assimilated into the Paint and Varnish Division of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in 1920, that solidified the location's value as a successful paint manufacturer. The acquisition allowed PPG to flourish in the paint industry, prompting further acquisitions to support the glass and paint enterprises. PPG's entrance into the paint industry was timely, as it came to a point where standardization and reliability were desperately needed in the field.

During the industrial revolution, demand for protective coatings burgeoned, transforming the paint industry. At the time, most paint companies were local enterprises; PPG stood apart, offering a nationally recognized brand and consistent product quality. To cater to this burgeoning industry, metal pigments, including lead, were brought onsite for paint production. From 1971 to the present day, the site has been divided into fifteen lots, housing diverse businesses ranging from chemical packaging to cosmetic manufacturing, while sections of the property lie abandoned and have been seized by the City of Newark.

Before any of it was land, it was river. An 1873 atlas of the City of Newark, read against later maps, shows that most of this site was reclaimed from the Passaic with imported fill, and the major filling ran from 1892 to 1909. On the 1892 Sanborn, most of the lots that now carry the paint works were still inside the river's footprint, with the Triton Boat Club — organised on New Year's Day 1870 and one of Newark's flagship rowing clubs — running a dock on the north side of what is now Lot 60. By 1909 the filling had produced dry ground carrying Patton Paint Company structures, a hotel and the boat club. Parts of two lots were still water in 1909 and were made before 1931; one lot was not completely filled until 1966. Where the fill came from, nobody knows.

The site has not been without its share of environmental controversies. In October 2009, the EPA and New Jersey responded to oil discharging into the Passaic from a pipe on the property — a case the agencies came to call the Passaic River Mystery Oil Spill. Investigators found the source at low tide when the discharging pipe became visible, sealed it, and traced it back to a catch basin fed by a sewer pipe from Building #12, a vacant building that had recently been connected to that sewer line by a hose. EPA concluded the contents of two basement tanks had been discharged into the line deliberately and released to the river.

What the agency found next kept it on the property for years. Investigations of the two lots turned up several underground storage tanks of twelve to fifteen thousand gallons beside Building #7, numerous aboveground tanks, a concrete basement impoundment, drums, pigment hoppers and smaller containers. EPA ran a removal action from 2011 to 2014, and in May 2013 the property was added to the National Priorities List as the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site. Soil, groundwater and tank samples have since confirmed volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, metals and PCBs across the site.

The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, created by Captain John B. Ford and John Pitcairn in 1883, was the first financially successful U.S. plate glass manufacturer. Recognizing the need for domestic competition against European imports, they developed a superior technique to manufacture plate glass, and by 1895, the company had grown and relocated its headquarters to Pittsburgh. PPG devised a system of producing efficient and cheap amounts of plate glass while cutting out the middleman, becoming the nation's largest plate glass manufacturer by 1900.

In 1968, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company transformed into PPG Industries, becoming a globally diversified titan supplying specialty materials, chemicals, coatings, optical products, paints, glass, and fiberglass. With a footprint in over 60 countries and over 140 manufacturing facilities and equity affiliates, PPG Industries stands as a testament to American industrial success.

Flooded elevator shaft.

Newark Paint Operations

For seven decades, PPG Industries was synonymous with the production of paint, varnish, linseed oil, and resins at their Newark installation. This impressive manufacturing lineage began with the establishment of the plant in 1902 and utilized a range of raw materials that included natural gums, resins, flax seed, non-chlorinated solvents, and pigments. The chemical makeup of these ingredients evolved over time, integrating toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene, and methyl ethyl ketone as necessary elements in the fabrication of paints and varnishes.

Metallic chemicals, represented by compounds of cadmium, chromium, lead, titanium, and zinc, were imported to the site and employed as pigments in paint production. White lead, in the form of basic lead carbonate, was among these pigments, and mercury was likely used as a preservative in select paints. The plant's varnish and lacquer production incorporated small quantities of flake naphthalene and copper oxide, respectively.

The plant ran on gravity. Raw materials were stored on the upper floors and piped down for mixing, thinning and blending, floor by floor. Dry pigments and oils went to the top, were worked into a paste, dropped through chutes to grinding mills on the next floor, then down again to processing tanks where thinners, solvents and tints were added, and finally through pipes to the filling department, where one- and five-gallon cans moved out by conveyor. Each operation had its own building: paint in Buildings 2, 3 and 12; varnish in 7 and 9; the flax seed oil mill in 10; lacquer in 14; resin in 17. The original varnish building went up in 1910 and a replacement Building 7 in 1936, after which the old one became 7A and was later torn down. Ten underground tanks of ten thousand gallons each, beside Building 12, held non-chlorinated solvents.

At the heart of this manufacturing hub, resins, solvents, and pigments were amalgamated to produce paints, while varnishes were derived from a fusion of resins, oils, and solvents. The facility also had an operation dedicated to linseed oil production, utilizing flax seed as the primary raw material from 1923 until 1947. The riverside dock played a crucial role in the factory's operation during the first half of the century, facilitating the unloading of flax seed and coal for use in production, as well as shipping final products. The dock ceased operations after 1946.

In addition, the cleaning of equipment between production batches was a vital part of the manufacturing process, involving either organic solvents or a caustic water solution as the cleaning agent. When the solvent was too soiled for continued use, it was recuperated through a solvent still, with distillation residues being disposed of offsite.

The site witnessed a severe fire in 1969 in Building 17, the resin plant on Lot 66, where alkyd resins had been made since roughly the 1930s. According to an employee account, a vapour cloud released from one of the resin reactors ignited, causing an explosion and an uncontrolled resin fire; several process tanks holding resin and resin precursors failed during the blaze and spilled their contents. Firefighters from Newark used water from the river to contain it. The building itself survived — it still stands on Lot 66 today — but resin production at Newark ended there.

In addition to the above, allegations have surfaced that PPG employees may have been involved in the dumping of unknown substances into the Passaic River. These allegations hinge on the presence of sewer pipes, measuring 4 to 6 inches, originating from every building and leading directly into the river, along with floor drains where residue, product spills, and raw materials were reportedly swept away.

The end of PPG in Newark was an announcement, not a closure. In February 1970 the company said it was phasing out its consumer paints and industrial coatings plant here, a complex of aging multi-storey buildings that could not be modernised for contemporary coatings equipment. About 250 people worked at the plant; PPG said they would be transferred or helped to find other work, and that it would expand its plants at Springdale, Pennsylvania and Atlanta instead. The phase-out was to be complete by March 1971. Manufacturing stopped in early 1971 and PPG conveyed its interest in the property that August.

Chemical Compounds Inc

Alberto Celleri, a chemical engineer with considerable expertise in the synthesis and manufacturing of hair dyes, in 1981 established his own firm, Chemical Compounds, alongside a partner. As one of the world's few hair dye manufacturing companies, the operation started humbly from a small home office with second-hand equipment purchased with Mr. Celleri's personal savings. Limited financial resources meant utilizing refurbished equipment and harnessing his extensive knowledge and experience coupled with his unyielding entrepreneurial spirit.

Mr. Celleri's perseverance and professional prowess paid dividends in the niche hair dye market, leading to a partnership with Jos. H. Lowenstein & Sons, Inc. Together, they crafted a strategy whereby Chemical Compounds manufactured and supplied a variety of semi-permanent and direct hair dyes to Lowenstein, who subsequently marketed them. Buoyed by this partnership, Mr. Celleri acquired a plant in Newark, NJ in 1986. Following a productive partnership with Lowenstein, Chemical Compounds embarked on a mission to expand its global footprint and diversify in 2000. Today, the company is backed by over 30 years of experience in manufacturing hair dye intermediates and employs a diverse team of professionals each contributing unique expertise to this highly specialized industry. Among their esteemed global clientele are names such as L'Oreal, Schwarzkopf Henkel, Unilever, and Combe.

The property hosting this manufacturing prowess has a colorful history. Sold by the Freeholders of Essex County to Triton Boat Club of Newark in 1888, it changed hands in 1902, being acquired by Patton Paint Company, a manufacturer of paint and varnishes. Later, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co, another paint and varnish manufacturer, assumed ownership of the property, identified as Block 614, Lot 1, constructing the current facility - Building # 17 - as a chemical resin manufacturing plant. In 1971, after several ownership changes, the site was sold to a developer, Riverside Ave. Properties, Inc., and subsequently leased.

In 1979, the property was sold to Industrial Development Corporation and quickly transferred to Industrial Development Associates, headed by Anthony V. Pugliese, III. It was then leased to S.B.S. Chemicals, Inc. and Desachem Co., Inc, manufacturers of chemicals and detergents, who occupied Building # 17 until the expiration of their lease agreement in 1985.

Building #17 at 29-75 Riverside Avenue has been the home of Chemical Compounds, Inc. (CCI) since 1990. The company manufactured hair dyes such as red #3, HC-blue, and other various colors and pigments for hair products. Despite its productive activities, Chemical Compounds was found in violation of Federal Regulation 40 CFR 414 and Section 313.1 of the PVSC Rules and Regulations, surpassing its monthly permittable waste discharges of cyanide, zinc, toluene, lead, ethylbenzene, and 2-nitrophenol. The company also faced issues concerning wastewater treatment and discharge, environmental spills, and fires that led to undetermined contamination inside the building, its surroundings, and the adjacent Passaic River.

Nor was Chemical Compounds the only tenant to leave a mark. Since 1971 at least eleven spills and releases have been documented on the property, and at least seven of the fifteen lots carry New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act remediation cases: Federal Refining on Lot 70, Samax Enterprises and Acupak on Lot 1, Roloc Film Processing on Lot 60, HABA International on Lot 57, Baron Blakeslee and Allied Signal on Lots 67 and 68, Gloss Tex Industries on Lot 69, and Chemical Compounds with Celcor Associates on Lots 62 and 66. Frey Industries warehoused and repackaged client chemicals across five lots from 1981 until 2007, taking over the operations of Jobar, which had run there from 1979 to 1982.

Where the Cleanup Stands

In 2014, after its removal action ended, PPG signed an administrative settlement with EPA to carry out the remedial investigation and feasibility study. The investigation was finished in April 2020, the feasibility study that July, and in September 2021 EPA issued a Record of Decision for the first operable unit. The selected remedy addresses five things at once — waste containers, sewer water, soil gas, soil and fill, and groundwater — at an estimated total cost of $38.9 million. It calls for removing the tanks and non-aqueous phase liquids, sealing an inactive sewer line and its manhole, excavating lead-contaminated soil for off-site disposal, capping the site, repairing the bulkhead that holds the ground back from the Passaic, mitigating vapour intrusion in occupied buildings, and pumping and treating groundwater.

In April 2024 EPA and New Jersey proposed a settlement under which PPG would design and perform a $15.8 million portion of that cleanup, reimburse $2.9 million already spent by EPA and about $117,000 spent by the state, and cover EPA's oversight costs — close to $19 million in all. By the autumn of 2025, EPA had approved the engineering design and pre-design investigation workplans, and PPG had begun sampling soil to map where the lead and the non-aqueous phase liquids sit, testing whether the existing asphalt and buildings are sound enough to form part of the remedy, and checking the stability of the bulkhead. The site-wide groundwater pumping system is expected to come under a separate agreement later.

Elevator room.

Status: Currently still unoccupied and vacant.

📋 Reader Records

🎨 Did You Work at PPG’s Newark Paint Plant — or Anywhere in Riverside Industrial Park?

Were you one of the roughly 250 people still on the payroll when PPG announced the phase-out in February 1970? Do you remember the gravity system, dry pigment going up to the top floor and finished cans coming off the conveyor at the bottom, or the flax seed barges at the river dock? Were you there for the resin reactor explosion in Building 17 in 1969? And for the decades after PPG left: Frey Industries, Samax, Acupak, Gloss Tex, Baron Blakeslee, or Chemical Compounds in Building 17. Photographs from inside these buildings while they were still working are almost impossible to find, and the environmental record cannot tell you what a shift here was actually like.

📩 Share Your Story or drop a comment below — every contributor gets full credit

⬇️ Keep Reading

🏭 More New Jersey Industry — and the Ground It Left Behind

Paint works, drum reconditioners, wire mills and doll factories — the plants that built industrial New Jersey, and the cleanups that outlived them.

📦 Newark's Kingsland Drum and Barrel Down the road in Newark — where the drums that carried paint and solvent went to be reconditioned. › 🏥 Orange Memorial Hospital of Essex County A sprawling abandoned hospital in the same county, waiting on its own redevelopment. › 🎸 City Gardens: Trenton's Lost Punk Rock Mecca A car dealership, a Bible warehouse, then the club where the Ramones played 25 times. › 🎈 Inside the Abandoned Horsman Doll Factory in Trenton An abandoned doll factory in the state capital — and the school it is becoming. › 🌉 John A. Roebling's Sons Company Upper Works The wire rope that held up the Brooklyn Bridge, and the wall that came down in March 2026. › 🛢 Northern New Jersey Oil Corporation Another riverside fuel and chemical operation, and what it left in the ground. ›

🎨 Paint, varnish, linseed oil and resin were made at 29 Riverside Avenue from about 1902 to 1971, first by the Patton Paint Company and then by Pittsburgh Plate Glass, which became PPG Industries in April 1968. The 7.6-acre property is now the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site, added to the National Priorities List in May 2013, with a cleanup estimated at $38.9 million.

Sources:

1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2021, September). Record of Decision, Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site, Operable Unit One (EPA ID# NJSFN0204232). Region 2, New York.
2. Woodard & Curran. (2015, August 28; rev. 2017, July 18). Revised Riverside Work Plan and Site Characterization Summary Report, prepared for PPG Industries, Inc.
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024, April 16). EPA and State of New Jersey Propose Settlement that will provide nearly $19 million for the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site in Newark, New Jersey [News release 24-031].
4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2025, Fall). Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site: Designing the Cleanup [Fact sheet].
5. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Riverside Avenue Site Removal Pollution/Situation Reports, Region II, On-Scene Coordinator Paul L. Kahn (2011).
6. New Jersey Department of Health. (2015, December 23). Letter Health Consultation, Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
7. Associated Press. (1970, February 24). PPG Industries Planning Phase-Out of Newark Unit. The New York Times.
8. Intindola, D. Rowing on the Passaic River (Triton Boat Club, organised 1 January 1870).
9. Riverside Industrial Park, Newark, NJ. EPA Superfund Site profile.
10. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. Glassian.
11. PPG History. PPG.
12. PPG Industries, Inc. — Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History and Background. Reference for Business.
13. A new breed of Alchemist creates "gold" in NJ: Chemical Compounds provides solutions for hair color marketers. The Free Library.