Between Darkness & Light | American Enka Company

The local explorer scene called it George’s Funhouse; I’m not sure why or who George is or was, but one thing is for sure, the American Enka company in Lowland, TN, was a lot of fun. While INAAP was a much larger space to explore, it had nothing on the Lowland plant in terms of the amount left and the variety of items left. Lowland offered up everything in a smaller but much more densely packed location, as someone who loved the ample empty space, along with some exciting things to see and read.

The American Enka Company traces itself back to the Netherlands and the Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek, or N-K, which, when said aloud, is Enka, was founded in 1913 to produce artificial fabrics like rayon. By 1922, the company was moving to expand not only beyond the Netherlands but to North America. The initial talks about establishing an American branch began in 1924, and a site was secured near Asheville, North Carolina. The American Enka Company officially formed in 1928, and a small community began to form around their first plant near Asheville and became known as Enka. Dutch staff would be the first to arrive. The company will assist in the hiring and training American staff before returning to the Netherlands. Enka always intended the American branch to be entirely operated by Americans but retained a 56% share of the ownership. The Dutch parent company, Enka, merged with the German rayon manufacturer Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken (VGF) forming the holding company Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU). By 1933, the North Carolina plant employed 2,500 workers, had a 40-hour work week, and single-handedly ensured that despite the ongoing economic depression, the region maintained economic stability. The onset of World War Two and the American involvement starting in 1941 accelerated the need for artificial fabrics; Enka began to make plans to build a massive new production plant, selecting Lowland, Tennessee, as the location. In 1942, American Enka fell under investigation by the Office of Alien Property as much of the profits were going to AKU. But Enka remained originally a Dutch company, so nothing came of the investigation and no property was seized. The new plant opened in 1948 and became Enka’s most oversized rayon and nylon production plant. The Lowland Site had a post office, zip code, hospital and a small collection of commercial shops. Enka-made fabrics were in high demand in high-end fashion houses, and many proudly displayed the use of Enka in magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In March 1950, the Lowland plant ground to a halt as all unionised workers walked off the job when their demands were unmet. Rather than negotiate in good faith, headquarters suggested bringing in non-union workers. Things turned ugly; the non-union workers were attacked, management had their property vandalised, many were injured, and one man was even killed. The National Guard was called out to stop the violence, and in the end, everything got wrapped up by July of the same year.

Enka continued to not only manufacture artificial fabrics but also conducted research on how to make them better. They operated a massive research and development department, and the company also had a small college where staff could learn new skills and keep their existing skills sharp. In Asheville and Lowland, the massive plants were small towns in their own right. But the good times were not to last, as cheaper products started to appear in the North American markets from Asia, Enka, both in North America and Europe, could not keep up. In the 1970s, Enka was reorganised under the holding company Akzona Inc. Still, it was not enough, and in 1985, almost everything was sold to BASF. Operations continued at Lowland under BASF until 1992, when Lowland was sold off to Lenzig AG out of Austria. Lenzig continued to produce rayon at Lowland until 2002 when it was again sold to an American firm, Liberty Fibres. Under Liberty, operations continued to produce rayon until 2005, when Liberty filed for bankruptcy and began to liquidate assets. The long history of industrial production of rayon caught the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, which conducted a survey and started a major cleanup operation. Many older buildings were slated for demolition and cleanup, while newer buildings were cleared of asbestos and renovated for reuse. The goal was to create a small industrial park for small to medium businesses. A fire in 2010 forced several more buildings to be demolished, the largest being the site’s power station. By 2014, several companies operated out of the front-facing buildings along the Enka Highway. There is still a significant presence of abandoned structures on site. It should also be noted that Enka is now a historical district in Asheville. At the same time, many of the original factories and the headquarters fell to demolition in 2007, except for the clock tower, which is still standing and could be the centrepiece of redevelopment. Several former Enka buildings now form the core of the Asheville-Buncombe Technical College. To come full circle, AKU merged with Koninklijke Zout Organon (KZO) in 1969 to form AKZO and since 1994, AkzoNobel. While Enka and VGF operations wound down in the later part of the 1990s after the rayon manufacturing sold off to BASF and by the late 2000s the former Enka buildings demolished. AkzoNobel is today, the world’s third-largest paint manufacturer by revenue.

You did not visit Enka lightly; the size and location of the property ensured that you went in well-prepared to spend several hours inside. And you certainly needed that much time to get the whole experience. By my first trip in 2014, the property had a lot of demolition work already completed, and several businesses operated near the front. Thankfully, there are always other ways onto the property. The backroads in the area are sparsely populated, and after finding a safe place for the car, we walked in using the old railway spur, sneaking in through a hole in the fence. Even then, it was still a long walk to the actual buildings. I was glad that we were a small group, only three of us for the first trip. I was struck by the size of the items; sadly, the power station had been mostly knocked down by the time I arrived. Although there were still plenty of things to see, including the generator supports. And even piles of coal left over. Even the skeletal remains of the power station proved to be a photographic draw. But the best was yet to come; we managed to get into one of the two significant abandoned buildings on the site, which offered a fantastic view from the roof. The inside was a mess of industrial goodness and offered up some excellent backdrops for self-portraits. But many things are left over beyond having some unique open empty space. An entire room was filled with spare parts and documentation; we even found site blueprints (which we liberated). The office area looks as if it had been used up until the previous year (2013), and also presented us with a fun location for a group shot. The second trip proved terrific for photography. This was in October 2015, and we went closer to the end of the day. The golden hour proved exceptional for lighting up the interiors. Sadly, we only went into the same building I got into the previous year, but seeing it in a new light proved fantastic; it gave my A6000 a proper test. The weirdest thing was booking a hotel that night while walking out of the location.

Choosing which photos to include in this post was a hard sell; there were so many to choose from, even from only visiting twice. Plus, there’s a balance between the interior and exterior shots. When visiting Enka, I had already dialled in how I had worked in abandoned buildings, sticking with ultra-wide angle lenses and composting flat images or with leading lines. The interior shots of Enka show this, both on my initial visit and my second visit. I felt immediately comfortable, knowing that the other businesses that operated on the property’s periphery were closed when I was there. The property size made it nearly impossible to get caught (unless we did something stupid). And that comfort shows in my images, from the rooftop to getting close to the ruins of the site’s power station. I also shot a few rolls of film, one through my Pentax 645, but the more exciting images are from the FPP Debonair camera; despite having the native portrait orientation, the photos I shot were all landscape (requiring a rather odd way of holding the camera). They’re soft on the edges and make the entire place look amazing. While these shots are favourites, my interior shots using my then-new Sony a6000 are among my favourites from my 2015 vacation. Enka is one location I wish I could go back to with my D750 and 14mm lens; the ones with my D300 are good, but that was running at the equivalent of 21mm rather than the stupidly wide 14mm would have made Enka sing!

The Lowland site is another one that I’ll remember fondly, mainly because on both trips, I felt comfortable exploring and taking my time with photography. It offered a chance to get amazing images and enjoy the glory of being in a massive abandoned building, especially since, by this point, my longtime favourite, Firestone in Hamilton, had been demolished. I also learned from my mistakes at INAAP to better prepare for large multi-hour locations by bringing along water and snacks, so it was a much more enjoyable experience. It also helped that the groups were small; I was getting a little tired of large groups, which can be unpredictable in abandoned locations. You can check out all the images on Flickr.