It all started innocently when I was up at the old Hemingray Factory site in Muncie, IN. It was August 8, 1998 and I was digging there again with permission from the owner. About midday I met the owner who informed me that they were going to have an auction in a few weeks. I got a copy of the flyer and inquired about what types of items might be there, and the list included some items that came from the buildings. As many of you know, this plant became a subsidiary of Owens-Illinois Glass Co. in May of 1933. Since April of 1935 the production of glass window block occurred at the plant in addition to insulators and other items like TV faceplates. News of this auction was interesting; who knew if there were blueprints, photographs, insulators, or tools that may come up in it. Included in the auction flyer were "Two 500,000 Gallon Oil Tanks, a Glass Batch House, and Two Glass Furnaces". 

Apparently the owners have been wanting to get rid of the tanks, batch house, and furnaces for some time, and they thought that the scrap value of the metal would be worth auctioning. That night I gave Roger Lucas a call, and we decided we would meet at the auction and find out who the high bidder would be on the demolition of the items. This bidder may use heavy equipment in the demolition and maybe we could persuade the contractor to dig a couple big holes for us! 

Facing east toward furnace A and B chimney stacks, 
the auction crowd gathers.

Auction day came on August 22 and there were a few factory buildings, a table full of insulators including some non-Hemingray ones, a stack of blueprints, and a beautiful photograph of the batch tower illuminated at night. I found out when Roger arrived that the most of the insulators were ones that he and Darin gave the owners as appreciation to allow them to dig there. The blueprints were mostly of certain parts of buildings, fire sprinkler drawings and one of the plant grounds. Roger and I had both spied the framed photograph at the same time and since he reached for it a millisecond before I did, I let him bid on it with the stipulation "If it gets too expensive and you don't want it, I'll jump in on the bidding".

As the auctioneer went about the place, we waited patiently for our items to come up. He got to the insulators first and made special note that most were made there. Bidding started high and went from the whole group down to a "$3 choice" before anyone bid. I grabbed a CD 257 Hemingray Mickey Mouse in clear, a CD 1070 clear spool, and a CD 183 Hemingray-71 out of the pile. The rest Roger ended up picking up.

Photograph of the batch tower illuminated at night.

Further down the aisle we came upon the photograph. Again, the auctioneer noted that this photograph was of this factory years ago. I estimated the photograph from the 1950's or early 60's. Bidding began high again and went down, This time it only got down to $20 before a bid was made. It was apparent to both me and Roger at this time that the bidder wanted the photograph pretty bad. Roger and the other bidder kept bidding against one another, and I could see Roger wavering on the last two bids. I was certainly ready to jump in until finally Roger won it for $70!

Cover Photo

Later they proceeded to go outside, where I had seen the two pallets of glass block and the box with the blueprints in it. The blueprints had been placed on a pallet and the bidding was for the entire pallet. On the pallet there was also one loose glass block with factory applied paint finish that I placed in the same box as the blueprints. I was bidding against someone else and dropped out when it got too high. After he was the successful bidder I asked "What would you want for the box of old blueprints and glass block?" He replied with "How about $10?" Of course I answered "OK" and promptly paid him. We watched a little while longer waiting for the auctioneer to get to the furnaces, oil tanks, and batch tower.

Looking west at the batch tower today. 
Piles of steel rebar are in the foreground.

Finally, they got to that part and there was only one bidder, but he did not have the required liability insurance. I had also found out weeks earlier, when talking to demolition contractors in Chicago about the auction, that the scrap metals market is very low and most demolition companies would charge to take the stuff down rather than pay for it. It appeared this may be the case here. There would be no sale of the tanks, batch house, or the furnaces that day, but the story would not end. Months later Roger found out that very same bidder who did not have the insurance was starting demolition on the Oil Tanks and the Batch House. After talking with him, Roger found out that the furnaces were being dismantled by another contractor and work had already begun there, too. It seems that by removing these last items it is removing the very heart and soul of the factory. When these are finally demolished, all that will remain are empty warehouses and the office buildings. No hint of glass manufacturing will be left except for the thousands of small shards spread about the ground. These too will disappear as the grass and weeds grow again over the next few years. At least one thing will remain for a while. The stone panel in one of the office buildings reads HEMINGRAY GLASS COMPANY.