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On
December 11, 1941, Germany declared war on the United States.
Three
months later, 250 families living between the
Oswego
and Seneca Rivers, on
and round the Radisson site, were ordered by the Army Corps of
Engineers to
evacuate their homes. Eight thousand acres of land were
depopulated by the orders,
and all roads into the area were blocked. Within a month,
construction of a huge
ordnance plant began, with more than 3,000 workers employed at the
peak of
construction. By January 1943, less than a year later, the plant
was in operation.
The plant was under heavy security. Ten miles of chain link
fencing
with strategically located guard towers protected it. At night,
floodlights played
on all perimeter areas.
Inside were 88 main buildings and more than 20 miles of roads.
Eight
thousand men and women worked there. They made, processed
and shipped dinitrochlorabenzene, more familiarly known as
“Explosive D.”
It was used in armor piercing shells, and it and its processing
were deadly business.
“Explosive D” was made, basically, from a peaceful enough coal tar
derivative used for dye making. But, by the time the Works got
through treating
it with nitric and sulfuric acids, boiling it and cooling it and,
finally, shipping it,
it was anything but peaceful. It was stored in concrete magazines
located generally
in the area of what is now the Game Management Preserve, along
Sixty
Road.
The most dangerous operations were conducted in buildings along
the
east side of Radisson’s drumlin. This was done so that, in the
event of an explosion,
Baldwinsville would be shielded from danger. The concrete
foundations along the
east side of the drumlin, off
Willett
Parkway, were part of that main manufacturing
area. They supported acid vats used in processing the explosive.
The
designers of the architectural sculpture that identifies
Radisson’s main entrance
at route 31 used the shape of the cradles that supported those
vats as the basis
for their design. The actual cradles were half the size of those
in the finished
sculpture. There were five of these areas along the face of the
drumlin.
A
year and two months after production began, it was stopped.
Following
the War, the property was declared surplus, and the Works were
abandoned. The
next few years, as the Works were dismantled or destroyed and the
property
disposed of, were active ones. Only the administration buildings
near Rt. 31
and some of the larger concrete buildings remained.
Some farmhouses and cottages left from before the War were offered
to the
public for lease. A plan to use the larger buildings for veteran’
housing fell through.
Over 5600 acres went into the land bank and was eventually sold.
State officials
looked into the possibility of relocating the State Fair there but
then decided not to.
Syracuse
University began renovating some of the buildings for student
housing, but
the work was never completed.
The State Conservation Department purchased 3000 acres in the
north end
of the property fro the Game Management Preserve. Later, in 1952,
the trustees of
the William Waldorf Astor estate bought 2000 acres for residential
and commercial
development. This never took place. For the next 20 years, the
land stood idle.
The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) purchased the site in
1969.
It is now the site of the Lysander Planned Community better known
as Radisson.
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