Nevamar Memories Come to Life

If you ask Lois Guyton what she did as an employee at the old Nevamar factory in Odenton, she’ll talk for a while.

That’s because there wasn’t much she didn’t do during her 10-year stint there.

“I was everywhere,” she said.

Guyton, who worked the midnight shift there as a young woman between 1958 and 1968, was one of the hundreds of local residents who helped make a wide range of products, from seat covers and pot scrubbers, to table edges and hula hoops. Later in her time there, she worked as a traffic operator in the shipping department.

Nevamar, or the National Plastics Company as it was then called, was a 24-hour operation that served as an economic engine in Odenton for more than 60 years until it closed in 2003.

Former employees like Guyton came out Sunday to an open house at the Odenton Heritage Society Museum, where artifacts from Nevamar were on display.

There were photos, uniforms from the company baseball and bowling teams, and plenty of items manufactured there, including doll hair, seat cushions and hairbrush fibers.  

Guyton recalled a fondness for the Winer family, which owned the facility at the time, and laughed when she recalled the cafeteria that was open round-the-clock and featured one of the first conveyer belt serving systems.

“It was just a really nice place to work,” said Guyton, who was then known as Lois Testerman. “I never heard any complaints.”

Lois Guyton met her husband, Guy, at the plant. He worked there from June of 1960 to September of 1962.

“It was a great place to get a job,” said Guy Guyton, who noted they still have a cabinet in their home that was made at the plant.

The Nevamar property is slated for redevelopment. Developer StonebridgeCarras has started demolition on one building at the north end of the site, with plans to partner with Bozzuto Group on an apartment complex known as Flats 170 at Academy Yards.

The heritage society has been in contact with the developer on preserving as much of the facility’s history as possible. There is hope among society members that at least some of distinctive art-deco architecture will be kept. The society is also hoping to preserve a circular art deco mural that rests inside the former main lobby.

Society board member Veronica Salisbury wrote an article for the heritage society’s newsletter last fall, in which she described the Nevamar complex as a “virtual city” with a “striking” architectural style.

“My focus and passion is the art-deco period, and when I first moved to Odenton two years ago, I noticed those art-deco facades,” she said. “I’ve gotten to learn more about the history of the place, too.”