Full History

Founded by businessmen William Bonnell and William Thompson in downtown Columbus at the corner of Front and Long Streets in 1930, B&T Metals was originally known as B&T Floor Covering. Entrepreneur Lyman Kilgore bought the business in 1932 and shifted the focus from floor coverings to the aluminum pieces used to hold linoleum and carpeting to the floor and renamed the company B&T Metals. When Kilgore bought the business, it became one of the first African-American owned factories in the United States. Although Kilgore owned the business, Bonnell, who was white, stayed on as its president. In 1935, B&T moved to its location on West Town Street, combining their original factory with its factory at Gift and Rich Streets into one 100,000 square foot operation. By 1943, Kilgore had assumed the day-to-day operations of the plant from Bonnell.

As interesting as B&T Metals’ history is, with its pioneering of aluminum production and being one of the only African-American owned factories of its day, the most interesting piece of the company’s history took place over just eight months during 1943.

In February 1943, DuPont, acting as an agent for the Manhattan Engineer District (AKA the Manhattan Project), contracted B&T Metals to extrude rods of uranium metal pellets for the reactor in Hanford, Washington. The Manhattan Project was a top-secret project that took place from 1942 to 1946 to develop the first atomic bomb. Since the Manhattan Project was so secret, B&T workers and officials weren’t told of the ultimate plans for the uranium. They did not discover their link to the Manhattan Project until after World War II had ended. Even though it cannot be confirmed, uranium processed by B&T Metals could have been used for the bomb that Columbus pilot Paul Tibbets dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

In the northwest corner of the main B&T Metals building, a dozen men stretched uranium into long rods and then cut the rods into 21-24 inch lengths. The slugs were ground on lathes until they were 7-8 inches in diameter. The secret project that began in March 1943 produced about 50 tons of extruded uranium over six months time. B&T’s active extrusion role ended in August 1943. There were no unusual safety precautions, not even gloves or masks, for those who handled the strange metal. Workers were required to have government-organized physicals every week and, once a month, they visited four doctors in one day. One person who worked with the uranium described rays that would come off the extruded bars like heat waves off the highway. If two bars rolled together by accident, they would cause a spark or small explosion, sometimes causing fire in a wood pilaster. Those working on the project were watched over by armed guards and men with pistols drawn would take the rods from the plant. The FBI even investigated the disappearance of two pieces of uranium. Agents showed up at workers’ homes and requested their assistance in finding the missing uranium. It ultimately turned out to be a government paperwork error.

B&T Metals ceased most manufacturing operations in 1982, but continued to employ about 20 people doing specialty aluminum work through the 1990s. By 2005, B&T employed only four people who produced aluminum parts for cars, electronics, and chalkboard frames. In 2004, a 25-yard long section of the main building’s second floor collapsed, throwing bricks onto two parked cars. Luckily no one was injured. City inspectors condemned the deteriorating building where the uranium had once been handled.

In 2017, the space was officially redeveloped by Urban Smart Growth into Chromedge Studios at 400 Square. The space now hosts 30 individual art studios and a 2nd floor, 2,500 sq. ft. photography studio.