The anniversary marks an occasion to not only celebrate the association, but the value of the industry and its products.;xNLx;;xNLx;Many of the roads and buildings promoted a century ago remain in active use.;xNLx;;xNLx; Without concrete our homes, roads, schools, and cities would not exist as they are today.
Although natural cement and mortar date back to the Romans and before, by the late 1800s builders were turning to its manufactured counterpart, portland cement, which was invented by Joseph Aspdin nearly 50 years before.
The use of concrete dates back to the Roman Empire.
In the 19th century, demand for cement was driven by construction projects such as the Erie Canal and other waterways, which used cement as a liner.
In 1872, the first portland cement plant in the U.S. was built by David O. Saylor near Allentown in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
Around the same time that Saylor built his first plant, others were experimenting with portland cement formulations and manufacturing operations. Such early entrepreneurs included Willam Loyd, an English cement-maker who in 1880 founded America’s second cement operation, Alamo Roman and Portland Cement Company, with a plant near San Antonio, Texas.
The Ash Grove Cement Company started in 1882 in Ash Grove, Missouri, under the name Ash Grove White Lime Association.
Continuous processing came in 1885 when English engineer F. Ransome invented the rotary kiln.
Earnest L. Ransome built the first reinforced-concrete bridge in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
In 1889, Jose de Navarro introduced the rotary kiln to the U.S. and in the same year that he founded Keystone Cement Company in the Lehigh Valley.
First U.S. concrete road was built in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in 1891.
Lehigh Cement Company began as a single-mill operation in Ormrod, Pennsylvania, producing Portland cement.
Robert W. Lesley is widely regarded as the father of the U.S. cement industry.
The first order of business for PCA’s predecessor organization, the American Portland Cement Manufacturers, was not as lofty as research, promotion, and advocacy. It was to gather, repair, and return cloth cement sacks.
Atlas Cement Company, Northampton , Pennsylvania, supplied the cement for this colossal project - in all, 16 million bags.
When the Ingalls Building was first proposed in 1902, some engineers predicted the 16-story building would collapse.
The American Society of Testing and Materials publishes ASTM C-1 Standard Specification for Natural and Portland Cement
National Association of Cement Users holds its first convention in Indianapolis.
Among cement and concrete pioneers was Thomas Edison.
The Monarch Portland Cement Company was founded in 1908 and reorganized in 1913 as The Monarch Cement Company.
National Association of Cement Users changes its name to the American Concrete Institute.
Congress passes the first federal-aid highway act, setting into motion a network of national highways.
PCA publishes its first edition of Proportioning Concrete Mixtures and Mixing and Placing Concrete.
Ben F. Affleck, President of Atlas Universal Cement, served as PCA's first president from 1916-1920
In the spring of 1916, meeting at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, cement makers formed the Portland Cement Association “to raise the standard of concrete construction, to improve the quality of concrete work, to increase the quantity of cement used in established fields, and to develop new fields.”
PCA's earliest promotion efforts were not limited to paving and infrastructure.
While most early ad campaigns, focused on paving and infrastructure, national defense also emerged as a promotional theme in these World War I ads.
Duff Abrams was PCA’s first head of research.
Shortly after its founding in 1916, PCA launched an advertising campaign in 10 national weeklies, 23 trade magazines, and 59 farm journals.
Agricultural construction was one of PCA's earliest priorities. In the spring of 1918, PCA formed the Farm and Cement Products Bureau.
Shortly after its founding, PCA and member companies adopted the slogan “Concrete for Permanence" for use on ads and other promotional materials. It became a slogan that would endure through the 1950s.
As part of its research into aggregates, PCA founded what came to be known as the sand library.
When PCA was founded, there were only about 4,000 miles of concrete paving in the United States.
With the advent of the automobile, road construction was a top priority, and PCA siezed upon opportunities for paving promotion.
Lester T. Sunderland was a founder of Ash Grove Cement Company and PCA's second president, serving from 1921-22.
In support of pavement promotion, PCA joined the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and various state agencies to find the best ways to design and build concrete roads. A landmark project was the Illinois Division of Highway’s Bates Test Road.
Gladys Nambert, daughter of PCA board member Stephen Nambert, president of Edison Portland Cement Company, Orange, New Jersey, unveils a bust of cement pioneer Robert W. Lesley at a 1922 PCA meeting.
Frederick W. Kelly, Helderberg Cement, was the third president of PCA, serving from 1923-24.
PCA formed a Central Road Bureau staffed with field promoters—a staff of 125 for the Road Bureau alone, most of which were field engineers.
PCA built new headquarters and research labs at 33 West Grand, Chicago. Cornerstone laid on November 18, 1925; Association moved in 1926.
Blaine S. Smith, Universal Atlas Portland Cement, served as president of PCA form 1925-26 and presided over the dedication of PCA's new office and research facilities in 1926.
In 1926, PCA moved its laboratory from the Lewis Institute to the newly construction headquarters building on Grand Avenue in Chicago.
Gabriel S. Brown, Alpha Portland Cement, served as PCA president from 1927-28
Frank E. Smith, Lawrence Cement, served as PCA president from 1929-31.
Appearing in Time magazine and other leading publications of the day, PCA consumer ads in the Thirties targeted single-family housing. Messages were built around benefits such as firesafety, security, and long life.
The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association was formally launched on July 10, 1930 in Pittsburgh.
Thousands of workers flocked to Black Canyon on the Colorado River to build the largest dam of the era.
In 1931, the introduction of internal vibrators as a means of placing concrete lead PCA to assess its effect on concrete.
The first paid staff PCA president, in 1931, was Edward J. Mehren, editor of Engineering News-Record.
Treval Clifford (T. C.) Powers served in PCA's Research Department for 35 years until his retirement in 1965.
The Works Progress Administration or WPA was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of unemployed people to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.
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