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'Porkopolis' link becomes history
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ctipton Offline
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'Porkopolis' link becomes history
'Porkopolis' link becomes history
Many pigs and cows met their demise at Kahn's


[Image: bilde?Site=AB&Date=20120215&...es-history]

Written by
Mike Boyer

One of the few remaining links to Cincinnati’s past as “Porkopolis” disappeared Wednesday as the last wall of the old Kahn’s meat plant on Spring Grove Avenue in Camp Washington came down to make way for industrial redevelopment.

The plant, which shut down in 2006 just before Sara Lee Co. gave the 17-acre site to Hamilton County, was once one of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses and meat packing operations. It employed thousands of area residents over several generations. And it gave America “The wiener the world awaited.”

The operation, adjacent to the former Cincinnati Union Stock Yards, touched more than just those who worked there as Matt Lafkas has discovered. He’s assembled some of the history and old photos from the plant.

“Every day somebody stops by to take a photo, pick up a brick or two, and share a story about this place. It’s fascinating,” said Lafkas, who heads Walnut Hills-based Vestige (re)development Group, which plans to convert the old industrial site into modern manufacturing space.

[Image: bilde?Site=AB&Date=20120215&...p;Border=0]

E. Kahn’s & Sons was a meat-packing operation that traced its roots to a butcher shop started by Elias Kahn in 1882 in the West End.

About 1926, Kahn’s acquired the struggling Cincinnati Abattoir Co., the polite name for the cooperative killing floor operated in conjunction with the Union Stock Yards. The acquisition expanded Kahn’s into a fully integrated slaughtering and processing operation and set the stage for its later growth.

Lafkas said the site was home to various businesses and homes as far back as the 1790s.

[Image: bilde?Site=AB&Date=20120215&...p;Border=0]

For example, in the mid-1800s, most of the site housed the Al-Mo-Co molasses and syrup company, he said.

But it was Kahn’s slaughterhouse and meat packing plant and the adjoining stock yards that included 1,000 livestock pens under roof that folks remember.

Ray Wissel, 86, of Westwood, lived a lot of that history. He started as an office boy while in high school in 1942 and rose to become chief financial officer before retiring in 1986.

“You’d come to work on a Monday and there would be trucks lined up on Spring Grove for the stock yards halfway to Knowlton’s Corner,” said Wissel.

At its peak after World War II, the Kahn’s plant did more than just slaughter and process hogs. It handled cattle and sheep as well.

“We’d slaughter 100 to 150 head of cattle a day, although not every day, and up to 10,000 hogs a week,” Wissel said. “Louis Kahn was an expert at judging cattle. He’d travel all over the country buying cattle which were brought to the Union Stock Yards.”

The company had a cold storage plant in New York City and its beef became steaks at some of the best hotels in New York City and on the East Coast. At its peak in the 1960s, Wissel said the company employed about 1,000, most from the West Side.

One of the old photos Lafkas has found shows a notice over an employee entrance that says: “Work is available for anyone willing to work. Those unwilling to work, don’t enter the plant.”

Wissel doesn’t remember the sign, but chuckles at the sentiment.

“That was the philosophy,” he said. “The production plant was union and paid good wages. People stayed there 30-40 years because it was a good job.”

Wissel said Milton J. Schloss, who died in 2007 at 93, was a key figure in the plant’s history.

He was a son of Elias Kahn’s daughter, Matilda. He started as an apprentice in the slaughterhouse and ended up as CEO in the late 1940s.

Schloss introduced high-speed packaging machines at the plant in the 1950s and made Kahn’s one of the first meat companies to advertise on radio and TV, including the Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club, Paul Dixon and Uncle Al Lewis shows. He also oversaw the sale of the business to what would become Sara Lee in 1966.

It was during Schloss’s tenure that a former salesman at rival H.H. Meyer in Queensgate who had joined Kahn’s came up with the famous slogan “The wiener the world awaited” for Kahn’s hot dogs.

Unlike a lot of competitors, Wissel said Kahn’s never used red dye in its hot dogs. “They always had a reputation for quality,” he said.

To make sure that quality was maintained, Wissel recalled that he and other corporate officers had to sample the previous day’s hot dog production every day as they gathered in the company dining room for lunch.

“We got quite good at detecting small variations, like too much smoke or salt flavor,” he said.

He hasn’t lost his taste for hot dogs. “I’ll eat them instead of steak often.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120...RONTPAGE|p
 
02-16-2012 05:55 AM
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QSECOFR Offline
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Post: #2
RE: 'Porkopolis' link becomes history
I used to work there.

Little known fact -- Kahn's is indirectly responsible for the assembly line and mass production. On the kill floor, livestock were systematically disassembled in a process where the "product" moved from station to station. One day Henry Ford -- yes THAT Henry Ford -- visited the Kahn's plant to see why they were so much more efficient than their competitors. He saw what they were doing and merely reversed the process and "invented" what we now know as the assembly line and mass production.

Also, during the great flood of 1934, the water got so high that the only way you could get into the plant was via row boat. You had to steer your way in through a 2nd floor window.

Ctip, thanks for posting. Brought back some good memories.
 
02-16-2012 08:46 AM
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Crewdogz Offline
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RE: 'Porkopolis' link becomes history
I love the sign about people desiring work.
 
02-16-2012 09:19 AM
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