Painting a new landscape: Razing former MAB building

A longtime paint manufacturing plant , with its history of environmental concerns cited by the Environmental Protection Agency, is being demolished today.

MAB was purchase by Sherwin Williams in 2007. After sister plants in West Philadelphia and Orlando, Fla. closed, Terre Haute reportedly continued to produce around 100 million gallons of paint and varnishes per year. Ending more than a century of paint manufacturing in Terre Haute, the factory closed permanently at the end of 2011. 

According to a 2013 Indiana State University press release, the university's governing board granted the university treasurer authority to negotiate with The Sherwin Williams Company and sign an agreement for the donation of 2.66 acres of property containing a former MAB paints factory west of U.S. 41, on the other side of the overpass. The property is near the site where the university's long-range facilities master plan  reportedly calls for the eventual construction of a new football stadium.

Terre Haute resident James Wood was MAB Paints Factory manager for 26 years, from 1972-June 2006. According to his LinkedIn profile, the company's origins stem back to when it was called Smith-Alsop Paint and Varnish Co., founded in 1909. The company officially became MAB Paints in 1977, after Philidelphia-based  M. A. Bruder & Sons purchased Smith-Alsop Paint and Varnish Co. in  1969.

During his tenure at the factory at Third and Spruce Streets, there were three major building expansions --  tripling production locally. With vast industrial experience, the chemical engineer considers his time at the Terre Haute plant a highlight of his long career, as he notes in his LinkedIn profile.

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