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The last remains of AS&R. Photo taken 4/1/15 when demolition began. *Photos by Katherine Massopust

By A.J. Massopust

City Historian, Perth Amboy

PERTH AMBOY – An old resident of Perth Amboy is slowly disappearing. On outer State Street are the last buildings of AS&R Co. —  The American Smelting and Refining Co.  better known to older residences of our town as “ Guggies” after the famous Guggenheims  who owned it are being demolished.  The plant has been in Perth Amboy since  1894.  The Perth Amboy location was selected because of the salt water access, the Lehigh Valley Railroad and its road hub potential location.  The plant eventually went from a swamp in an area which had very little else to a 75 acre facility and  a complex of an adjoining 80 acres. In 1915 the plant started smelting tin – the first in the United States.  It was a unique plant as it carried out a all non-ferrous metal processes in one place except treatments of ores and concentrates. The Perth Amboy location was the only  place where all sorts of non-ferrous metals were smelted. Examples are gold, silver, platinum, copper, lead, palladium, antimony, antimonial lead alloys, bismuth and a complete line of lead sheet, lead pipe, rods and tubes. This was just some of the material produced. During WWII the plant made the cable-pipe sort of device which transported fuel across the English channel.

The first building which was of brick construction was still standing and it was the residence of John Allen, the plant’s first superintendent. It is said Meyer Guggenheim even stayed there, the building eventually became the lab.  The AS&R Co. left in the early eighties after keeping a small office in the building.  It was in that building that the AS&R Co. gave the Volunteer Fire Dept. Parade Committee their beloved Ahrens Fox Fire engine which is housed in the Perth Amboy Fire Department Museum.

It was said (before labor laws) that you began work in the plant at 7:00 a.m. and left when done. The work was hard and laborious, three 8 hr. shifts per day.   In this large facility our grandfathers, fathers, uncles and ancestors toiled and stoked the furnaces. It was here that our many nationalities of immigrants made their daily wage so that their children could achieve “The American Dream.”

The AS&R Co. has made its mark on the city of Perth Amboy.  Many, many splinter jobs and revenues were created from this plant such as health services, supplies, and of course, taxes. Many of our residents and past residents can find “Guggies” in their family history. Another chapter in our history has come to an end.