RCA in Indianapolis: Dust to Dust

The Sherman Drive complex in Indianapolis was one of RCA's main consumer electronics manufacturing plants for decades, employing over 8,000 people at one time. The largest building on the site has recently been demolished with more to follow.

[@CBB1981]

My Dad started out in the factory in 1968 on Sherman Drive and ultimately was an RCA Truck driver until April of 1998 when operations winded down. Best trucking job he ever had. Went to Rockville Road, Bloomington and Indy plant all the time.

[@SteveBryanFL]

I worked there for a few years in the 70's. Started at the record plant on LaSalle. The building you went inside was the record plant. I remember it well. The record press was there and the compound where the vinyl was mixed to make the different records. There were several materials used depending on the desired quality of the record. The Red Seal records were the highest quality. They were mostly classical music and operas. The Consumer Electronics buildings were on the other side of the property on Sherman Drive. Later I worked the at record club on 30th Street.

[@DanOConnorTech]

Thanks for the great background information!

[@maplewoodsp]

My mother almost completed a university degree from Butler, but she still worked on the assembly line at this plant before I was born, and rehired again in the late 60's -70s. I recall picking her up on Sherman. She was eventually paid $350 by the government or when her job was shipped overseas. Thanks for posting this vid.

[@JDawghasaTruck]

I worked in Bloomington during the video disc period then took a field service job with Ricoh. I visited all of the RCA properties in Indiana fixing fax machines from 1983 to 2004.

[@noisepuppet]

looked up this address on Google maps because it was on some 30 year old video cameras I scrounged up. Street view still shows the old buildings, but satellite shows it all gone. Amazing that an industrial giant and a brand of almost mythical stature can just crumble away.

[@johnbinhack]

Was planting some trees today through Keep Indianapolis Beautiful program and the neighborhood backed into this former RCA site. I didn't know what it was beforehand and it dawned on me this is the former RCA plant..be interesting to see how it develops.

[@patricky823]

My dad worked at the Sherman Road plant from 1961 to 1968, then he was transferred to the Rockville Road plant until RCA stopped making audio equipment - 1973 or 1974, I think. He had a home workshop full of RCA equipment. Oscilloscopes, technical manuals.. my favorite was some box that he could hook up to a TV that broadcast the TV test pattern with the Indian chief on it.

[@DanOConnorTech]

Great story, thanks for sharing. I'd love to have seen that test pattern generator!

[@billyfulks5587]

This is a direct result of NAFTA. Thompson moved the plant to Mexico in 1997.

[@Rajnoma]

It's extremely sad to see that so many of our iconic American products--RCA, Zenith, Motorola and, of course, the steel industry have left and bought the Midwest literally, to its knees, so it has become the; the so-called Rust Belt. I believe that RCA was bought out by the Japanese firm, Sony and Zenith by LG of Korea. Of course, it was the CEO's decision to sell their firms and most likely investor-driven desire for more profits that brought this about. But the consequences for the entire Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, parts of Iowa and beyond were incalculable. We will be living with the results of what I personally term"flawed economics"; that is, when an individual corporation sees a net gain in profits by selling out to a (usually) foreign corporation, being totally unaware of the destruction of a whole society ie the destruction of entire neighborhoods and the resulting despair and criminal activity that lack of employment brings. It becomes a devastating downward spiral!

[@frankprovasek5394]

RCA was bought by General Electric in 1986, then immediately sold to the French company Thomson SA, which made RCA and GE TVs here until moving production to Mexico after 1998

[@appifish]

Ultimately it is the company that chose to pack up and leave. They were not forced through the nafta opening.