Independence Equipment Plant

The Independence Equipment Plant became a part of GE's lamp machine-building operations in 1971. At that time there was a tremendous requirement for additional lampmaking machinery, which could not be fulfilled by the Cleveland Equipment Works at the East 152nd Street Facility. In that year GE bought an empty facility in Mentor (OH) to create the Mentor Equipment Plant, and two smaller job shops. These became known as the Independence Equipment Plant and the Star Equipment Plant, the latter of which was quite small and was closed in 1975, its operations being absorbed into Cleveland, Mentor and Independence. It is not known when this site was closed, but in 1979 GE was still operating three facilities for the design and construction of lampmaking machinery, with a combined workforce of 800 engineers covering more than 300,000 square feet.