DuPont first targeted the Old Hickory, Tennessee, site for development in 1917 when it became likely that U.S. entry into World War I would greatly boost the demand for munitions. The federal government ordered DuPont to begin work at Old Hickory in the fall of 1917, but financial and administrative disputes held up the contract until the following March. DuPont more than made up for lost time, however. The first of Old Hickory's nine smokeless powder units went into operation on July 2, 1918, an impressive 121 days ahead of schedule. By the war's end, DuPont engineers had built what amounted to an entire city for 30,000 workers, with 3,867 buildings and 7.5 miles of double-tracked railroad. During the war, DuPont charged 1 percent of product value to operate the plant. When it was turned over to the government in 1919, the company charged only $1 for construction.
Old Hickory met an urgent national defense need, and the War Department lauded the company's "remarkable achievement." But afterward, public and private accusations of waste, fraud, and war profiteering dogged the company, culminating in the 1934 U.S. Senate Nye Committee hearings. No evidence was ever found to substantiate the charges.
The government abandoned Old Hickory and it was becoming a ghost town when, in 1923, the DuPont Fibersilk Company bought 500 additional acres at the site and began constructing a rayon plant. By 1937 DuPont was producing moisture-proof cellophane film at Old Hickory as well as 4.2 million pounds of yarn a year. World War II brought more expansion. By 1946 Old Hickory was home to 228 acres of plant facilities, a housing development, and a golf course.
In the postwar years, DuPont continued to locate cutting-edge production at Old Hickory. By the 1960s the production of Dacron® had superseded the rayon operations, and when the film plant closed in 1964, Corfam® took its place, giving way eventually to Typar® spunbonded materials. Today, Old Hickory turns out Sontara® spunlaced materials and Crystar® PET resin. The site also hosts a waste polyester regeneration plant.
The Old Hickory facility site – on the Cumberland River 14 miles east of Nashville – is named for Andrew Jackson, the president whose home is just a few miles away.
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