If you live in Louisville metro, chances are you have heard of GE Appliances or know one of the more than 8,500 people the appliance manufacturer employs in the area.
For the past 70 years, the manufacturing facility GE Appliance Park, 4000 Buechel Bank Road, has called Louisville home.
The appliance company, which was created by Thomas Edison, has produced many innovative products in Louisville including the first automatic portable dishwasher, bright-colored appliance sets, and the first toaster oven, just to name a few gadgets.
In 1950, General Electric purchased more than 900 acres of farmland in Louisville to create Appliance Park, which would become the company’s centralized hub for production. Just a few years later in 1953, GE Appliances shipped its first product out of Louisville, a dryer.
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“For seven decades, Appliance Park has been a pioneer in the home appliance industry,” Kevin Nolan, president and CEO of GE Appliances, a Haier company, told the Courier Journal. “Here in Louisville, GE Appliances invents and builds products that help improve life in the home for families across the country.”
With decades of innovative experience in the metro, here are four things you may not know about one of the area’s largest employers.
Did you know GE Appliance Park is its own city?
GE Appliances corporate campus, more commonly referred to as Appliance Park, is essentially its own small city within the city limits of Louisville.
“We operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year ― there is always someone here managing the facility,” Julie Wood, senior director of corporate communications at GE Appliances, told the Courier Journal.
The GE Appliance Park city boasts its own zip code — 40225. The park is home to a train transportation system, including a railroad track, switching crew, and two locomotives.
GE Appliances even has some of its own utilities including power and natural gas distribution, gas pumps for vehicles, snow removal and grounds care, a waste treatment plant, a traffic light system, and at one point, the plant had its own fire truck.
“When the facility was built, we had our own fire department,” Wood said. “We sold our firetruck for $1 in 2008.”
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The Appliance Park “city” provides employees with some perks, too. The campus has an onsite primary care provider’s office along with occupational health and physical therapy offices. The facility is also home to a full-size basketball court, an on-site YMCA, four cafeterias, and a 400-seat theater.
“At the time [the theater] was built, it had a massive turntable stage where GEA debuted new kitchen appliances to customers,” Wood said.
Appliance Park produces millions of appliances annually
In Louisville, GE Appliances produces roughly five million appliances annually. The appliances made locally are washers, dryers, dishwashers, and refrigerators.
Since 2018, GE Appliances has expanded its brand presence with Hotpoint, Haier, GE and GE Profile, Monogram and Café. Profile, Monogram and Café serve the upper 25% of the market and are luxury brands.
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GE Appliances in Louisville has a history of industry-leading patents
In 1958, just a few years after GE Appliances shipped its first dryer out of Louisville, GE Appliances employee Philip Hughes patented a dryer control system that added a manual start switch to the dryer so if the dryer door was opened and closed in the middle of a cycle, the dryer would not just restart on its own when the door was closed.
Hughes’ patent put a control in place that required the user to press a button to start the dryer again after closing the door.
This was done to improve safety and reduce damage to clothes and the same basic control system is still used today and has become the industry standard, according to A Walk Through the Park, a history book on GE Appliances.
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John Bochan was the first employee in Louisville to have more than 100 patents credited to him. One of Bochan’s notable patents was the filter-flow system on top load washers, which added a self-cleaning filter to washers to help reduce maintenance. It was used from 1950 until 1994 when drainage designs were improved.
“What I think is so cool, is that same focus on innovation and invention you can find here today at the park,” Wood said.
FirstBuild, GE Appliances’ ‘microfactory,’ is at UofL
In 2014, GE Appliances launched a maker space and microfactory on the University of Louisville’s campus. The goal of FirstBuild was for the co-creation space to help jumpstart new product ideas.
FirstBuild is free for creators, artists, engineers and anyone with an itch to help build appliances. Ideas for appliances can be submitted to the FirstBuild team and then together, alongside community members, GE Appliance employees will work to co-create the idea. After a product has been created and gone through rounds of beta testing and other improvements, it can make its way to sale.
Some products that have come from FirstBuild include the Monogram Hearth Oven, the Kitchen Hub, and the Opal Nugget Ice Maker, along with dozens of other home appliances.
The makerspace is staffed with GE Appliance employees to help with projects Monday through Friday 5-8 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. FirstBuild also offers classes and certifications for people wanting to advance their innovating skills.
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“As we look to the future, we’re more energized than ever to continue serving as a leader in American manufacturing and as a good corporate citizen of our hometown community,” said GE Appliances CEO Nolan.
Editor’s Note: This article has been modified from its original version.
Contact reporter Olivia Evans at [email protected] or on Twitter at @oliviamevans_
