The former Plastics Manufacturing Co. building on South Westmoreland Road is under demolition to make way for a new development.
A Houston-based company is demolishing the former Plastics Manufacturing Co. plant on South Westmoreland Road to make way for something new.
Newquest Properties didn’t return a call seeking comment, but an online marketing packet for their Westmoreland Station describes it as a “proposed retail and transit-oriented development project.”
The flyer contains the below sketch of a possible layout that shows pad sites for fast-food restaurants and a bank fronting Westmoreland Road, between Hansboro Avenue and Glenfield Avenue.
That’s a lot of parking spaces, but the tract, which comprises 7.24 acres, is a few blocks from the DART Westmoreland Station.
The Plastics Manufacturing Co. opened sometime after World War II to produce Texas Ware and Dallas Ware dishes made of melamine. Its original plant was on Trunk Avenue in South Dallas. In 1963, they built a new plant at 2700 S. Westmoreland for $3 million. About 625 people worked there in the 1960s, and the factory produced about 29 million pieces of Texas Ware and Dallas Ware per year.
Pieces of Texas Ware are now vintage collectibles. Texas Ware was the manufacturer’s line of household dishes. and Dallas Ware was sturdier stuff often sold for use in restaurants and school cafeterias.
This oral history of the plant from Derrel Lyon, describes how Texas Ware was made.
A Florida-based plastics manufacturer acquired the plant in 1988, and it closed shortly after.
