Known to the world as The General Electric Company’s Missile and Space Vehicle Department at the Valley Forge Space Technology Center, it was clearly the biggest thing to happen to Upper Merion Township since the Schuylkill Expressway met the Pennsylvania Turnpike less than ten years earlier. On a grassy hill overlooking the gradually disappearing farmlands in King of Prussia, the 900,000 square foot facility rose in 1960 as the first major industrial complex in the area, comprising some 131 acres. It would be the first of many businesses to locate in and around Upper Merion, due mainly to its proximity to major roadways, which earned the township the nickname “the Hub of the East.” Today, Lockheed Martin occupies the facility, which has changed very little externally, from its original design.
As the facility filled with scientists and military officials tasked with helping get the United States space program underway, new children suddenly began appearing in the schools of Upper Merion, brought by families relocating to the area from Schenectady, New York and elsewhere. For a time, Upper Merion ranked third in the nation behind Washington D.C. and New York City, for the number of foreign spies present.
The two letters of the Hebrew word “Chai” appeared all over the plant of the General Electric Company’s space and technology center at Valley Forge, Pa. The firm selected the word as a slogan because it represents “the world’s oldest language” and signifies “life” and best fits the Company’s aims, which were to create spacecraft to have “long life” a GE official explained. “Chai” was imprinted on doors, signs, posters and security badges.
When the GE Space Technology Center was under construction, photographers traveled to many different compass points throughout the township to view it being built. Unencumbered by vegetation, many of the photographs of the construction of the GE Space Technology Center were taken in former cow pastures like this one, about to be transformed into the King of Prussia Industrial Park.
The “rocket man” image was created for Upper Merion Township in the early 1960’s along with the tagline “Crossroads of History and Tomorrow” to represent both the township’s rich colonial era heritage as well as the new presence of General Electric and their involvement with the space and missile programs at the King of Prussia site. Artist unknown.
A press release from 1962 hailed the GE Space Technology Center as one of the top ten new plants for 1962. (Courtesy of the Temple University Urban Archive and the Tredyffrin-Easttown Historical Society.)
Standing at approximately Warner Road and Swedesford Road, this would have been the view of the construction of the GE Space Technology Center in 1960, looking over the Valley Forge Golf Course. Today Wegman’s would interrupt the view.
This view from what is now Park Avenue is looking east. Note the Pennsylvania Turnpike just below the construction site. (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin.)
This view from what is now Park Avenue is looking east. Note the Pennsylvania Turnpike just below the construction site. (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin.)
