Stories

  • Founding General Foam Plastics

    Published 2022-01-23

    Engineers and previous Cornell University roommates, Burk Zanft and Ascher Chase, would lease a 1,500 sq ft Portsmouth, VA warehouse in 1957 from Zanft family friend Leon Cardon, owner of Star Band. The newly formed General Foam Plastics Corporation, making its money in styrofoam pipe insulation and styrofoam pool toys, would quickly outgrow its first home—and in 1963 moved to a new warehouse in the neighboring city of Norfolk[0]. This new warehouse was approximately 100,000 sq ft—and cheap. Continue reading...