Aerial view of the Whirlpool plant complex, located on U.S. Hwy. 41 North (south of St. George Rd.) In 1942, Republic Aviation built a plant on this site, and during WWII built almost 1/2 of the P-47 Thunderbolts. Whirlpool, headquartered in Benton Harbor, MI, moved in circa 1956. In 2010 all production was shut down, and in 2014 the plant closed entirely. The buildings still stand today. Here's a bit more history: "When Whirlpool came to Evansville in 1956, the city was known as the Refrigerator Capital of the World, Ed Klingler, a longtime Evansville Press business reporter, wrote in his book "How a City Founded to Make Money Made It." Servel made gas-fueled refrigerators at a facility in the 800 block of East Franklin Street. Seeger-Sunbeam made refrigerators at its facility in the 200 block of West Morgan Avenue. International Harvester made refrigerators at its plant in the 5400 block of U.S. 41 North, where Whirlpool has its plant today. Whirlpool acquired all three plants and began Evansville production in 1956. It gradually expanded its presence over the years so that by 1969, it employed about 6,500 hourly workers. After a workers' strike in 1970, Whirlpool added additional workers to make up for lost production. That briefly brought Whirlpool's total employment in Evansville up to around 9,900, Castrale said. But market forces and labor turmoil intervened. Whirlpool stopped production at the Franklin Street plant in 1975 as the market disappeared for the gas refrigerators made there. It ended production at the Morgan Avenue plant in 1984 after another strike, Castrale said. At that time, the Morgan Avenue plant made room air conditioners, dehumidifiers and compressors. After the strike, company executives decided to move production of dehumidifiers and air conditioners to La Vergne, Tenn., and to buy compressors from an outside source, Castrale said. By late 1989, Whirlpool's employment in Evansville had dropped to 1,987 hourly workers and about 600 salaried. This came at a time of stiff competition from nonunion companies, Castrale said. But a concessionary union contract and streamlining of operations helped the company build up its work force to nearly 5,000 in May 1994, Castrale said. In 1996, the company reduced its work force by nearly half. The work force has continued to decline in the last decade but for a brief spurt in 2000, when hundreds of additional jobs were added. (http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&subsectionID=62&articleID=29750) NOTE: this article was written in 2006, before the final closure of Whirlpool in Evansville.