Plasterco

Celotex is on Farm Road 668 and a branch line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway seven miles southwest of Hamlin in northeast Fisher County. The industrial town was named Plasterco for a gypsum plant that was moved from Goodlett to Fisher County in 1907, after the Orient Railroad (see KANSAS CITY, MEXICO AND ORIENT RAILWAY) had built into the area. By the late 1920s the plant owned seventy-two company houses for workers. A commissary established at the site served all area settlers. The company built a community center with a seating capacity of 400 that functioned also as a church and movie theater. A school, several churches, a golf course, and other sports facilities were available. Although production declined during the late 1920s and 1930s as a result of the Great Depression, the industry survived. On March 15, 1945, Celotex Corporation bought the plant and changed the community's name to Celotex. The population was 100 in 1947, when the school was consolidated with the Hamlin schools. The Celotex community and industry still appeared on 1980 county maps, and the community was still listed in 1990. Plasterco Lake, on a branch of California Creek, is northwest of the factory.