Valley Works history

The Bank changed its name in the mid 1930's to the Bank of Passaic and Trust Company.

In 1938, Hewlett and Packard began part-time work in the garage behind Dave and Lucile Packard’s ground floor flat at 367 Addison Avenue.

On August 27, 1939, just days before the outbreak of the second World War, Britain’s Treasury approved £546,000 for the development of a top-secret chemical weapons plant and storage facility in North Wales.

Britain’s effort to build an atomic bomb had begun in 1940, after physicists Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls at the University of Birmingham determined that such a weapon would only require several kilograms of fissionable material to produce an atomic explosion.

Valley Works, which became operational in 1941, was built on a long narrow plot of land beside the Alyn River and was divided into several distinct zones.

In 1942, construction began on five buildings to produce the toxic mustard gas, though only two of these facilities actually produced the agent.

In December 1943, Peierls and Fuchs travelled to New York to meet with General Leslie Groves and Manhattan Project leaders involved in gaseous diffusion.

As the Manhattan Project expanded in size and scope, work at Rhydymwyn slowed and in 1945 P6 was converted into a general storage facility.

Other “people-centered” practices followed as the founders fostered a work environment that aimed for innovation and achievement, promoted trust in people and teamwork, and rewarded employees for HP’s success.In 1947, the year HP incorporated, revenues topped $1.5 million.

In 1956 the Bank acquired the Bank of Allwood located in Clifton, NJ. At the same time, the name was changed to The Bank of Passaic and Clifton.

In 1957, HP had its first public stock offering and began manufacturing at its new flagship site in Stanford Research Park, home of HP’s current corporate offices.Soon HP grew its product offerings through a series of acquisitions, all within its focused field of interest—electronics manufacturing.

In 1966, HP Laboratories— today among the world’s premier technology labs—was formed as the company’s central research facility.

Despite adverse economic trends, HP continued to develop new technologies and products, tightening its belt rather than incurring longterm debt.The slide rule, once the tool of every engineer, slipped into obsolescence after HP introduced the first scientific handheld calculator, the HP-35, in 1972.

The acquisition of the Bank of Wayne in 1976 created a need for a new identity, and the name Valley National Bank was chosen.

Hewlett and Packard remained on the board of directors.Focusing on innovation and quality, HP stayed a steady, profitable course as it introduced its first personal computer for technical users in 1980.

Lewis E. (Lew) Platt succeeded John Young as president and CEO in 1992.

But they thereafter asked to invest in some of their tenants, which paid off in a big way when eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002.

In 2003, the site underwent major remediation and a Visitor Centre was built on the site of the old gatehouse.

HP’s offerings spanned IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services, and imaging and printing.In 2005, HP Chairman and CEO Fiorina was succeeded by Mark Hurd, former CEO of NCR Corporation, who was named by the board to serve as CEO and president.