E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company that began manufacturing gunpowder in 1802, and is commonly known as the DuPont Company. In 1941, the Martinsville Plant opened in Martinsville, Virginia, as DuPont's second nylon hosiery manufacturing plant. Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) first created nylon at the DuPont Experimental Station in 1935. After determining that low-cost production was possible, the DuPont Company built a plant to manufacture its first nylon product, women's stockings. The first plant opened near Seaford, Delaware, in 1939. Nylon hosiery was released in 1940 and sold more than 64 million pairs during its first year. The Martinsville Plant opened to meet increasing demand for nylon stockings. The Martinsville Plant employed nearly 5,000 people during its peak years.

Nylon began to lose popularity in the 1970s, when consumer taste shifted toward other fabrics and styles. Competition increased when other countries started to produce nylon for far less than the United States. In 1990, DuPont began downsizing at the plant, and it closed on June 30, 1998, due to outdated equipment, an aging building, and increased foreign competition.