[3] The company patented the method of production of viscose (also known as artificial silk, and later, rayon), and built its first United States plant at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, in 1910.

[3] A location was chosen southeast of Roanoke, Virginia, partially due to inducements by city government promising infrastructure improvements specifically for the company's needs.

[4]: 531  The company purchased 212 acres (86 ha) along the Roanoke River, which provided the large amount of water necessary for the rayon manufacturing process.

[3] In that year The Viscose Company spent $500,000 to build Hillcrest Hall, a four-story women's dormitory capable of housing 200, and equipped with its own lounge, library, cafeteria, gymnasium, and infirmary (the dorm has been razed and is not part of the historic district).

[3] The Great Depression began shortly after the sixth unit's completion, and though production at The Viscose Company's U.S. plants fell by 25% in 1930, demand remained relatively steady through the mid-1930s.

[3] World War II created a high demand for rayon, however, and the Roanoke plant was soon making fiber for tires, parachutes, uniforms, and other military needs.

[9] The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau had insisted that the British sell certain United States-based assets in order to offset some of the costs of the Lend-Lease program.

[3] The factory's closure was particularly difficult for the region as it came at a time when N&W was transitioning its fleet to diesel and shuttering its Roanoke steam engine shops, which resulted in the loss of 2,000 jobs from that company.

[14] Due to the site's decades of heavy industrial use, in the late 1980s the property saw a preliminary investigation by the federal Superfund program as a potential cleanup location, but deemed not to be a priority.

[17] The concentration of heavy metals in the soil along the Roanoke River by the site of the former plant were at such extreme levels that the city considered removing the section from the project.

[18] In 2023, the Roanoke City Council approved a plan to begin transforming the American Viscose district into a mixed-use development called Riverdale.

[16] Chemsolv, a tenant of the industrial park, had been fined over $600,000 in 2014 for improper waste storage, but the company removed the tank before investigators could properly determine the extent of its effects.

[16] As of 2023[update], a deed restriction was in place prohibiting residential development in the Riverdale site; the owners hope to have the ban lifted after further remediation of the brownfield.