Things Change
ABOVE: 5315 S. Halsted, January 2010. BELOW: Same building, May 2010
(Yes, I know it has been a while since I’ve posted. There is a backlog of content waiting to be organized into a semi-presentable form, but updating this site has not been on the top of my to-do list for a while. Back in 2007 I had certain ideas about what I wanted to do here, but now there are new ideas that I want to play with. Shifting priorities, etc. While I’ve been avoiding this place, I have been dumping stray content at the mini-version of this site, rubbishgoeshere.tumblr.com. Feel free to take a look. Something will happen here soon, maybe, though I’m not sure what. We’ll see. Thanks for stopping by.)
Progress at MRH
Just posting a few semi-recent “before and after” photos of the demolition work at Michael Reese Hospital, only because nobody else seems to have done it lately (except for Lee Bey, sort of):
Baumgarten Pavilion, or at least what’s left of it, November 27, 2009.
Former site of the Baumgarten Pavilion, January 31, 2010.
Nurses’ Residence, January 31, 2010.
Former site of the Nurses’ Residence, March 14, 2010.
Many other buildings are gone, including the Power Plant–my personal favorite.
More photos later, maybe.
edit 4/20/10: The often excellent local blog A Chicago Sojourn has posted a few thought on, and a few recent photos of, the demolition work at MRH. Go have a look,whydon’tcha…
“It is a magnet for graffiti and photographers…”
Man who died eluding cops had record of tagging buildings: “…The area where Kitchekeg died is a magnet for taggers and graffiti painters because of a large abandoned factory nearby. The abandoned factory, a former manufacturing plant for Valspar Paints, is located at 2841 S. Ashland Ave. It is a magnet for graffiti and photographers who chronicle urban decay because it is easily accessible…Although the building is not legally open to the public, the Valspar plant is easy to get into, as are many former factories such as the former Brach’s Candy manufacturing plant near Lake Street and Cicero Avenue.”
The above (cropped) photo was taken outside Valspar Paints back in 2007, after a visit to “chronicle urban decay” (I posted a few photos from that trip HERE). As I was about to climb a ladder to leave, a flashlight beam appeared from the second floor. Whoever had the light must have heard me–the beam went dark, and I heard two people running away and swearing. I poked around a nearby rail bridge before making my way back up Ashland, where I saw these guys hanging out in front of the factory–one was on his cell phone while the other fiddled with a small flashlight. I thought of introducing myself as the guy they thought was a security guard, but decided against it. Could have been awkward.
Condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Kitchekeg. If you click on the article link at the top of this post, do yourself a favor–don’t read the comments.
MWRD “Big House” Demo-Cam
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is tearing down the large, circa 1930′s Sludge Disposal Building (also known as “The Big House”) at their waste treatment plant in Stickney. Unfortunately, the site covers so much ground (“the largest wastewater treatment facility in the world“) and the building is so deep inside the complex that the only decent public view of the demolition work is from the Central Avenue viaduct a quarter of a mile away, which is where I shot the above (cropped, mediocre) photo. But if you want to get a closer look, you can just go online and watch the demolition live (more or less, the feed is slow) on the MWRD website. While I can only guess as to why the MWRD decided to make the webcam feed publicly viewable, or why they even set one up in the first place, I’m glad that they did it. The webcam page also has a short write-up on the history of the building. Worth reading, if only because whoever wrote the piece did so with a sense of humor.
edit 7/2/10: The building is gone and so is the video feed, but not the information page. I took a screenshot of the video back in March and posted it HERE, if you’re interested.
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Somewhat related: A Fantasy Itinerary for a CLUImidwest Tour of Peripheral Chicago, where the Chicago-based blog Pruned asks “…from where does Chicago get its water and electricity. What happens to our shit?” The Stickney plant is mentioned, of course.
Hiatus
As you may have guessed from the lack of recent updates, I’m taking a break from adding content here. The site (I don’t like the word “blog”) is not quite abandoned–it’s more like an old factory building that you THINK is abandoned, but then you notice that there are still a few lights on, and a white pickup truck is parked out back. Something will happen here eventually (probably), though I’m not sure what, or when.
Thanks for stopping by, reading, commenting, linking to this site, etc…I really appreciate it. Have a great New Year.
RIP WTS
This is the base of what used to be the enclosed water tower at Washburne Trade School. Towers and stairwells are the most difficult parts of old brick factory buildings to demolish, so they are often left standing until the rest of the structure around them is torn down. That’s what happened here, and as the Washburne water tower became more isolated from the rest of the complex (see the gallery below) it began to resemble a monument of some sort. I had naively hoped that it would be left standing, but as you can see that didn’t happen. Now 31st and Kedzie can finally be classified as an 11 acre Empty Lot.
Remember the metal letters above the door to the tower that spelled out “WASHBURNE TRADE SCHOOL”? Me too…I wonder what happened to those.
LINKS: The ForgottenChicago.com page on The Last Days of Washburne, and there are two years worth of blog posts about Washburne in the archives. Now I have to sort through thousands of photos dating back to 2004 and figure out what to do with them. Fun.
Backyard Silos
Near 51st and Hoyne stands the Fleischmann-Kurth Malting Company, which was once “one of the largest suppliers of malt for the American beer industry” according to some random factoid I found online. Actually, I should say “stood”, since demolition of the complex began late last year and is now nearly complete. All that is left are the impressive grain silos, and those were half gone last time I visited. Read the rest of this entry »
Vintage Chicago, on Flickr
For those who enjoy looking at mid-century (1940′s-1970′s) photos of the Chicago cityscape…
ABOVE: From his “vast slide collection. For your pleasure”, over 400 found slides of Vintage Chicago Illinois, presented by Zeus of HollYWOod. BELOW: Over 200 images of Chicago from the late 1940′s onward by Joe + Jeanette Archie (via).
A lot of good stuff.