DEFUNCTSITE

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…

A quick note about the abandoned Valspar Paints factory on South Ashland, where a graffiti artist (or ‘tagger’, whichever you prefer,) died while evading police.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is currently demolishing the large, circa 1930′s Sludge Disposal Building (also known as “The Big House”) at their waste treatment plant in Stickney…

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 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…

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’s left now are the impressive grain silos, and those were half gone last time I visited.

In preparation for what is probably the inevitable demolition of the Michael Reese Hospital complex, the entire campus is now surrounded by a chain link fence. Anyone hoping to wander the grounds to get a last look at the place is now pretty much out of luck.

I keep on saying that I will continue to photograph this place until it is nothing but an empty lot. At the rate the demo crew is going, that’ll probably be in a month or so…

One of the more prominent features of Washburne Trade School was this mural in the cafeteria, presumably a project for the student sign painters who trained here…Now that summer upon us and much of the building is gone, I thought I’d present the last photos I took of this mural while the building around it was being demolished.

The name “Parisian Novelty”, more evocative of turn-of-the-century Europe than modern Chicago, makes me think of men in top hats and women carrying parasols strolling down the un-Parisian boulevard that runs through this working class neighborhood of McKinley Park…

Harry’s Hot Dogs, “One of the oddest corners of the Loop”…