Chicago | VJRurbex

In the 1800’s, Chicago, at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, became one of the largest centers of the nations growing grain trade. Obviously, industrialists searched for the best way to participate in this lucrative business, and came up with the concept of the grain elevator: a massive, usually concrete industrial building that can receive, store, and distribute grain in the most efficient way possible. Chicago’s ideal location near the Midwest, where grain is grown, and on the Great Lakes, where grain can be shipped, meant that soon grain elevators were popping up as fast as industrialists could make them. One of the main issues with these grain elevators was that grain dust + oxygen + spark = explosion.

The story of the Santa Fe Grain Elevator starts in 1905 with an explosion and a fire. The old grain terminal in that area, on a river a short distance away, exploded, and burned to the ground almost immediately. While some saw this as a disaster resulting in thousands of dollars of property gone and multiple lives lost, others saw it as a business opportunity. The next year, architect John S. Metcalf and the Santa Fe railroad company, among others, built a new and modernized grain elevator not far from the one that had been destroyed.

The Santa Fe Grain Elevator Today

The Grain elevator was truly an amazing example of industry. It surpassed its now deceased counterpart’s capacity, now able to reach 1,700,000 bushels of grain when full. It drew water from the canal right into its own power plant, which generated the 1,500 horsepower needed to keep the elevator’s machinery going. However, for all of the impressive industrial technology it had, the old problem of exploding grain dust never went away.

An old piece of machinery

In 1932, an explosion destroyed part of the elevator and killed 3 workers. To the owner’s credit, they did attempt to repair the elevator to make it as fireproof as possible, but a series of fires and explosions in other grain elevators around the city crippled the Chicago grain trade as a whole. Soon, Chicago was thoroughly out-competed by other Midwestern cities. The end came in 1977, when a huge explosion and fire put the Santa Fe Grain Elevator out of commission for good.

Inside the grain elevator itself

The Grain Elevator made an appearance in the movie Transformers 4, where the bridges that connected the two sections were blown up. The city is currently trying to sell the property for a steal of a deal at only 11 million dollars.

The abandoned warehouse is dwarfed in size by the massive silos of the elevator

Shattered windows in the abandoned warehouse

Large open space inside the warehouse

An abandoned… Building? Frame? Take your pick

There are many rumors about ways one can still get to the top of the silos, although i found no ladders during my exploration. The property is fenced off, but if you look hard enough, jumping the fence is not necessary. This building has been abandoned for a fairly long time, so watch out for collapse and condition issues, although it definitely seems to have been built to last.

Thanks for reading!

“Keep your eyes peeled for tall red brick smokestacks, as there’s often something quite wonderful at the bottom. . .”
-Jeff Chapman

The Wyman-Gordon Power Plant once powered the massive Ingalls-Shepard Forging Company, which started out manufacturing parts for the auto and railroad industries. Built in 1910, the massive factory was sold to the Wyman-Gordon Company in 1920. During World War One and World War Two, what they now called the Ingalls-Shepard Division Factory turned its industrial might to the war effort, and was in turn given dismantled German technology. The company claims to have produced more parts for the war than any of its competitors. In 1986, economic hardship forced the Wyman-Gordon Company to shut the factory down. Only two buildings of the once sprawling factory remain, the power plant and an occupied building across the street.

It would be an overstatement to call what surrounds the Wyman-Gordon Power Plant a “fence”. The tattered, rusty, chain link is filled with holes and embarrassingly easy to walk right through. The building is mostly void of windows, but there were a few leading to the offices, and after a short climb, i was in.

After climbing up the ledge, it wasn’t all that hard finding a way in

The offices were still in decent condition, with paperwork, binders, and ledgers rotting away on the crumbling desks. Reading a few of these papers helped me see what it was like back when this was still a hub of industry. One detailed a deal between a loading crane manufacturer and the Wyman-Gordon company, and a binder in the center of the room held inventory of replacement parts.

The offices had seen better days, but there were still legible records all around.

Leaving the offices, i entered the heart of the Wyman-Gordon Power Plant .The main rooms were wet from a recent storm, and well ventilated, but the floors of some of the side rooms and hallways had a dry asbestos insulation piled a foot deep in some places. After pointing my camera into the dark, taking a photo with flash on, and examining it, i found out the stuff i was walking on wasn’t the normal abandoned building mud and grime. Yuck!

Still water in one of the main rooms of the power plant

Machinery rusts away in the dark

I could have explored the Wyman-Gordon Power Plant all day if given the chance. However, a man on a bike circling the building made me cautious, and i decided to beat a hasty retreat in case he decided to call up some friends and score himself a new (and free!) camera.

The inside of the power plant is a mess of rusted machinery

The Wyman-Gordon Power Plant is a EPA Brownfields site. Although the main rooms are ventilated, open, and probably safe, anyone going to the Wyman-Gordon Power Plant without a respirator should be careful and avoid areas with clear signs of asbestos. The metal walkways have been taken for scrap, and I fear that it is only a matter of time before the last remnants of the once proud Ingalls-Shepard Division Factory are gone forever.

Thanks for the read!