Long ago, before China became the manufacturer of almost everything we use and buy, America's Great Lakes states hummed with the self-sufficiency of its factories and industry. A case in point is the onetime factory illustrated here, a maker of hardware, nuts and bolts, threaded rods, rivets, etc. A complex consisting of several buildings, a power house and an office building, the plant thrived through the boom times well enough to warrant building an addition in the 1950s. Later, the company became a subsidiary of a much larger corporation but it wasn't until the 1980s that the pressures of the bottom line focused its eye on this facility. Not as big as the newer, more efficient factories located elsewhere and abroad, this factory eventually succombed to the goal to cut costs and closed its doors at the end of 1986.
As best as I can tell, this factory briefly re-opened in 1988 under a new name and operated for a few more years as a much-scaled-back operation, with a fraction of its former workforce. By 1992, it was closed for good. Around the turn of the millenium, an environmental cleanup at the property saw the removal of materials containing asbestos and PCBs, drums of chemical wastes, above ground storage tanks, sandblasting waste areas, galvanizing waste and buried debris at the site. Soil samples were taken and groundwater monitoring wells were installed to monitor levels of lead and vinyl chloride in the soil and groundwater. Since then, scrappers have hauled away much of what was left unattached, such as the rows of metal lockers that once lined the upstairs bathrooms. Otherwise, the property and buildings remains unoccupied and empty, slowly overcome by nature.
A visit in 2009 (three such visits are featured here) reveals all the buildings wide open and in varying condition. The offices are trashed, windows are broken, and the factory walls have a number of gaping holes. It would be nice to find some samples of hardware left behind, but none have been left by the ever-efficient scrappers.
The main halls of the factory. Two long metal-framed buildings made up the bulk of the facility.
Seen in some of the photos are some of the hundreds of piles of filthy, rotting clothes collected some years ago by a local charity. Destined for the less fortunate elsewhere in the world, the clothes spent several years in storage facilities elsewhere, at a considerable expense. When the storage contract ran out, the clothes were moved here for free storage. Of course, for what was already spent to store the clothes, one would assume they could have been distributed instead but yet here they sit. And rot. Thousands of wet, filthy uniform shirts and pants that aren't going anywhere in a hurry occupy the second of the factory's large steel buildings.
One last picture of the filthy donated clothes. They're worth a couple of pictures just for the sake of curiosity, but otherwise they are just taking up space. I'd like to shoot this building without them in the way.
The central portion of the factory features dozens of reinforced concrete columns, and a heavy, concrete upper flooor.
Upstairs, in the central portion of the factory, was additional manufacturing space.
If there existed an "icon of abandonment", perhaps this ruined church would take the title. Completed in 1925 and abandoned in 1975, the building lingered in relative obscurity and was damaged by fire in 1997. Since then, it has evolved into something of an internet phenomenon as explorers have come from far and wide to stand in awe in its quiet and magestic chapel. Its been seen on TV and is featured in an upcoming horror movie, and was even the stage for a gospel music video. I won't reveal its location or even the city it is located in; it is well enough known that if you don't know those basics I'm not going to be the one to tip it in for you. I'll assume most of those who might find this page knows where this place is.
Note the piano which appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, in early 2009. How did that possibly get there? The mystery was solved when it was discovered the church was the setting for a music video by gospel recording artist Dwayne Coleman. The video was completed but the piano remains , sadly no longer playable due to moisture damage.
