This website is devoted to the history of Interlake/Acme’s coke plant on South Torrence Avenue. My personal research and archeology is shared here so that others intrigued by the site might learn more about what it once was.
- I have recovered a number of historically relevent items from the property and restored those that required it. You can see them and read more about them in the Museum.
- If you’d like to learn more about the industry, the Resources page has a number of materials that you will find helpful. Some are specific to Acme while others are more general.; some are simple while others are very technical.
- There are countless videos from different sources available on this website. Those which I personally shot at the plant during my visits are compiled on the Videos page for ease of access.
- I have scanned over 2500 pages of documents I have recovered from the site. The collection in the Document Archive is carefully curated and organized. It speaks of the real history of the plant and the people that worked there. These documents were all carried away either by bicycle or on foot, in all seasons and all weather conditions.
- If you’d like to know more about me and why I have devoted so much time to the plant, you may find the About section interesting.
- The majority of my work is posted in the Blog; a breakdown of those posts is below.
Scratching the surface of the days and years gone by at Acme Steel’s Chicago Coke Plant.
- Riverdale Continuous Caster Groundbreaking Ceremony
- Plant Superintendent Census Records
- Directory of Iron and Steel Works (1967)
- A Visit to the County Clerk
- Links to the past in Riverdale
- Interlake Toledo coke plant training slideshow
- Fatality on the Bench
- The monotony of quality steelmaking
- Interlake corporate directory (1951)
- In Danger of Becoming 15th
- 11196 aka 11000 S. Torrence Ave.
- The Secret Language of Surveyors
- Who is paying the property tax at Acme?
- Trains at Acme/Interlake
- “Seeing How the Sausage is Made”
- Rail Transportation at By-Products Coke Corp.
- At Acme, Customers are First
- Main Office Floor Plan
- How Acme Coke Traversed the Calumet River
- Fatality on the Battery
- Twenty Years Gone
- MiniGrated Steel video
- “Improvements Have Come at Just The Right Time”
- Acme/Interlake Newsletters
- Internet Artifacts
- Western States Blast Furnace and Coke Plant Association
- And before Interlake…
- The First Six Years
- Wages at Acme Coke
- Business Cards
- Maps
- Video transmissions from beneath the battery
Real stories about life at the coke plant from steel industry veteran Bob Green.
Contributions from Doug Podgorny, the former (and last) Area Manager Ovens at Acme Steel’s coke plant. Over 25 years of experience led to helping orchestrate the closure of the plant in 2001.
A deep dive into some of the thousands of historic documents I have recovered from the coke plant, brought home and scanned.
- Safety Manuals
- Continuous Caster Speech
- TQIP Manual
- Coke Plant Data Analysis: 24-Hour Circular Charts
- “Work Practice: Pushing” Video
- Ikio Oven Doors
- Acme Library
- Coal Evaluation Program
- The Curious Case of Clock# 801
- Business Travel
- The Smoke Readers
- Pushing Amps Data Acquisition System
- Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan
- Work Practice Training: Pushing
- Blueprints
- Lidman Training
I can usually be found at the plant on Saturday mornings. After my visits, I always share the details including photos, scans, video and a detailed list of the new documents to be added to the Document Archive.
- Site Access
- *40*
- At the Plant with Bob
- Another Saturday
- The Lunch Room
- Border Patrol
- New Years Day, 2022
- Battery #1 basement
- Acme at Night
- Coke Plant Cuisine
- To Acme – by bus
- #21
- Twenty visits to Acme Coke
- Hey #19 – Please take me along when you slide on down
- #18, and I don’t know what I want
- I learned the truth at #17
- Sweet 16
- Quinceañera
- #14
- Saturday the 13th
- Visit #12
- Main Office; Top Floor
- Coal Handling Office Finds
- Into the basement
- Christmas at Acme
- Operation: Document Rescue
- Inside the coal bunker
- The quench station
- Visit #4
- Visit #3
- Independence Day
- First impressions
- The discovery
Q&A and interviews with personnel associated with Acme and Interlake Steel
Parts of Acme/Interlake’s past – promo items and museum worthy pieces for the collector.
Documenting the restorations of artifacts I have recovered from the coke plant, to bring home and give a new life to in my own personal archive.
Miscellaneous posts that do not fit into other categories