I was eager to get back to the plant after the nightmare wet weather last week. It was bitterly cold but I am well acquainted with that after at least a dozen visits last winter. It feels good to know that I have the place to myself and won’t be disturbed, normal people have families and things to do on Saturday mornings, not hanging out in an abandoned building in an environment that is only comparable to a freezer.
My mission for today was to explore 116th street. To explain why I was interested, it is important to consider the four borders to the plant property.
- South border – 116th Street. This is a marked street but it is not paved and it dead ends 1/4 mile west of Torrence at the railroad tracks (which is also the west border). There is a chain link fence topped with barbed wire.
- North border – to some it might appear to be 110th Street but I do not believe this is the case. The border is actually the Chicago & Western Indiana rail which runs south east and crosses Torrence Ave exactly at 112th Street. The tracks were long ago removed from Torrence Ave but the evidence is apparent on the east side of the street, and the ties (the rails are gone, scrapped no doubt) are still intact inside the plant, just north of the gate house). This does leave a small pocket in the NW corner of the property which would abut 110th Ave. I think for a future mission I need to walk this rail in it’s entirely from Torrence to 110th.
- East border – Torrence Ave. A chain link fence runs the 1/2 mile from 112th St to 116th. The fence is also reinforced with correguated sheet metal.
- West border – NY, Chicago and STL rail line.
I went on a long ride from Hegewisch north on Ave O to 100th Street where I crossed the river and headed south on Torrence. I stopped at 110th Street to give this a brief investigation but remembered I had explored this before. Vacarro Trucking has an abanonded brick garage there missing its door. I did not enter but was tempted. 110th does not go through to the tracks, it veers north and runs parallel to the tracks.
With that having gone nowhere, I went back to Torrence and headed south, past the plant, to 116th. I recently came across some memos I scanned long ago regarding a gate on 116th Street, to be used for contractors in what seems to be a ‘back of the bus’ type arrangement.
It dawned on me that I had never seen this gate, so I knew I had to put eyes on it. It would be difficult to miss, just about 200′ west of Torrence Ave.
The gate was well secured with a variety of chains and locks and the huge concrete blocks also found at the gatehouse driveway were also in place to keep vehicles out. The view of the coal bunker was staggering and it felt good to have found this historic spot. But just as suddenly, a more recently history lesson was taught.
I posted recently about some new signs I found on Torrence Ave. I theorized about who put them up, when (recently) and why. Well here is the answer. The CCLBA is the Cook County Land Bank Authority and their name is pretty self explanatory. They have on some legal level taken possession of this parcel of land. On their website they offer a database of properties available for sale or auction, both residential and industrial. But alas when you search the database, Acme is not included! I suppose there are not many potential buyers for such a parcel.
So I continued west on 116th to see what might be seen. There are a number of huge gaps in the fence here, even worse than on Torrence and I counted 4 more sets of signs as seen on the gate and what I saw on Torrence. I am not sure why they are being so protective of this border, you’d think they would plaster them on the gate house, up and down Torrence or even inside the plant on buildings. I don’t think 116th gets much traffic besides the railroad or park district employees (Indian Ridge Marsh is just adjacent on the other side of 116th.
The terrain was terrible: rutted, and very icy. I carefully navigated that on my bike and decided to turn north at the tracks so see if I could look around somewhere. I knew there was no way back to Torrence at 110th but maybe there would be something else to see or do. The terrain was a bit better here while still well iced. Maybe at 11500S I noticed an (open) gate to the plant. Likely very few people are away of this, I was due west of the coal bunker now but you’d have to navigate through some fall foliage to get back there.
As I approached the gate I noticed that there was a sign on it, but I could not read it. Secretly I crossed my fingers that it might be something worthwhile. My prayers were answered. Well, partially – as it was in very rough shape.
I wonder how many years ago it would have been to have found this in better condition. Of course my reaction was to take it, but I questioned that due to the condition. I knew I could hide it behind acrylic like I had with the others but it still looked pretty frail. The letters had shrunk and curled and felt petrified. I began to mull this over.
I continued north along the tracks, with the plant on my right and found that even beyond 110th there was no way out to Torrence. So I turned around and headed back the way I came. At this point I decided that I DID want to take the sign. Conveniently, I did have some tools in my truck back in Hegewisch which is not always the case. So I decided I’d have to get some tools and return right away as a bad weather front was approaching.
As I turned onto 116th I fell pretty hard on some ice. I just laughed at the absurdity of it all. Thinking about where I was and what little business I had there, also considering the weather I had to smile at the places you can find yourself sometimes in this life.
The wind was blowing hard in my face as I headed south on Torrence and I decided to drive back and park at Indian Ridge. I did that, and then biked back to grab my sign and return so the restoration could begin…..