Just a couple days after my Thanksgiving feast, I headed down to the plant for my first visit in over a month. This one was mandatory and I had planned it for the better part of a year.
In late November 2001, the plant began it’s shutdown under the thought of a feasible but quickly waning glimmer of hope that it could be restarted. By December 1st, that hope disappeared in the absence of an interested buyer and the disintegration of working coke batteries. Surely that Thanksgiving two decades ago was a stressful one for not just the management who actively struggled to keep the plant viable but the many, many shift workers who were probably fairly confident they wouldn’t be coming back.
I have built this timeline from newspaper articles and discussions with Doug Podgorny, the area manager for the ovens department at the time of the closure.
- Monday November 12th – the order that the plant would be closing comes down from the division manager
- Thursday November 15th – the underfire flues in the batteries are extinguished after about 44 years in constant service
- Friday November 16th – the last charges of coal, now fully coked, are not pushed but left in the ovens to help preserve heat in the batteries. The entire batteries are insulated with various materials to preserve heat
- Monday November 19th – the remaining coke oven gas in the collector mains are purged from the system to prevent a possible explosive situation
- Friday November 23rd – by now the batteries, having likely lost too much heat in the growing cold of a Chicago autumn, have passed the point of no return and can no longer be brought back online. The silca refractory linings in the ovens would have begun to crack, and the entire brick structure itself contracted, now structurally unsound.
I labored over what possible tribute I could pay to this place on such a date, or if I should even attempt to do so. I did what I know best – to visit the plant, walk around, enjoy my time there and say a few words. I don’t know if the plant will still be there in 20 years with the pending possibility of community intervention but in lieu of that I think the plant has a even longer life. I will continue to check in time to time to pay my respects and monitor the place. I think it is pretty far from needing a caretaker but we don’t always get what we want, but we usually get what we need. I need this place, and just maybe, it needs me.
