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Solvay Coke and Gas Co.
Apr. 27th, 2013 12:45 amI remember seeing this place from a distance, many years ago. It was a rusting monstrosity. I thought it looked pretty cool, and wanted to photograph it up close. This was probably the early or mid nineties. I think it had closed in the eighties. The plant turned coal into coke - a more concentrated form of fuel.
In 2003, a friend and I were in the area, shooting pictures, and actually exploring. We had already trespassed abandoned industrial properties that afternoon. We walked by this complex, surrounded by chain link. "Do you want to go in?" "Um... no, I guess not." We had been out for a while already, and the place was big. I was a little nervous about it, to be honest.
I think that would have been an amazing place to explore.
In the last three years or so, I've been seeing a lot of photos of the place on Flickr. Two years ago, I went by it again, and wanted to go in, but it was late in the day, I was cold and damp, and not feeling well. And you shouldn't really go in a place like that alone.
I went inside the fence, but didn't look in any of the buildings.
They had already torn down the big coking buildings, but the smaller ones were still standing. There was a lab upstairs in one building, still with glass jars of chemicals. There were ledgers and blueprints. Though there was graffiti, the place was still reasonably intact. Within the last year, it's been pretty well trashed. Scavengers have stripped all the metal out. There's much more graffiti. The police used to watch it, but now it's being torn down, and the front fence is gone.
(bonus: in 2009, street artists built a passed out drunk robot)
So I've been meaning to go in there for years. Now that it's demise is imminent, the photographers are going there regularly. One contact invited me down with his group, last saturday. So I got up really early - before nine - and made it down there around ten.
In 2003, a friend and I were in the area, shooting pictures, and actually exploring. We had already trespassed abandoned industrial properties that afternoon. We walked by this complex, surrounded by chain link. "Do you want to go in?" "Um... no, I guess not." We had been out for a while already, and the place was big. I was a little nervous about it, to be honest.
I think that would have been an amazing place to explore.
In the last three years or so, I've been seeing a lot of photos of the place on Flickr. Two years ago, I went by it again, and wanted to go in, but it was late in the day, I was cold and damp, and not feeling well. And you shouldn't really go in a place like that alone.
I went inside the fence, but didn't look in any of the buildings.
They had already torn down the big coking buildings, but the smaller ones were still standing. There was a lab upstairs in one building, still with glass jars of chemicals. There were ledgers and blueprints. Though there was graffiti, the place was still reasonably intact. Within the last year, it's been pretty well trashed. Scavengers have stripped all the metal out. There's much more graffiti. The police used to watch it, but now it's being torn down, and the front fence is gone.
(bonus: in 2009, street artists built a passed out drunk robot)
So I've been meaning to go in there for years. Now that it's demise is imminent, the photographers are going there regularly. One contact invited me down with his group, last saturday. So I got up really early - before nine - and made it down there around ten.
