Here is another nature post for my Towns and Nature blog.
MWRD posted six images with the comment: "A land restoration project led by the MWRD has been selected to receive critical federal funding that will help us transform an abandoned brownfield into an attractive greenspace along the Little Village neighborhood waterfront. Read more about it here: https://mwrd.org/epa-environmental-justice-grant-support..."
[The captions on these photos come from that webpage. It appears that "biosolids amendments" is their current euphemism for dried sludge from their Wastewater Reclamation Plants. That sludge is too toxic to use on land that will grow plants for animal consumption, but it is fine for growing plants that are used for landscaping.]
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| 1 An abandoned petroleum processing site near 31st and Kedzie Avenue will be restored thanks to new federal funding that is supporting MWRD efforts to revitalize the land with native plantings. |
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| 4 Trash, weeds and invasive species are strewn across a concrete lot that will be converted to an urban greenspace thanks to new plans that the MWRD has developed with support from the Little Village community and an Environmental Justice Government to Government grant from the U.S. EPA. |
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| 5, the text is more readable in the above linked webpage |
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| 6, the text is more readable in the above linked webpage |
"While known famously for wastewater treatment and stormwater management work, the MWRD also has a history of excelling in land restoration projects. In the 1970s, the MWRD revitalized a strip mine land reclamation project in downstate Fulton County by using organic soil amendments from the wastewater treatment process. The award-winning Prairie Plan site near Canton, Ill. has brought thousands of acres of wastelands into productive agricultural land combined with natural areas supporting habitat. The MWRD also worked with Chicago officials in transforming a former USX brownfield into a healthy turf site, participated in the Calumet Brownfield Collaborative, donated biosolids to a successful restoration for the Schmidt Sanctuary at the Alsip Boat Launch, and recently established research in the establishment of native vegetation for enhancing ecosystems and reducing soil contaminants in a brownfield with biosolids amendments." [MWRD]
The "petroleum processing" operation was a tank farm. I wonder what industry was north of the former Chicago and Illinois Western Railroad tracks.
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| Global Earth, Dec 2005 |
In the next available Google Earth image, tanks and buildings have started to disappear.
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| Google Earth, Aug 2007 |
The tank farm was gone by Jun 2010.
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| Google Earth, Jun 2010 |
THE BROWNFIELD'S NEIGHBORS TO THE NORTH:
ReplyDeleteI'm going to work off of the Illinois Historical Aerial Photo (IHAP) of 1938, the area was filthy by then and the photos are so cool. I'm also going West to East, backward to me, trying to be clear. https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight12/0bwq08060.jpg
CHICAGO SANITARY AND SHIP CANAL is the slash going from lower left east-northeast to the center right. The bridge furthest west is the ILLINOIS NORTHERN RR. (INRR), from there it curved northeast to 26th and Western Ave. In 2023 the bridge is still there but the railroad is gone, only ghosts lead to the bridge.
KEDZIE AVE., the next bridge east, was an original swing bridge until it was replaced with a concrete one in 1970. We are going north from there.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RR. (ICRR, now CN) crosses the next bridge east, the dark one at a sharp angle. It's just passing by on its way from Iowa to the lakefront(?).
CHICAGO AND ILLINOIS WESTERN RR. (C&IWRR, now also CN) is just north of the IC and did some switching on the north side. It's hasn't been active since 2010 at the latest.
The COLLATERAL CHANNEL is the shape going north just east of the ICRR bridge. In 2023 it's an unused slip but active sewer. A branch of the C&IWRR curved and ran north along the west side.
The BROWNFIELD/TANK FARM goes from Kedzie Ave. east to the Collateral Channel and from the C&IWRR south to the ICRR and canal. I don't see it in 1938. Google Earth shows the tanks being removed between 2005 and 2010.
The WEST FORK OF THE SOUTH BRANCH OF THE CHICAGO RIVER (phew) is the scribble parallel and north of the canal. In nature the West and South Forks (Bubbly Creek) forked by Ashland Ave. and were very near sisters, sort of draining different sides of the same swamp. The main difference was that the Rail Barons didn't build slaughterhouses on the West Fork and make it an eternal biological hazard. In 1938 the West Fork was being filled between the Collateral Channel and Western Ave., today there are just ghosts from Damen Ave. to the Stickney treatment plant.
31ST ST. is the first east-west street north of the canal. It's a fairly main local drag, but not really a through street. That's the IN curving just north.
NOW THE BUILDINGS.
ReplyDelete3221-3323 W 31ST ST. was opened for the Liquid Carbonic Co. (a carbon-dioxide company) in 1909. As built it had a four-story brick-clad factory building along 31st St. It had a tower, a wing to the south, and a bunch of sheds behind it. In 1935 an office building was built on the corner east of it and concrete shops were added to the west end. The complex went from Kedzie west to Homan Ave. and 31st St. south to the West Fork. They built soda fountains there. Not just the plumbing, but the cabinets and marble tops. In the 1950s Liquid Carbonic moved on, closed the buildings, and sold them to the Chicago Public Schools in 1958. CPS made them the Washburn Trade School until 1996, when they locked the doors and walked away. The buildings came down in 2007-2009.
3153 W. 31ST ST. was I don't know. Some low factory. Did anyone drive down 31st a decade ago? It's not there in 1938, but the USGS shows it in 1950. It looks like they closed in 2010-2011 and the buildings were torn down in 2016-2017.
3200 S. KEDZIE AVE., the southwest corner of the West Fork and Kedzie, was Fitzsimons Steel and Iron, then Wyckoff Steel, from at least 1923 until 1992, when Wyckoff went under. In 1938 you can see two tall stacks and their shadows, I don't know when they came down. The C&IWRR had a siding, some track lasted until 1999, but I'd guess that it was long dead by then. There was still action in the building until 2020, when the place was cleaned up. No luck, though, the last buildings came down in 2022.
3201 S. KEDZIE AVE., the southeast corner of the West Fork and Kedzie, was Waterway Paper from 1921 until whenever. They opened with a contract to supply newsprint to The Chicago Daily News, who was majority owner. Then they became associated with International Paper. They advertised rail and water (the Collateral Channel) service when opened. There was still action in the T-shaped building in 2010, in 2016 it was all gone.
3223 S. KEDZIE AVE. Cook County Paper Stock was just south of Waterway, I don't see much separation between them. It doesn't look like any action has taken place since Google Earth in 2000. South of the paper mills are the C&IW and the Brownfield.
WHAT'S LEFT? Nothing. Concrete floors and parking lots. Google Street View looks like nothing on any of the properties is as high as the fences around them.
SOME SOURCES
ReplyDeleteIllinois Historic Aerial Photographs are great, the photo here is also shown above: https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight12/0bwq08060.jpg
United States Geographic Survey (USGS) Englewood Quad is here: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#13/41.8339/-87.7073
A Chicago zoning map from 1924 (the first) puts names to four of five properties, but I can't find the link.
Sanborn fire insurance maps only have Liquid Carbonic in 1914. There is plenty of stuff on Liquid Carbonic/Washburne online but nobody cares about the others.
Google Maps satellite view is my standard for "in 2023".
Google Earth Pro (a free download to a desktop) shows satellite views from 2000 to about the present, that's where I got closures and demos.