I was intrigued by the Barley Cleaning House; why the strange proportions? Is it still in use, or does it stay because it’s historic? I love how it looks like a castle tower.
But what are these mysterious stone foundations?
Oh, the good old Sanborn maps! They reveal that the old rugged stone foundation was most likely an extra power plant (they had an extra power plant?), with the old tracks still preserved. You can also see that the Barley Cleaning House was attached to some tanks or silos, now gone.
These other massive buildings seem to face away from the street. It seems like the public face of the brewery always revolved around the brew house. But they’re interesting as well.
Seeing homes and businesses lining Lynch (and the ally that faced the brewery) made me wonder what was lost with the construction of I-55. It looks like an incredible neighborhood:
http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?sid=e57049295498483bdf3be2f82d06d97b;q1=Pestalozzi;rgn1=umcscsanic_all;q2=13th;op2=And;rgn2=umcscsanic_all;c=umcscsanic;evl=full-image;quality=3;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=umcscsanic;entryid=x-sanborn5550.jpg;viewid=SANBORN5550.JPG;start=1;resnum=1
Also – how cool are the bridges and tunnel connecting both side of Pestalozzi?
My knowledge of the grain industry is not expansive, but I recall seeing a How It’s Made type of tv program a while ago and the configuration of this vernacular was explained. The grain goes in at the top, and comes out finished at the bottom. In a flour mill, it is passed through progressively finer mills, from one floor to the next, until the desired texture is achieved. According to the Sandborn map itself, the grain (barley) entered at the 7th floor, and was passed through cleaners on the 5th, 4th, 3rd floors, to exit at the 2nd floor, which contained scales. The “ELEV. BOOTS” on the 1st were where the barley was likely deposited onto a conveyer, or to drayage. The tanks on the 6th (and this is where my work in plastic extrusion comes in handy, believe it or not), were likely just hoppers into which barley was deposited (from the 7th), and then dropped through a simple gravity process to the cleaners below.