Update: Read an update from 2012. Demolished and site cleared. See the beach and river below the site in this post from the winter of 2020.

Carondelet Coke is in its final days as a ruin. Partially demolished, it is sitting in limbo, right on the edge of Carondelet and sitting somewhere in the realm of here and nowhere. From seeing friends’ pictures, Carondelet Coke was much more impressive, and to be honest, at this stage of demolition, it is very depressing.

It clearly is a place for teenager hoedowns, as the empty beer cans and still smoldering fire from the previous night’s festivities can attest.

I hope they save the smokestack; they have a way of become icons of the cityscape in the same way skyscrapers or church steeples do. See the loading crane down by the river.

Make it out to Carondelet Coke before it’s completely gone, which is going to be soon.