I am fairly certain that this forlorn abandoned factory building along the north side of Stratford Avenue is the remnant of the massive army munitions plant that manufactured arms during World War II.
It featured a gigantic vaulted steel building that looked like it had horns sticking out of its roof.
Built St. Louis has a whole page on it.
From what I understand, the whole site is polluted now.
Long term I don’t know what is planned for this site, sitting abandoned as long as it has been.
This plant did not make explosives. Ordanace facilities are in the middle of nowhere farm country. I’ve been to all the abandoned facilities that still exist. Some that don’t also!
Do you know what this building was used for, Jeff? It definitely sits on the grounds of the larger demolished plant.
Chris, my guess on what this building was used for was probably shipping and receiving and possibly some offices. Looking at it on Google street view you can see docks on the side opposite of Stratford Ave and a rail spur that lead to that side of the building.
I guess it depends on your definition of explosives? This was definitely part of the famed munitions plant and this plant definitely made ammunition – a lot of it. They also regularly test fired their product on site; locals reported regularly hearing the sound. I read somewhere recently that it produced the most ammunition of any US facility during WWII. Not sure if true and don’t recall the source of that claim.
As far as this particular building, the last time I was out there it was definitely active, so when you say ‘sitting abandoned as long as it has been’, you’re only talking a couple years at most. But i’ll concede that it appears to have been abandoned for a long time before that.
Interesting…thank you! I just read upwards of 40,000 people worked there at one point.