More land clearance is happening over by the old National Stockyards, where Armour, Swift and Hunter once slaughtered livestock by the millions for over a century. They’re all demolished now, but one business and its buildings is still standing, at least for now. That was the Packers’ By-Products building, with its infamous doors labeled “Blood”…
Tag: National Stockyards
East St. Louis by the Old Stockyards
Just over a year ago, I checked in on the areas of East St. Louis just to the east of the old National Stockyards and the old meatpacking plants that used to employ thousands of workers. Crossing over the railroad tracks, and there are still many houses that are proudly occupied, but there are also…
Revisiting Northern East St. Louis
Update: I went back in the late fall of 2018. I went back over to Exchange Avenue to see what has been happening on the border between the old stockyards and East St. Louis. Much of what I photographed in the earlier post is now gone. I saw some houses that were still occupied, but…
National Stockyards, Late October 2016
Other than some concrete pillars, part of what I think were originally meat refrigeration, Armour Meat Packing is now gone. The transformation of the old National Stockyards is continuing, with the hope that the new bridge and flat land will become a new industrial hub. In the meantime, at least one plot has become storage…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, Slaughterhouse Coming Down, Late August 2016
Slowly but surely, the slaughterhouse, the last major building left at Armour, is coming down, brick by brick. It’s fascinating, in a sad way, in that the structure of the building is becoming apparent as the walls come down. There is some value in watching deconstruction.
An Amazing Discovery, Armour, July 2016
I headed back over by Amour on Saturday, and not much has changed on the slaughterhouse, but a tons of rubble have been removed from the site of the refrigeration plant. Giant husks of metal, some recognizable as refrigeration tanks, and others as the pipes that once snaked around the building, lay about, probably about…
Alleyways, Armour, September 2014
It dawned us finally one time that this was the final alleyway that cattle were forced down, with the hose on the left used to wash the path down. Look at the worn-down bricks where millions of cattle once walked. Around the corner, I am certain this passageway was where scalding hot water stripped off…
Carcass Elevator, Armour, September 2014
I used to think this massive elevator took carcasses up into the building, but that is incorrect. Like beer brewing, slaughterhouses brought the cattle up to the top of Armour, and then lowered them down floor by floor. It’s an interesting machine.
The Slaughterhouse, September 2014
The slaughterhouse at Armour was collapsing, not dramatically, but inexorably. It was going to be a pile of rubble in a decade, probably, even without the demolition that came in the summer of 2016. Probably because it didn’t have the technical problems of two smokestacks like the refrigeration plant, wreckers took their time, pallatizing bricks…
Armour from Above, Before Demolition in 2016
I don’t know why I didn’t post this long ago, but for those who’ve never been, this is what was left of most of Armour in the last decade. Amazing, there were huge refrigerated warehouses right in front of the surviving buildings. The refrigeration plant is at bottom right, and the slaughterhouse, which will be…