Update: The De La Vergne engine was relocated to a museum in Greenville. The plant was demolished by implosion in April 2016. The refrigeration plant at Armour is easily the most striking feature of the complex; large numbers of the original machines, far too large to be removed, remain entombed in the building. Time has…
Tag: National Stockyards
Armour Meat Packing Plant, Tankage Building
Update: Demolished in the summer of 2016. I finally figured out what the “Tankage Building” was; it was where all of the extraneous parts of the cow went, such as bones, etc. I had always assumed this building was originally wider, but the maps show that a series of train tracks ran behind it and…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, Offal Cleaning Third Floor
Update: Demolished in the summer of 2016. It seems like Armour was probably built in sections, so that each new addition almost was its own separate building. Take for example the Blood Driers, 2nd; Offal Cleaning, 3rd; and Beef Killing, 4th Building. It seems to have completely fallen off or was demolished from the side…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, The Missing Frick Engine
Update: Demolished by implosion in April 2016. I had always wondered what the large concrete platforms were, and thanks to Dennis Bensheimer’s conversation with the original plant guard, Gus, I have learned this held a giant Frick steam engine with a 30 foot flywheel, which would have originally been mounted in a large pit filled…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, The Power Plant Boilers
Update: Demolished by implosion in the spring of 2016. Much of five of the original boilers in the power plant at Armour still survive, though two of their mates and the two newer boilers are gone, or in the case of one, severely damaged. Back behind the first smokestack, the boilers are very well preserved,…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, New Insights into the Power Plant
Image by Jason Gray. Update: Demolished by implosion in April 2016. Sanborn maps and the recollections of Dennis Bensheimer, who provided me with the wonderful photos from 1986, reveal several interesting new facets of the power plant at Armour, which is located behind the coolers and refrigeration plant. First, the Sanborn map below from 1905…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, Missing Buildings and Structures
Update: Demolished by implosion in April 2016. The above photo gives an impression how massive the National Stockyards were; Armour was in the upper right hand corner of the picture. What is most shocking about the aerial photo is just how much of the yards, and Armour itself, is gone. There were several large warehouses…
Armour Meat Packing Plant, June 1986
Update: Demolished in the spring and summer of 2016. Due to the generosity of Metro East resident, Dennis Bensheimer, whose company had contract work at the National Stockyards in 1986, we now have access to photos of the Armour Meat Packing Plant from 1986, almost exactly 27 years ago in late June. Things were much…
Stockyards Up For Sale
Update: Much of the land is still empty. I was surprised to see dozens of realtor signs around the site of the old Stockyards. Now is your chance to buy a piece of history.
Armour Meat Packing Plant Smokestack Deterioration
Update: Demolished by implosion in April 2016. There’s been some clear deterioration of the top of the southern smokestack at the Armour Meat Packing Plant. Compare this photo with this one, from several years ago. I guess it’s only a matter of time when the crumbling bricks accelerate in their dilapidation.