The Factories on Etzel Avenue, Wellston

Update: The GE factory was demolished by December of 2022.

The old General Electric Consumer & Industrial Lighting factory was closed in 2007, after being in business for over one hundred years. 175 employees lost their jobs.

The giant buildings are now either completely abandoned or at the most, underutilized.

Despite the famous riverfront in St. Louis with all of its factories, there was a huge amount of industry out this way in Wellston, as well in the nearby I-70 Industrial area north of Natural Bridge, all dating from the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

The buildings are massive, and show how industry was needing more and more room to grow, no longer wishing to buy up house after house in the city to expand, as famous breweries would do in their legacy locations.

The area nowadays is quiet, with just the MetroLink tracks going through the area. The old Wagner Electric Company is located just to the north, cleaned up after being a brownfield site contaminated with PCBs.

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