I wrote an article about the tragic end of the manufacturing giant Wagner Electric in Wellston, just west of the St. Louis City limits back in May of 2019 in St. Louis Magazine, but I found some cool diagrams of the plant so I thought I would revisit the buildings on Plymouth Avenue.

I always love a good isometric projection, which you can see above, and the ground plan below is cool, as well. But look in the margins, and you can see very interesting cross sections across labeled axes.

The bulk of the building is now a job training center, I think, and the Wellston MetroLink station is right there by the entrance.

It’s still an impressive building, if very isolated nowadays.

Thousands of workers once filled these halls, and I can only imagine what it was once like here. I think when people lament the passage of America’s industrial might, they think of the loss of these places because so many people had personal ties to these factories. Nowadays, plenty of goods are still manufactured in the United States, but so much is done by robotics and automation.

And there was strong labor organization, that stood up for the American worker.

The yard to the east sits empty now.

But judging from photographic comparisons, this was once where thousands of artillery shells were once stacked during World War I.

They kept the sign on the building, at least.

During World War II, the woman returned to the factories.

Heading east down Plymouth Avenue towards the city, it is nothing but abandoned houses today.