abandoned

The first unit of this plant was built in 1924. It produced 2,500 barrels of cement per day. After another year another unit was built and production doubled. In 1955 the company announced it’s plan to expand yet again, this time to be able to produce 11,000 barrels per day. During the 1960’s this factory was the largest in the state and employed many of the residents of the surrounding area.

In 1973 the plant’s parent company decided to sell in an effort to get rid of all non-essential businesses.  It was all down hill from here. The plant went through a handful of new owners in quick succession. In the 80’s there were strikes, and eventually in 1993 the company declared bankruptcy and closed down. A few years passed and the EPA stepped in to clean up the area. A great majority of the buildings on the property were demolished.

Since then what’s remaining has been left to rot. Most recently the building has been used by local military and police for training purposes. Much of the land around the plant has been declared off-limits by the EPA after large sinkholes began to develop.

It’s actually pretty crazy to think that so many buildings on the property were demolished. This is easily one of the largest places I have ever explored. It is MASSIVE. Jesi, and I barely made a dent on the place before declaring we were both too hot, and tired to do anything else here.

Although it was almost completely cleared out inside with nearly everything gone, it was still a super interesting building. One of my favorite parts was all the “no spitting’ signs painted on the walls. There were a handful of them throughout the building, particularly near stairwells. It’s kind of hilarious to me that it was such an issue they had to do that.

The second floor was covered in stalactites, and stalagmites. I was particularly interested in the stalagmites covering the floor. They had such a strange appearance. They looked fluffy, almost like shaving cream or something of a similar consistency.

I’d like to get back here sometime in the near future and finish checking out the area. There was so much we didn’t get to see!
xoxo

 What these photos aren’t showing you is all the trash in the building. Actually, you can kind of see it off in the distance in the reflection photo! The majority of these photos were taken on the outside edges of the building, as well as on the second floor. In the middle of this place, on the bottom floor, it’s just all trash. Trash piled higher than your head. More trash than I’ve ever seen anywhere other than a dump. Surprisingly it didn’t really smell all that bad. Although I imagine on a hot summer day it would be intolerable.

xoxo

The observatory is probably one of the coolest buildings in Cleveland, in my opinion. Its size is deceiving from the outside. It doesn’t look that large but once inside you realize, it’s quite large and it’s a maze!

In the 1950s Cleveland’s light pollution began to make research impossible from this location. Eventually the building was sold in 1983, abandoned, and remained neglected until 2005 when a couple who planned on turning it into their residence bought the property for a mere 115k. Those plans were soon thwarted when the new owner was convicted of mortgage fraud. Since then the building has just been sitting and rotting.

xoxo

I’d really like to head back to this place to shoot it again. Like I said, I didn’t expect the building to be as awesome as it was so I was kind of having a difficult time concentrating on photographing it. I just kept wanting to see what was around every corner. Not to mention it was fairly dark inside, and I didn’t have my tripod on me.

xoxo