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 for resale. The Chicago-based Armour had the audacity to import bricks from outside of St. Louis. Like breweries, industry in the 19th Century brought raw materials (in this instance, livestock) up to the top floor, regardless of expense, and then used free gravity to slowly work the processed product down to the first floor to railroad tracks, where it departed the plant.

Up Above the Boilers, Armour, September 2014

Climbing the rickety stairs, we emerged up above the boilers, which you can above, with the coal hoppers on the right.

There were a whole forest of pipes up here, probably covered in asbestos insulation, and their use is a mystery to me.

I assume all of the pipes were part of a heating system, and also to power the refrigeration engines next door.

But below, this is the great shot: looking down into the now empty coal hoppers. Coal had been left in them when the plant was abandoned, but someone had once pulled the chain, emptying the last coal out several years ago.

What a fascinating place, and one that I wish could have been preserved.