1916-1966 Riverdale (Hales and Hunter) and Arcadia (Arcady) Feeds Grain Elevators

Hales and Hunter was on the south side of the east end of the IHB Blue Island Yard whereas Arcadia Feeds was on the north side of the yard.

Arcadia: (Satellite)

H&H: (Satellite)

(Update: there was also a grain elevator and a cold storage warehouse next to IHB in Indiana.)

Michael Brandt posted
A colorized 1943 picture of the [H&H] Grainery.

Obviously, the photo that was colorized.

DogmaDismantled posted
January 1943. Riverdale, Illinois. "Freight operations of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. Grain elevator and mill at a siding of the Harbor Belt's Blue Island Yard south of Chicago." Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
Andrew Urbanski shared
Found this in the Indiana Harbor Belt Group

Michael Brandt posted
From the Bob Bowerman collection, his dad was standing on the large black storage tank when he took this awesome picture.

Daniel W Baldwin commented on the above post
color version

 

Michael Brandt posted
From the Bob Bowerman collection. After seeing the Grainery demolition picture's, it's nice to see the old mill in her prime.
Bill Bielby: Zooming in, you see a very tall smokestack at the horizon on the left. Brick factory?
Michael Brandt: Bill Bielby that's Acme Steel.

 

Michael Brandt posted
One of our best pictures of the old mill. Hey Bob Bowerman.
Bob Bowerman: Wow! That's a great shot! In the mid 50's,when I was just in short pants, my older brother would take us to that bridge and we would throw stones at the engineers. I could watch the switch engines for hours.
[Comments establish that it was taken from School Street bridge with a telephoto lens.]

Michael Brandt posted
Brand new Hatches from 1916. The Hatches was made for one purpose, drying grain.

 

Michael Brandt posted
A picture of the construction of the Red Building, the White Building, Silos and Boiler Room were built in 1914, the Red Building was built around 1920. Pic courtesy of Bill Robinson.

Michael Brandt posted
An outstanding PickByRick from the second floor of the Warehouse remnant.

Steven J. Brown posted
Conrail power backing down to their outbound train on the east end of IHB's Blue Island Yard in Riverdale, Illinois - June 19, 1977. CR/PC U23B 2770 (built 1973), CR SD45 6070 (built 1967 as EL 3605) and CR/PC SD45 6226 (built 1968 as PRR 6226, became CNW 6549 to SP SD45M-2 8613 to NREX 8613).
Steven J. Brown shared

Mike Breski posted

INDIANA HARBOR BELT BLUE ISLAND YARD

S Stands for Switcher (10 of them that is!) 📷 Date: 10/3/1974 Location: Riverdale, IL Map 📷 Views: 1123 Collection Of: Sam Beck Locomotives: IHB 8725(NW2) IHB 9204(SW1500) IHB 9207(SW1500) Author: Tom Golden.

East end of Blue Island Yard taken from School St overpass

Hales and Hunter grain elevator on the left torn down 2015.

Arcadia Feeds grain elevator far right. (behind the trees.)

Stewart Ave Tower on the right Closed 1989.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1888818

Dennis DeBruler This explains why I have seen both the names Hales & Hunter and Arcadia with respect to grain elevators near Blue Island Yard.
[Below are Global Earth images from before and after the demolition.]

Bob Bowerman posted, cropped
Hales & Hunter Photo File- Very few of what I've found so far have anything written on the back. This one was one of those that did, "Hales & Hunter Grain Elevator, 1947 Flood". Ok, if this picture was taken from a overpass that I remember as a child in the 1950's, and my mom's side of the family the Wilkens owned or lived in a house with a side lot, just to the right and slightly over the shoulder from where the photographer stood.
bobb

 

Michael Brandt posted
Some crazy weather in November 1956.

Bob Bowerman posted
Ok, this one I just found. The "shacks" around the base of the stack are not how I remember that area looking like when I was just a very young toddler. The area was all brick. If I have my directions right I think "the lab" was just out of sight from the bottom right of the photo. bobb
Tony De: mid 40s
Steve S Czajkowski: Looks like the cars are mostly 1930s !

 

Michael Brandt posted
From the Bob Bowerman collection, I cleaned it up a little and sharpened with Photoshop. What a great picture, all the pictures we had of the mill intact are always taken from track side so we never seen the cars in the parking lot, or the Boiler Room intact, you can even see the Warehouse over to the right, past the research building.

 

Jacob Bowerman posted
Howdy folks, Happy Thanksgiving. I'm slowly scanning pictures and slides with Bob Bowerman to try and digitize all the photos and slides we have of H&H things. I'm mostly just a wallflower here but just wanted to say i enjoy seeing the comments as people pitch in to help identify the photos that get posted.

More pictures and info concerning this elevator. Of note is the referenced SubStreet page. I read the elevator was closed in 1962 and many Riverdale administrations promised to tear it down. It was finally removed in 2015. More videos of the "big boom": 1, 2

One comment indicated that this grain elevator had been used for fire fighting practice.

Move this video to -2:32 (or 1:44 into the video) for the start of the explosion that topples the tower. If you go to the Hales & Hunter Grainery Group you can see pictures of them first taking down the silos with wrecking balls. And it has some more videos.

Video, move to -2:32 left to see start of explosion

Bird's Eye View

Michael Brandt posted
This is the best picture of da hole in the Chimney, it was struck by lightning in the 80s and the hole was facing into the direction of the prevailing winds but held up till they took it down. Notice the 3 wrongs of the maintenance ladder, I seen two guys climb it all the way up, Jim Sullivan and decades later Kenny Mencl.

Michael Brandt posted
From Bill Robinson it's pic 1 of the construction of the Red Building.
Bob Bowerman: What year?
Michael Brandt: Bob Bowerman 1919 or 20.
notice the original shorter chimney.
Bill Robinson: This was before the brick chimney was built.

Michael Brandt posted
From Bill Robinson it's pic 2 of 2 of the Red Building construction.

 

Michael Brandt commented on his "pic 1 of construction" post
The Grainery in 1916.
[The "flowery" style of the English reminds me of the late 1800s. I'm surprised to see it still being used in 1916 in a trade publication.]

John Frazier posted
IHB rolling east past you know what
Dale Pruim: Hales and Hunter Elevator !

In the background of a railfan picture in the IHB Blue Island Yard.

Mike Breski posted
• IHB Photos by Paul Meyer 
•Two NW2s idle with wood caboose 156 near Riverdale
(from IHB Archives)

Jack Delano from 1943.

Michael Brandt posted
We went through several group photos early on, but this has been the group photo since 2016, taken by Jack Delano in 1943.
[Search with "http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=jack%20delano%20grain%20elevator%20mill"
LC-USW3-014215-D (b&w film neg.)
Grain elevator and mill at a railroad siding of the Indiana Harbor Belt]

Mike Breski posted six photos with the comment:

HALES & HUNTER GRAIN ELEVATOR
Located next to Indiana Harbor Belt RR Blue Island Yard at 140th & Halstead Riverdale il.
From Tumblr:
Text 19 MAR next up: the hales and hunter red comb feed mill in riverdale, illinois
I’ve known about this building for years, and just found out that it was slated for demolition starting on Monday, March 18. I quickly got over there for some final farewell shots, and now I bring them to you.
I found some really interesting articles about the location here, and here, and will post them in their entirety in case they are deleted.
The tower complex was built in 1917, and due to lack of materials during WWI, the craftsmanship was lacking to say the least. At least two people have died here. The first person died back in the 30s roughly. He was an employee of the mill and was crushed when a grain chute was opened above him. The second victim was a paramedic coming to the aid of an urban explorer who was injured in the building back in 1981. The paramedic fell nearly 7 stories to his death.
The grainery has been closed since 1962.
Although the building is supposed to already be undergoing demolition, no work has been done as of this writing. 4 days ago there was a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of demolition, but rumor has it that this was just a political move to garner votes as election season draws near.
Full articles after the break
The Hales and Hunter Mill: Asbestos is not Chicken Feed
“Ninety-three years ago I would have been able to walk up this thing… brand new and shiny,” I thought, looking down what used to be a sturdy steel staircase, “not anymore…”
Mind back in the present and focusing on the abandoned feed mill around me, I stepped lightly from a steel girder onto thinly poured concrete. It popped and cracked sharply beneath my weight. Clearly, this was a place that would keep me on my toes–literally–testing whether the next step would send me to the ground.
“This building seems a bit too eager to murder you,” my brain said to my legs as the floor ruptured again causing me to instinctually grab the window frame next to me, long left open and long without glass. Somewhere in the slums nearby an ice cream truck mockingly blasted its incessant jingle, its sound ricocheting through the spaces where walls once stood.
Bits of machinery, brickwork, and concrete consistently rained into the urban forest as I worked my way higher through the complex’s well-aged workings… two mill buildings, three sets of elevators, and ruins of several other buildings that resembled warehouses, offices, a power plant. Outlines of yet more buildings marked the exterior of standing structures, hearkening back to a prosperous time at the edge of living memory, when this was part one in a string of grain elevators, flour mills, and other agro-industrial buildings.
Inside, a bit of yellow sunlight lit the floating dust around the hole in the floor I was crawling through, those glowing particles hovering above the floor that was formerly accessed by a nearby spiral staircase, one that seemed too rusted and twisted to be part of the building around it.
At the top of the staircase, a dilapidated sign still brags about the famous “Red Comb Feed” that was produced here, this ruin that used to be called “The Hales & Hunter Company.”
The earliest mention of Hales & Hunter I could find was in a chicken feed catalog from 1906, but it is clear that the construction of this complex had not wrapped up before the second half of 1917, presumably with the central brick building that is in such terrible condition today.
One might assume, given the state of the walls (not that there are many to judge) that the only reason this structure still stands 186 feet tall is due to the thousands of pounds in steel equipment still bolted to its superstructure.
They seem to serve as a sort of skeleton: a role reversal.
Before ground broke here, Hales & Hunter was The Edwards & Loomis Company, but the company changed its name soon after construction started on its Chicago plant to Hales & Edwards Company. It adopted the name we call it by today some time later.
Construction of the complex was actually delayed from its projected opening date of January 1, 1917 because of national steel shortages. You see, this was the time the American military was building its forces up in preparation for its entry into World War I. The brick building that was to constitute the main feed mill on the site had only 5 of its planned 12 levels completed when the contractors ran out of good steel.
This stunted construction might have been a contributing factor to the extremely shoddy build quality; it is possible that the steel shortage (and other shortages like it due to the war effort) motivated the builders to make girders thinner, meaning they would be able to hold less weight. Hence the thin concrete floors and warped steel superstructure.
When the plant finally opened later on in 1917, it had a footprint of almost 12,000 square feet and was outfitted with modern, automatic equipment that is found in modern grain elevators.
The transfer elevator, a shorter brick building that opened before the rest of the plant in 1916, featured three steel roof grain bins, could load 24 train cars in an hour and take on materials from 4 train cars in the same time. Hales & Hunter also boasted a drying plant (essential for any operation involving grain to prevent it rotting in the bins) that could dry 50,000 bushels daily and store 1,000,000 bushels.
On April 30, 1917, as the work was being completed in Chicago, Hales & Hunter’s old plant suffered from a major fire. Its twin elevators burned for 30 hours. Firefighters reported that the grain bins “acted as flues” that fed the fire, eventually consuming the iron and wood buildings. No doubt, the loss of the plant encouraged the new construction to hurry to continue operations.
By the next year the company had not only finished the complex as planned, but was already expanding and upgrading plant equipment.
‘Mammoth’ is as great a word for Hales & Hunter today as it was in 1918… that much was clear, if none of the history of the site revealed itself to me while I wandered those fragile hallways and skyways. Lovers of spiral staircases ought to treat Hales & Hunter as they would a cemetery, considering the rusted carnage of swirling, yet practical works of art.
Funnels, bucket elevators and screw-drives were half bolted, half twisted, sometimes severed and had fallen off of, onto and into in every building. Half of the building seemed to flout gravity while the other half made up doubly.
It is hard to say how long, exactly, the buildings have been vacant; they were discarded slowly, like its neighboring mills and elevators. One by one, they went out of service. I can tell you that Cargill bought the Hales & Hunter Company in 1968 and the last mention of its products I could find dates to the mid-1980s.
Drawing conclusions from the buildings’ respective conditions, graffiti found inside and the business facts, I would conjecture that Cargill shifted all operations from this location to another between 1969 and 1973. One photograph from 1976 (above) shows windows missing, graffiti on the elevator, and a flatbed truck in front of a smokeless power plant stack.

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[LC-USW3-014132-D]

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Ken Schmidt posted

For as many times this made it's way down through Blue Island, it's still worth another view of BN 6153.

Here, it is East of the Hales, getting ready thread through the IHB yard at Riverdale and onto it's train back to Clyde yard on June of 1990.
Ray Van Deursen What a great shot, I remember driving thru the yard past that old mill, did the same thing over at Barr yard as well, if I did that today I’d be in big trouble!
Ken Schmidt Oh my gosh yes. CSX gumshoes would be all over you in a heartbeat. It was not long after this of course that things became more difficult, and we had to learn new ways and places to shoot from. But, I am thankful that I was in that time and place where we could still get these images.
Dennis DeBruler Thanks for including the name of the mill in your comments. This is one of the better views I have seen of those buildings.

Mike Breski posted

• Blue Island Yard •

Most of these photos were taken by Lightnin', this site's original owner. The fourth and fifth photos are by J.D. (Tuch)

Santucci who has accompanied them with some helpful comments.

A Fairbanks Morse loco works the east end of the yard. Photo courtesy of Charlie Stricker. (from IHB Archives)
Mike Breski That's the Arcadia Feeds grain elevator on the left off of 138th st Riverdale. Yes Gibson had a hump until early 80's when the IHB came close to being no more.
Dennis DeBruler Mike Breski Thanks for pointing out the grain elevator. This photo also helps me understand where that elevator was.

Michael Brandt posted
Members of an IHB crew riding a cart, notice in the background to the right is Arcady's and to the left is Acme Petroleum Company and the IHB water tower for filling the thirsty locomotives. Taken in 1943 by Jack Delano.

(new window)

Global Earth Apr 2013

Global Earth Apr 2015

From photos, we can see that Arcadia was north of the yard. Was it just west of Halsted Street?

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

1953 Blue Island Quad @ 24,000

Michael Brandt posted
I got this pic from the RHS first time posting it. This is what we inherited in the late 60s, my Brothers and I used to play ice hockey just South of the Grainery and just kind of wondered in, the rest is history.
Mike Breski shared

Bill Bielby commented on Michael's post

Mike Breski commented on his share

We can see Hales & Hunter to the left of the signal pole in the following photo.

Steven J. Brown posted
Waiting for lights at Dolton, Illinois - November 1994. Train on the right is lead by CR SD60 6852, the one on the left I think is lite GTW power that will head around to the right at Dolton Jct onto the MoPac and then switch directions and go north.
Jack Morgan: Now this is a little confusing to me. Which track did the three heads govern? Any train that takes the switch (under the SD40) and further left?
Jon Roma: Jack Morgan, the three-arm signal faces away from the photographer, and governs the track at right on which the Conrail train is standing in foreground. Note the doll arm on the bracket post.
The GTW power is on a track that used to be called "9 Lead" and is governed by a dwarf signal behind the photographer.

Michael Brandt posted
An awesome Jack Delano pic of our other Grainery Arcady's from 1943, we explored this one for a few years but it was gone by 1975.
Michael Brandt posted
It's the other Jack Delano classic of Riverdale's other Grainery Arcady Farms Milling Company. The Switchman is Daniel Sinise Grandfather of actor Gary Sinise, from 1943.
Michael Lewis Alfrey: Yep, used to see both buildings out my bedroom window from '55 to '71 when we moved. I can still see that picture in my mind.
Michael Brandt: At Patton school I could see both of them easily, I remember the big Arcady's fire in 1966,great view at school.
Michael Brandt posted
Daniel Senise (Grandfather of Gary Senise) pulling a switch on the Arcady spur with Arcady's in the background, pic by Jack Delano.

 

Michael Brandt posted
In 1920 the Arcady plant in Rondout Illinois was destroyed by fire, so they packed up and moved to Riverdale in 1921.

Michael Brandt posted
Pic one of the Arcady's implosion from April 17th 1975.

Bob Bowerman posted
Ok, this one I just found. The "shacks" around the base of the stack are not how I remember that area looking like when I was just a very young toddler. The area was all brick. If I have my directions right I think "the lab" was just out of sight from the bottom right of the photo. bobb
Michael Brandt: Bob Bowerman your correct about where the lab was and the Cafeteria isn't there yet.
Bob Bowerman: Oh, man! That's awesome! I haven't revisited these childhood memories in decades! I mean I can remember the steam coming out of a vent in the bottom of the stack and I can still remember the sound of the whirling sound of the cables on the powershovels used to unload boxcars of bulk ingredients would snap taunt when the cluch popped and it reversed direction. They had steam shifters then as I remember. I think they shut the stack lid when they were close to entering the unload area and when they came out they open up the smoke stack a big cloud of sooty smoke followed by a blast of steam (white smoke) would shoot skyward. we little kids loved it.

Michael Brandt commented on Bob's post
the Laboratory still stands. [I looked for it on a satellite image, but I could not find it.]
Bob Bowerman: Michael Brandt Your kidding! "The Lab" as my dad referenced it, was the nursery where the likes of Brick Meinert and Dr. Mike Kelly and you could probably throw my dad in the group, began their careers that went on to provide the science-based foundation that lead to the rise of Maple Leaf Farms (Maple Leaf Duck Farms) of little 'o Milford Indiana, as the largest producer of Pekin ducks in the western hemisphere. Brick was the "man in the duck house" observant, innovative. Dr. Kelly was out of Missouri hill country, he became MLF's nutritionist and was a pure numbers guy. His favorite saying was, "Figures don't lie, but liars always figure". This was usually said as he finished dismembering a feed ingredient salesman's presentation that was based on poor or purposely biased research. He just utterly despised phoo-phoo dust magical claims. My dad brought expertise in making pelleted duck feed that he acquired with his tour of duty at H& H to the table. I worked with all three of these guys and never heard a bad word about the "Hales Lab". All three were quality driven, science-based managers. I remember my dad coming home from work one day sometime after H & H had been bought out by a large (to remain unnamed) international grain company, in a very somber mood. (At the time MLF was the largest feed account for the H & H Mentone mill, which my father was manager) He and mom sat at the kitchen table with dad talking in a quiet tone about something going on at the mill. I remember my dad saying, "Bert Hales must be rolling in his grave, if he's seeing this". Not long after that my dad left H & H and went to MLF and supervised the building of it's own feed mill designed specifically for making duck feed. He always pushed quality and recognizing the frailty of man, stressed "it ain't a mistake until it goes out the door", as a way that encourage errors in production to be reported instead of covered up. He managed the MLF mill until he retired. The quality orientation and science-based production methods had had long roots reach back to "The Hales Lab". This probably more than you wanted to know, but I'm 70, this history shouldn't be forgotten when I die. bobb
[Another photo of the lab]

Bob Bowerman posted
Back to Riverdale!
Very similar to earlier photo. This where you folks can add color commentary. I don't recognize a lot of this picture. I have no idea what the small white building to the right is. If you look close, there's two rr cars of coal at base of stack. I looked close at the white patch on the silo base. When I blew it up, it looked more like a concrete repair job, not white paint. From my experience it was either structural failure (not likely) or they had a silo fire. Silo fires at the bottom of a silo are indicative of poor housekeeping and/or poor ingredient rotation Getting the last of an ingredient out of a silo before refilling is labor intensive and not a lot of fun. Often this step is skipped and the bottom of the can gets older and older and starts to break down due to microbes feasting on the old/moldy bottom layer. Microbes give off metabolic heat and free moisture as they multiply. The additional free moisture speeds up the cycle dramatically. Temperatures go parabolic and certain areas begin to smolder. Fire department called and concrete wall is jack hammered open and pick and shovels are used to break clumps open and soaked down by firehose. bobb
Michael Brandt: Bob Bowerman do you remember the chicken coops? They were in the area where the camera was pointing. But that white building is a mystery 🤔

So the red building was added between the white building and the silos. The style of the English reminds me of the late 1800s. I'm surprised that such "flowery" prose was still in use in 1916.

Michael Brandt posted
From 1916 the new Riverdale Elevator. The White Building and the Silos were actually built in 1914, but in 1916 they built the Small Silos and the Hatches. And in 1916 they became Hales & Edwards, they were originally Hales Elevator Co. 
Stephen Osborne: I worked on the I. H. B railroad right next to it. When did it close?
Michael Brandt: Stephen Osborne 1966
Rusty Trawler: When did Hunter enter the picture?
Michael Brandt: Rusty Trawler in 1919, Hunter was an assumed name to cover up a very German name due to anti German sentiment of the day.

Michael Brandt posted
In the center of the pic was the staircase that went up to the Mummy's Room. When you got up there, there was a large wooden handle with a sign that said do not move handle which people moved anyway, you ended up with rotted grain and pigeon shit all over you, it was a great gag. The room led up to the upper catwalks and dust collectors.

 

Michael Brandt posted
A picture from the lower level of the top floor of the White Building, to the left you can see the upper level of the top floor.

Michael Brandt posted
A great shot from the top floor of the White Building looking down at the dust collectors and cat walks, and bridges below that.

 

Michael Brandt posted
From 2014: If you look to the left you can see the famous boiler, in the Boiler Room it looked huge but not so big outside.

A photo of open autoracks with the grain elevator in the background.

A search URL that finds many videos and photos of the demolition of the H&H elevator

13:43 video  This says the elevator was built in 1896.   Both of these mills made livestock feed. The development of supplements such as Master Mix made these mills obsolete because farmers could grind their own feed. One reason the buildings stood for so long was ambiguity as to who owned them.

11 photos