Sunday, May 22, 2016

Central Manufacturing District Industrial Park

First, please read Chicago History. I have already described the predecessor of the Chicago Junction Railroad and its roundhouse and rail yard facilities. (Update: I have found what seems to be an advertisement for business to locate in the CMD. Since it is talking about delivering with teams and autos, I assume it was written in the first part of the 20th Century. A 24-page .pdf written in 2016 is still trying to sell the district for manufacturing. A WBEZ article about the district)

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Kevin R Doerksen posted eleven pictures of some of the buildings in a public group, which motivated this posting.

The only industry I have seen detailed info on so far is White Stokes.

Update:
Ray Malquist commented on a post
The old Central Manufacturing District tower building built in 1915 at Pershing Road & Damen. Inside the tower structure is a passenger elevator and a sprinkler system for the entire surrounding structure.

Edward Kwiatkowski posted
A vanishing icon from Chicago's once
bustling industrial past.
Definitely on borrowed time.
Many of the comments thought it was Brach's Candies:
Keith Bemis You can thank the sugar subsidies in the USA that kept sugar prices 2-3 times higher than in Canada and Mexico.
Jack Currie Tons of it never get used! Meanwhile they keep pushing High Fructose Corn Syrup into everything - GMO's corn, that is.
Keith Bemis Its an older interview but informative about the politics and Brachs
Then Ed commented it was "at the intersection of West 39th Street / Pershing Road and South Ashland Avenue, in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. This view is facing north / northeast."


Birds-Eye View
So that means it is in the southwest corner of the CMD.
Dan Imal posted
Dan's comment:
Central Manufacturing District. 35th and S. Ashland. Named so for its location centered on Chicago's south and north borders. Next to the Stockyards, International Amphitheater, former home of Wrigley Gum, Pullman Coach, and countless businesses over the years. Located at the South Branch, rail yards and major travel routes it was a major hub.
I was in grammar school living a couple blocks away in the 80s when a massive fire took place one summer right before the Ashland overpass.
Rose Cacielles Isn't that building where Hoffa was filmed?
Dan Imal It appears so Rose. 
'The riot scenes were filmed in Chicago at the old Central Manufacturing District (then used as Spiegel Warehouses) at Pershing and Damen.'


1947 industrial realators
This map confirms that the CMD added additional plots of land to the west by Corwith Yard.

Brian A Morgan posted
Bruce B. Reynolds: I would dispute the claim as to its being the "first planned manufacturing district in the United States" by citing the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures of 1791 which created a power source based on the Great Falls of the Passaic River at Paterson, along which three generations of mills operated: first cotton, then steel and locomotives (Danforth & Cooke, Grant, and Rogers for the railroad historians) and then silk.
[Bruce Moffat posted three photos of a map of the Chicago Junction.]
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Brian A Morgan
 CJ started out as the Union Stock Yards & Railroad Co belt line with multiple railroads owning it because multiple railroads owned the Union Stock Yards. I'm not the only one that doesn't understand how NYC got ownership of it. Some of the other railroads also wondered how NYC was able to grab it.
It appears NYC got a hold of CJ and CRI in 1907 as part of the deal that turned most of the CJ (Franklin Pk to McCook and Hammond to Whiting) over to the IHB, which is 50 percent NYC. IHB gave bonds in return to CJ owners that were greater than the value of the remaining property. However there does not appear that CJ or CRI were leased, and retained independent ownership, at least on paper, though IHB effectively controlled both. ICC valuations are very hard to understand on this issue.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bruce Reynolds' comment
In fact, it wasn't even the first in Chicago. CB&Q and the South Branch Dock Co. built a 75-acre industrial park along the north side of the South Branch during the Civil War. This is why, until recently, BNSF owned tracks along the south side of Cermak Road.

Google eBook
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There are about 100 more pages in that eBook that describe the various manufactures that were in the district in 1915.

After you skip quite a few advertisements, this eMagazine has photos of several buildings. Of note is that it identifies which manufacture uses the building. It also has a directory of the manufactures. I scrolled over half way through the eBook to find this photo that WBEZ had.
Google eMagazine

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