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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| David H. Nelson commented on his posting with this 1954 photo |
There were three more gasometers south of Division and west of the North Branch Canal. Judging by the rail spurs and the pile of coal as well as the big building with a conveyor, this is one of the places where they manufactured the gas. There was still a coal pile in 1952. The tanks and building existed in 1962, but the coal piles were gone.. It was all removed by 1963.
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VintageTribune also has a photo of the above gas holder.
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1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP
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| WBEZ posted Fun fact: Until the 1980s, enormous gas holders storing natural gas stood tall in Chicago - one was more than 350 feet high. Go back and see what Chicago looked like more than 40 years ago, before these landmarks were taken down. http://bit.ly/TcoYVJ |
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| Karen Operabuffa commented on a post This photo shows two sets of gasometers - one on North Avenue, one on Division. |
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| Darla Zailskas posted Corner of Milwaukee & Chicago Avenues, picture came from a 1939 textbook titled Illinois, looks like a ghost in lower left corner, any info on the structures? [I spent some time trying to find this tank before I learned that the caption is wrong. This is the corner of Milwaukee and Racine. [cushman] So we are looking north up Racine and this is the tall tank south of Division.] |
The construction of the gasometers may have preceded the introduction of natural gas. In the 19th and early 20th century, municipal gas was coal gas (aka syngas), hence the coal pile. The plants on Division and North were constructed by People's Gas Light and Coke Company, predecessor to today's People's Gas. Their activities caused considerable ecological contamination which is still being remediated to this day. Once natural gas was widely available this industry became redundant and the plants were closed. https://www.epa.gov/il/manufactured-gas-plant-sites-peoples-gas-and-north-shore-gas
ReplyDeleteIndeed, gasometers proceeded natural gas because they stored manufactured gas that was produced by making coke. In the case of gas plants, coke was considered the byproduct. It was the development of high pressure compressors that made long distance pipelines for natural gas possible that caused manufactured gas and their gasometers to become obsolete.
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