On Wednesday I stopped by the Solvay site after spending the better part of the day following the abandoned rail line south to Oklahoma Avenue and couldn’t help but notice that they tore down a building! It was not one I had intended to keep, as it was just a crummy garage on a triangular portion north of the main site. On my expedition to Solvay in July I briefly looked inside, but didn’t look around because it was obvious someone was living there, and I would rather not encounter its crazed occupants so I left it alone. When I returned back to my bike later that day (I went through the main site and exited, much more easily, on the west end) I noticed two sketchy looking guys walking under the bridge. As they passed by the garage they disappeared, so it wasn’t like they were going down to the WATER Institute or the city’s coal yard. Let’s also just say they weren’t carrying any camera equipment…nor did they really look like bums. My suspicion at the time was that the garage was being used as a drug house or meth lab, but I never confirmed my suspicions, nor was I particularly motivated to do so.
After looking up the permit file with the city, it appeared that they ordered the building to be razed because, “building is unsecure and variants [are] living inside.” Oh, well. No permits filed for demolishing any part of the main site so far. But the owner has not exactly done things by the book when they failed to have the asbestos removed before they tore down the coke facility in 2004. I wouldn’t be really surprised if I came by someday and found the whole site flattened.
Below are a few photos I snapped of the demolished building as well as a before image. I also found a pretty cool tree that has grown into the railway guardrail.
