The Solvay Coke & Gas plant sits in a prime real-estate area of Milwaukee. The plant originally opened in 1906 and closed its doors in April, 1983. Plans to demolish the expansive site have been in the works for years, but the intensive cleanup efforts mandated by the EPA have put this plant in limbo. It is, after all, a Superfund site. Arsenic, lead, asbestos, and a whole host of other chemicals have been mixed into the ground.
Don’s Rail Photos website describes what went on at this once state of the art facility.
Coal was brought in by boat and by rail and lifted to the top of the tipple. It was then dropped into an extremely wide gauge electric rail car which ran on the top level and took power by trolley from the wire at the front edge. The coal was then dropped into ovens where it was heated to a high temperature in a low oxygen atmosphere. The carbon reacted with the oxygen to produce carbon monoxide, or coal gas. There were also other smaller amounts of gasses trapped in the coal. The gases were collected and sent to storage tanks. The resulting hot carbon was then pushed out the front door of the oven into a hopper car and sent to a quenching tower. This produced coke.
The first time I visited the Solvay Coke & Gas site I was shocked by its location. We were not more than one city block from a major Milwaukee shopping center, but yet it felt like we had entered another world entirely. The site is absolutely massive in scale. What remains though is only a fraction of what used to be. Concrete foundations of buildings long gone still remain. (Take a closer look at the map above.)
In its present state the Solvay site has four main buildings and a trailer. The first time I entered the front offices my urbex partner and I heard water flowing in the basement. Upon investigating we saw four inches of standing water and could hear a steady flow. When I visited a second time there was a clear watermark that was up to the ceiling of the basement. The second floor has a room with an ornate fireplace and a well stocked bookshelf. Unfortunately vandals have since destroyed these treasures and smashed all but a few of the glass windows.
The next building behind the offices houses a labratory on the second floor. Some of the scientists’ instruments remain behind. Bottles full of unknown substances, extensive logs, and even samples can still be found here. It is unfortunate, though, that the last time I visited this building water had filled the basement completely. It has made the wood floor very unstable.
The largest building on the site is all that remains of the main factory floor. On the last trip I stumbled across a giant passed out drunken robot. I do not condone the desecration of urbex locations, though this robot made me reconsider my stance. It is a beautiful work of art that only those brave enough to venture out to such a location can enjoy. Bravo, whoever created this.
Research Links:
Very descriptive health consultation about the Solvay site
Solvay Community Involvement Plan (PDF)
JS Online article discussing redevelopment of the site
Old operational photos of Solvay Coke & Gas
Alexander Fortney’s thesis revolving around the Solvay site
Asbestos abatement project from 2004
Milwaukee BizJournal article on new owners from 2006
Coal was brought in by boat and by rail and lifted to the top of the tipple. It was then dropped into an extremely wide gauge electric rail car which ran on the top level and took power by trolley from the wire at the front edge. The coal was then dropped into ovens where it was heated to a high temperature in a low oxygen atmosphere. The carbon reacted with the oxygen to produce carbon monoxide, or coal gas. There were also other smaller amounts of gasses trapped in the coal. The gases were collected and sent to storage tanks. The resulting hot carbon was then pushed out the front door of the oven into a hopper car and sent to a quenching tower. This produced coke.
+1
sort of it had to be mixed and pulverized. different coals different mines. beckly mine, beatrice mine, etc, my little girl used to say daddy go to work an hot, she was right!
Nice factory !
I like the big hall
This is a cool place to visit; however, I have done plenty of research on this location and found that a mandatory arrest policy is in place. Do not get caught on the property…
What source tells you that there is a mandatory arrest policy?
I can tell you that the arrest policy is true. I was arrested there. No questions, just handcuffs. I approached the officers with my camera equipment and didn’t get out of county until 4am the next day.
Just was there yesterday and shot over 300 pictures. [redacted by author].com – have at it. Thank god I didnt get arrested. I had no idea till I read these posts.
This place is now a filthy, site of stench and transient wasteland. I just visited this place a few days ago. The photos that you have taken are awesome, but the time for points of interest have come and gone. The place is ravaged by the homeless. A bearded transient, smelling of alcohol, with a smoked cigarette right down to the filter, pushing a baby stroller that I ran into while I was there was literally digging through the wreckage to sell something at the nearby Mill Valley Recycling plant. The scene as he was coming through the tattered fence and around the graffiti-ed trailer looked like one from a horror movie. His last words to me were, ‘be careful’. Trails of coal-black, coke laden toxic ground lead us about the devastated property. There once was a ‘robot’ built out of the machinery left behind, laying on it’s back and made to look like it was chugging a can of beer, which was actually a steel-drum barrel that said ‘Glug’ on it. The head is now gone as I am sure someone took whatever scrap-metal they could to sell for money. There are literally piles of shit and the stench of urine in the main building. Dirty clothes were hanging everywhere. All the books and papers I saw in the photos have been thrown about the yard and all around the buildings. All the paperwork I saw bundled together were now strewn about as if an explosion had occurred blowing all file cabinets to pieces. I am glad that you snapped the photos when you did, because the accelerated decay by the occupation of the homeless probably due to this very mild winter has caused it to be an atrocious site.
Here is an earlier clip of the now headless ‘robot’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuDx55jYdhs
You are totally right about the homeless waste land. I first explored Solvay two years ago with my girlfriend and we made a total of 30 trips there. I just went back about two months ago and there was literally piles of human shit on the office floor. It’s a shame. Luckily I grabbed everything I could from that place and am in the process of donating it to a worthy museum of industry. I grabbed over 400 blueprint drawings from the lower floor of the lab building, I have over 30 old lab bottles and jugs, and probably over 500 other lab reports, chemists notes, old text books, employee records and much much more. I know its an urbex sin to take stuff with you but I just couldn’t bare to see another one of those lab bottles get smashed. The stuff deserves to be preserved. I even found a few old black and white photos of some of the workers in a random notebook. But one of the coolest things I found was a huge round steel sign/stencil that says MILWAUKEE COKE and it has their logo in the middle which was a mushroom cloud. I also found a massive 4ft by 7ft blueprint plant map of the entire place, with every single one of the almost 100 structures labeled.
Do you still have these blueprints? I’m doing my Masters of Arch. thesis in Historic Pres. on this site and am looking for any sort of documentation of the site.
Ken do you have an issue linking to my site from here? I came back to add this page to my site. Unsure as to why you removed my link. Perhaps I didnt use proper protocol?
I even found old Milwaukee Journals and Milwaukee Sentinels from the 1970’s and early 80’s. The place closed in April 1983 and I have documents of the last day of operation!! including oven reports, by-products reports, lab reports, employee time records, and random other stuff. I found very very old antique scientific instruments and chemistry text books from the late 1890’s. I would love to get in contact with someone that worked there and see if they have pics from when it was in operation. Especially what the lab looked like when it still had all its equipment intact. If anyone has any questions you can EMAIL me …… POLISHSAUSAGE84 @ GMAIL . COM
I visited here about last week, really cool place. Even though it’s been torn to shreds it still has a lot of cool things! Found some blueprints and I could kick myself now for not grabbing them. Still definitely worth visiting if you have the chance. Saw one hobo there, and in one room there was a tent set up. The tent didn’t bother me but the circular saw blade in the window and the stuffed animal unicorn on the table is what did it.
Kurtis, that is absolutely phenomenal! I love to piece history together from the remains of abandoned structures, as well. I agree, it is a sin to take from an urbex locale, but in this instance- you were absolutely right in doing so as the accelerated annihilation by way of bums and mother nature would force these relics to disappear, anyhow. I would love to go back, however the cop that casually rolled by as I was walking back to my car made me think that the workers at the neighboring coal plant might be keeping their eyes focused on the entrance of their precursor. I am so glad that you took these remnants to be archived in a museum. You were so lucky to not only find them, but to transport them off the property without encountering any problems. I will have to get the information on the location so that I can see the things you have recovered. I really didn’t see anything like this when I was there, however I was dizzied by the human filth that covers what was probably once a beautiful, bustling front/central office building filled with coffee, etiquette and exquisite masonry. It’s amazing you found anything at all!
Eli, if you plan on going back- please recover the blue prints and be careful of the ever-watchful workers at the neighboring coal plant!
Eli, there are no blueprints left worth taking. The only ones in there are literally torn in a hundred pieces, or are completely soaked, moldy, and stuck together from being wet for so long, they’re a total loss unfortunately. Trust me I tried to save anything I could, even some of the soaked ones stuck together but they will have to probably be tossed because they are that bad. :-/ It literally gives me a sick feeling and breaks my heart when I think of how much AMAZING AND PRICELESS artifacts were in there but are now comepletely destroyed or scrapped for a few f*cking dollars.
I am heartbroken. The stairs of the machine shop have been torn out to be sold for scrap. Honestly, if you have the heart to do so, save what you can. I’ve seen what happens to this stuff, I saw homeless guys literally ripping the building to shreds for cash. I know and agree that it is against urbex ethic to take stuff from there, but seriously. It is beyond dilapidated, and it is getting worse every day. Solvay has such an incredible history, and it pains me to see it turning into a homeless guy’s next bottle of Jack. Be mindful of the mandatory arrest policy- and respect the police 🙂
A couple weeks ago they started tearing down the office building – as of a few days ago that building is completely leveled. :(. Glad you got out what you could – I’ve grown fond of it as I pass it every day on the train.
The stairs were cut by the City to prevent access to the second floor.
Demolition is under way.
Grandpa just told me a story about this place back in the 60’s when he would go and pick his brother up from Allen Bradley around midnight, you could see the huge 20 foot flame from the flare off stack that was on top of the By-Products building aka “Compressor House”. He said you could see the flame from miles away as you drove down KK or 6th street. The By-products building was this huge 4 story building that housed the massive steam driven compressor engines that pumped the raw Coke Oven Gas from the ovens and pumped it to the coolers and condensers where it was turned into crude tar and then pumped to other parts of the plant where it was turned into the other 20 chemicals Solvay sold on the market besides Coke. All that’s left of the By-Products/Compressor House are those concrete arches which actually were the foundations for the HUGE Buckeye and Ingersoll Rand Steam Engines which were on the second floor of that building. Anyways… When the gas holders were full, they had no choice but to burn it off through the “flare stack”. It’s a procedure that is still done today at Coke plants, Steel Mills, Refineries, and other Gas plants.
Most people that go explore Solvay mistake those concrete arches for the Coke Ovens, but they are not. The Coke Ovens ran all along the length of the plant, parallel to the old Milwaukee Road tracks on the West side. There were 4 banks of Ovens, 50 ovens per bank. All that’s left of the ovens is a massive pile of refractory brick that’s 20 feet high and a thousand feet long. Also some of the oven doors are left, put into piles in random places around the property.
Here is more information regarding ‘Glugbot’, the installation you might have noticed that has since been autopsied and organ donated to nearby Mill Valley recycling. Scroll down to ‘Robot’: http://www.goodeugene.com/
yes they did Kurt, i must know your grampa…
Fun place to shoot around, not sure of the mandatory arrest policy, I know a group who have been on the site when cops have gone by and made eye contact. We were there Memorial Day and a cop rolled by, not sure if he seen us or not though. Just be careful of the asbestos, don’t stir up dust or brush things to be safe. Also, the floor in the big buidling has a covered hole in the floor.
The fence is down and the site is open to the world. Don’t be such ninnies, the place is still awfully cool. It’s not a museum so don’t freak out too much about its disintegration, since that is sort of to be expected. Halloween party there tonight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfy-SPx6y70&feature=share&list=UUpv4d-2SzSAirclkY7RvbqQ
No asbestos, as it was removed around 2008.
from 1975 until 1982 i was crane operator moving coal from off loading ships (15 ton clam jaw bucket) to conveyer belts to house bins to be mixed (different types of coal) then pulverized then sent via more belts to oven bins then into ovens for 24 hours then rammed into hot cars for cooling. Worked in almost all aspects of plant. want to know? send me an e mail.
did not know this even existed! can tell you about being asked to lift gates to release nasty stuff into the river. said no.. and you have no clue as to the size of the crane, largest of it’s type in the USA and world for that matter. wow.. almost 60 now was 20 back then..
Yellow hard hats, electrical 440 dc scary. green hats iron workers, red pipe fitters, blue coal handlers, white boss man grey coke handlers, some off reds big cat drivers, silver train workers. about all i can remember just now. you missed so many buildings, sure they must have been torn down. But the crane was massive looked like golden gate cut in half..
Douglas, this is awesome! If you saw the joint now, you would probably have to lean over and catch your breath…It has been completely devastated, ransacked, burned, scrapped, and utterly destroyed. Only two actual buildings remain, the machine shop and lab, which happen to be on their “last legs” because people keep ripping out the supports, too. It is an atrocity and isn’t even interesting anymore. It’s actually disgusting what has happened to this place in the last few years…
I spent 6 months at the plant back in 2005 and 2006. A historical group I belong to removed one of the Buckeye engines and two American Blower engines. The Buckeye out of the Compressor Building. The Americans out of the basement of the Boiler Building. These engines now reside in a industrial museum abut a hour and half west of the Solvay site. A second Buckeye engine was taken apart and moved to Pontiac Il. Not sure what happened to it. We also got several wood patterns out of the plant .
The office building was at one time a real nice place. Built to high standards . The cast iron railing to the second floor. The offices and wood floors.
The engineering building , which some one said looks like a banquet hall housed generators at one time , long gone when I was there. It was full of parts cubical a full of parts. This also was the machine shop and where the patterns were kept. One side of the building was where they stored the locomotives. I have a friend that has one of the whistles that came off the plant. We have blown it on steam when we have ran the engines that came out if the plant. I do have a photo of the last day of operation and of our engine the last time it ran at the plant.
Thanks Terry for your contribution of information, can I please see those pictures? RIP Solvay, it is officially an industrial ghost.
wish they could finally clean the land and turn it into something useful say 46 acre paintball anyone?
I was just there on May 11. It is a cool place to shoot a music video or take photos of the artwork on the walls. I stumbled across some kids breaking the roof in and wanted to wait Til the roof fell in. This place is now full of homeless and weird ass people. Bring a knife and watchout
I went to Solvay today and had a bunch of fun. There isn’t a whole lot left, but there is still some value in visiting.
http://urbanexplorationmag.com/2015/10/23/solvay/
Went to Solvay today for first time with a friend. Ran into another friend by happenchance. All together about 10 photographers. No unfavorables really in the February winter. Cop SUV was spotted and we evacuated to the KK. We returned 30 minutes later to exit through the fence. Went on roof but was weary of danger of caving in. Ladders are in decent shape – the rungs are sturdy but the cage is flimsy. Methhead was apparently there the day before and demonstrated to friend a method to climb from the ground floor up to the roof in about 10 seconds. He climbed the door frame section with the concrete hole on the 2nd floor and wooden pallet, so we did the same today. Used gloves. Do not climb here without gloves or risk tetanus.
worked for years at that plant to bad you did not see it then nasty scary but somehow cool.
Doug, could you contact me – I’m interested in doing a story about Solvay
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