A gallery of abandoned industries in the United States.
Indiana
Farmers Grain Company
The former Farmers Grain Company elevator of Carlos, Indiana, is located on the abandoned Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railway. Construction began in May 1920 and was completed later in the year at the cost of $33,500. 1
Kentucky
Newport Rolling Mill
The Newport Rolling Mill in Newport, Kentucky, was constructed circa 1901.
Massachusetts
New Jersey
Baker Castor Oil Company
The Baker Castor Oil Company, later owned by CasChem and Vertellus, manufactured castor oil and other food oil products.
New York
Binghams Mills
In 1790, Walter T. Livingston started a grist mill called Good Hope Mill along Roeliff Jansen Kill. 6 The area was referred to as Blatner’s Mills, which was a misspelled name from one of the area’s first settlers, Jacob Platner.
Charles Bingham moved there from Connecticut in 1865, converted the grist mill into a paper mill, and erected several houses for his workers. 4 6 Eventually, the community consisted of a grist mill, two paper mills, a blacksmith shop, a woolen factory, a c. 1857 Methodist Episcopal church, and 20 residences. 4 5 By 1878. the village had 125 inhabitants.
In 1908, George Leary of New York City began building a hydroelectric power plant along the waterway, and by 1928, all the land along the creek was purchased, a dam was built, and the Red Hook Power & Light Company was put in operation.
The power plant’s operations were sold to New York Power & Light Company in the 1920s, which later sold it to Niagara Mohawk until it closed in the late 1950s. 6 The dam was torn down in 1965.
Other
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
West Virginia
Arbuckle Coal & Coke Company
The Arbuckle Coal & Coke Company was constructed along the south side of Arbuckle Creek near its terminus with the New River in Fayette County, West Virginia. 7 A 4,204-foot siding of the South Side Branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway served the facility; two additional short sidings served a tipple and coke ovens.
The Rend Nos. 1 and 2 mines for the tipple and coke ovens were located further up the hollow towards Rend (Minden after 1905). 7 They were operated by W.P. Rend from 1901-04. A narrow-gauge railroad was built on the west side of Arbuckle Creek to bring coal from the mines to a headhouse, where it was transferred to an incline. The incline led down the steep hillside and across the top of the Rend Branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway to the tipple and coke ovens located along the three sidings of the South Side Branch.
By the fall of 1901, Arbuckle was referred to as Rend. 7 In mid-1904, it was noted as B. Mine and then as Minden No. 1 by January 1906. By the 1920s, it was called Weewin.
Coal Dock
West Virginia Malleable Iron Company
The West Virginia Malleable Iron Company was incorporated in Heights (later North Point Pleasant) on September 11, 1902, and produced malleable iron castings. 3 Buildings included a foundry, finishing shop, boiler and engine house, pattern shop, carpenter shop, core room, offices, and storage.
Malleable iron initially cast is brittle and made malleable by a special heat treatment at high temperatures. 3 At the time the plant was built, the company produced bed castings and tank lugs, and later castings for other industries, growing to compass over 1,000 patterns. The largest consumers of the castings were the automotive, railroad, and farm equipment industries. Most of the customers were outside of the state, although some of the castings were sold to West Virginia entities, mostly in the mining and electrical industries. One of the most unique orders came from New York City for 25 miles of chain to be used in its sewer system. It was cast in six-inch lengths and hooked with pins.
In the early 1970s, the coal-fired furnace was replaced with two electrical furnaces to reduce pollution. 3 In September 1973, the Warren Tool Company acquired the Malleable Iron Company, which was operated as a subsidiary until the plant closed on February 11, 1983. At its height, Malleable Iron employed 250.
