Grain silo images10/31/2023 After the English novelist Anthony Trollope saw elevators in Chicago and Buffalo in 1861, he wrote: “An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced.” Nevertheless, Trollope was impressed by what these monstrous mechanical s tructures accomplished, observing how “rivers of corn are running through these buildings night and day.”Įarly grain elevators were made of wood, making them vulnerable to fires. Ketchum.Īlong with church spires, grain elevators were the tallest points in the city’s mid-19th-century skyline. Illustration of interior of grain silo taken from a 1911 publication titled “The Design of Walls, Bins and Grain Elevators” by Milo S. Later, the grain was poured out of those silos - using the force of gravity instead of backbreaking physical labor - into boats or trains, to be transported somewhere else. But a more efficient method of handling grain was developed in 1842, when the first steam-powered grain elevator started operating in Buffalo, New York.Ĭhicago soon embraced this technology, which lifted grain from boats or trains with scoops moving up a conveyor belt to the top of the structure, where it was dumped into silos. When Carl Sandburg wrote the phrase “stacker of wheat” in his beloved poem “Chicago” in 1914, it’s possible he was thinking of the men who hoisted heavy bags of wheat in Chicago’s early years. The Santa Fe Elevator was one of more than 110 grain elevators built in Chicago between 18, according to a Journal of Urban History article by Thomas Leslie. The silos operated at a place where waterways and rail lines came together, contributing to their role as a turn-of-the-century economic engine. The silos stand in the backdrop of this May 1948 historical photo of Chicago railyards at 27th and Ashland. A technological innovation that changed a city A few other cities have repurposed similar structures most have torn theirs down. Today, their future poses a big question for Chicago. The silos have a backstory with all the elements of Chicago intrigue: fires, financial misdealings, worker deaths in the early years and, in more recent decades, serving as a setting for gonzo artmaking and for a big purchase by a politically connected family. The planning department said it has not received a formal public landmark request. The permit for demolition is still under review by the city, according to a spokesperson for the mayor. “We’d like to see this remarkable component of Chicago’s lost industrial history repurposed in some way, along with the adjacent land,” said Ward Miller, Preservation Chicago’s executive director. Environmentalists and local Southwest Side residents are concerned about the demolition - and how the property might be used in the future - while the Preservation Chicago group wants the city to consider making the old grain elevator into a landmark. Michael Tadin Jr., co-owner of MAT Asphalt, bought the 23-acre property from the state of Illinois last year, saying he plans to tear down the massive structure. A dominant feature of Chicago more than a century ago, they are now attracting attention again, on the slate for demolition yet stirring a frenzy of emotion among architectural preservationists and neighborhood residents who want a say in their fate.
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