I have always had a fascination with where people are from, where they were raised. My dad does this also and I’ll bet his dad did too. I have analyzed this strange obsession for a long time. Maybe I like to find out, then compare that with the impression a person makes on me, and try to find some parallel or connection. Slightly related is the rote memorization of the streets of Chicago which my dad and my grandfather shared. When I was under 10 years old, I used to be so entertained with the fact that they could both rattle off streets, block by block, all over the north side. My grandfather used to deliver flowers and I think this contributed to his knowledge. Sometimes I used to ride with him. He never used a map, only these strange little books that would show the location and distance of a street (for example, Belmont Ave, 3200N, 800 to 8000W). Around that same age, I got my dad to tell me all the one mile streets starting at State/Madison, expanding north and west. I wrote them all down on notebook paper and studied it until I had the whole thing memorized. Sometime after that I got a hold of a map and saw the massive south side. I was particularly fascinated with the southeast side when I saw “The Avenues” all with letters as names. I couldn’t believe that they would use such a convention to label the streets. I added all these streets to my notebook and I’d look at it everyday. I had to be the only 10 year old kid in Chicagoland who was memorizing street names. Avenue ‘F’? Really? Did they run out of ideas? Maybe because they were so close to the state line they didn’t care anymore? These are real questions I pondered as a pre-teen, long before I was old enough to explore any of these places. Many years later, I’d get my first chance.
I graduated college in 2000 and started working for AT&T (Ameritech, at that time) around 2002. I was part of a group that was responsible for all the central offices in the city from 4pm to midnight. There were less than 10 of us, so you’d drive from office to office, chasing reports of trouble. My ‘home’ office was on Irving Park Road just a little east of Portage Park. I would bounce between the offices on the north side or occasionally go into the Loop. One day, my boss mentioned in passing that one of my co-workers on the south side had called in sick so he was trying to move people around to compensate. I’m sure he wasn’t going to ask me but I guess you could say that I had been waiting from the time I was 10 until this moment, at the age of about 25. I already had studied the list of offices south of Madison, I knew where they were. But I was most intrigued with the one at 130th and Carondolet. At that time, I didn’t even know that neighborhood was called Hegewisch. I had to get down there. I had to see for myself. My boss looked confused – he asked if I knew my way around. When I said ‘yes’ he couldn’t have possibly known how well I did.
After that, I kind of had my foot in the door and I worked on the south side more and more. If I didn’t have anything to do, I’ll give you one guess where you’d find me. Back then 130th Street would take you from the Bishop Ford all the way to Baltimore Ave. Having then gone as far east as I could, I headed south in a zigzag motion trying to get further and further east. I just couldn’t believe it! I eventually hit 134th and kept going until it dead ended across the state line. I parked at the gas station there and went inside to get a drink. I stood in the parking lot like a guy that just stuck his flag into the top of Everest. I had gone so far east that I had left the state!
I parted ways with the phone company in 2006 but I continued to stop into the area when it crossed my mind. I was down around 100th and Cottage Grove for work in 2016 and I went back to Hegewisch for lunch and to get some kabob meat from Baltimore F&L. I did this a few times in 2016 and in the summer of 2017 I went down there for my first bike ride. I have been cycling almost daily since 2014 and it was a natural progression to go down there once I had a way to transport my bike. I’ve returned many times since to ride the Burnham trail, the Illiana, or just ride around the neighborhood.
In June 2020 I was on one of these rides and I was headed south on Torrence from 106th, back toward Hegewisch. I noticed what looked like an abandoned building on my right and made a quick mental note to maybe come back and check it out sometime. Just a couple seconds later I slammed on the brakes. There wasn’t one building – there were a bunch, too many to count. My heart rate multiplied as I felt some pressure from within daring me to investigate. But I had much of my ride left to do, so I vowed to return the next weekend.
That week, I spent a lot of time online, trying to research what this place was. How could there be that many buildings, just left to rot? I didn’t have the address, so I just estimated what it might be and kept feeding those addresses into Google. 11242, 11238…..11236. And I found it. What the hell is ‘coke’? I hadn’t a clue. I almost drove down there in the middle of the night – I could barely wait until Saturday morning.
But somehow I found the patience for the rest of a very distracted work week and I got down there early Saturday morning. I was terrified as I roamed from structure to structure. I was sure someone or something would be waiting for me around one of the thousands of corners and dark rooms. I had no idea that the oven batteries and coal bunker were 1/8th mile south. With the summer foliage in bloom it is hard to see down there. I assume I saw the coal bunker from Torrence but figured it was a legitimate working building on an adjacent piece of land.
Independence Day was the following week and I went back with a bit more confidence. I had done some cursory research into the industry and the history of the plant. I scooped up a water logged binder filled with documents. Some were beyond salvage but most were perfectly readable. Over the next two weeks, I found and brought more home.
Between November 2020 and February 2021 I never took more than a single weekend off. I spent Christmas Day 2020 at the plant and spent almost four hours there on a cold January morning. Sometime around the new year, I had accumulated enough documents that I purchased this domain name and made rough plans for a way to share what I had found.
I made my 20th visit on March 20 2021. I have chronicled my visits and my research here. If I am an urban explorer, it is only by accident. I consider myself a historian and it is through the pursuit of this largely untold history that I have returned again and again, and spent countless hours reading and sharing my findings here.
If you’ve made it this far, you clearly have an interest and I hope this website helps to satisfy that.
Did you once work at Acme Coke? Did you know someone that did? Have you explored the property? I’d love to talk to all of you! Please send me an email (satan165 at acmecoke dot com) and I promise you will hear back from me.