Category: Torrence Ave

Got an unexpected email this morning! Within an hour, Bernie and I were having a long chat on Zoom. It was great to speak to a South Deering native (he grew up in Trumbull Park) and I am honored to have my work and website appear on Chicago stalwart WBBM. Thanks again to Bernie!

Some time ago, I found a sticker in the ground floor of the main office. I did some research on that logo and was surprised at how many examples I found. Well on my last visit I found another – in the same place! I can’t believe I spotted either of them on the floor […]

There seems to be a lack of drone footage at the plant floating around the internet. So it was a good thing when my brother purchased a unit of his own! He has visited the plant with me twice before and was eager to go back, not just to get some good video but also […]

This is a guest post, written by South Deering resident Keaton Soriano. We met very briefly in December 2021 when he was at the plant visiting with one of his high school instructors. He later reached out (not necessarily knowing that the person he was emailing was the person he saw at the plant). I […]

This is a short video that was inspired by probably my favorite document of the thousands I have handled and removed from the site. It captures everything that my imagination creates when I think of the hardships of working at a coke plant. In my mind’s eye I can see everything described here. I will […]

I spend a lot of time on ebay looking for Acme/Interlake artifacts and I have come across some interesting historical items, a few of which I even purchased. I came across an Acme Steel patch which was clearly used and authentic a while back and before I even considered what to do with it, I […]

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – so goes the old adage. What if ‘it’ is the drive for a massive motor used to control a pusher ram in a coke plant? Broke or not, if it does and you are unprepared, that is a whole lot of overcoked material burning away in your […]