Industrial Museum: The Georgetown Steam Plant, Seattle, Washington (Sea 13)

 

Georgetown Steam Plant, July 2019 (from Google® Maps)

Early in 2026, some Seattle-area film photographers posted an invitation on the Photrio forum to meet at the Georgetown Steam Plant. That was a nice idea to meet other photographers from the Puget Sound area.   

The Seattle Electric Company built the Georgetown Steam Plant in 1906-1907 to provide electricity for the city's electric streetcar system and for the interurban trolley. The plant was built near the Duwamish Waterway in the Georgetown area of Seattle. 

The Steam Plant is a National Historic Landmark, a National Mechanical Engineering Landmark, and a City of Seattle Landmark. According to the GEORGETOWN STEAM PLANT Community Development Authority (CDA), "We use SHTEAM (Science, History, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) to inspire the Community to envision and create a future where we all belong, and this historic building  generates Community Power." HistoryLink has a detailed history. 

Six or seven of us wandered around in the fascinating setting of pipes, machines, valves, ladders, and catwalks. It was like time travel to another era. My friends had a variety of cameras, mostly medium format. I used Kodak Tri-X 400 film in my Hasselblad 501CM camera with 40mm, 50mm, and 80mm lenses. My compact Linhof ProfiPort tripod supported the camera for all interior exposures. The light was directional from high distant windows, so all my exposures were in the ½ to 2 second range.

 

The mid-level catwalk may be the best way to get a sense of the scale of the machinery and piping.

 

One of two vertical Curtis steam turbines (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

Near the base of the Curtis turbine (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

Access gantry

Boilers (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

Steam piping. Is that asbestos sheathing?

 

Steam piping with access ports (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

 

Classic precision gauges (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

Dear Readers, maybe I showed you too many pictures. But I love the shapes, shadows, and textures of old industrial sites. And it is rare that you can enter a place like this legally. 

 

My 40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens was very handy for this setting because of the tight spaces. My 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens works well for both close and distant subjects. This is an 6-element double-gauss design. 

 

Northeast Photographics in Bath, Maine, developed the film and scanned it. The files were very contrasty. Tri-X 400 should have handled the range of exposures with normal development, but I could have specified N-1 to reduce the contrast. Regardless, the TIFF files contain plenty of data to manipulate with a curves tool. 

 

When you visit Seattle, take time to see the Georgetown Steam Plant at 6605 13th Ave. South. The Steam Plant is open to the public every second Saturday.

Abandoned Rubber Reclaiming Factory, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Last December, my daughter and I drove down a semi-abandoned road off US 61 south of Vicksburg. To the left was a field of abandoned and decomposing car bodies and trucks. To the right, a factory? What was it? It was empty, no one was about, and there were no "No Trespassing" signs. Ah, Mississippi is fun because you can walk into places like this. 

This is the remains of the former U.S. Rubber Reclaiming Company. According to Bloomberg:

U.S. Rubber Reclaiming, Inc. recycles and reclaims scrap rubbers in the United States. The company focuses on butyl rubber reclaiming; and supplies butyl rubber to the tire industry in the United States. The company manufactures high quality rubber mulch for playground surfacing, landscaping and other uses. Its customers include tire companies, inner tube manufacturers, and the vendors of tape used for gas/oil pipe line wrap. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in Vicksburg, Mississippi. U.S. Rubber Reclaiming, Inc. is a former subsidiary of Genstar Ltd.

The company may have ceased most of its operations around 2010. An article in Rubber and Plastics News states:

VICKSBURG, Miss. (March 26, 2010)—U.S. Rubber Reclaiming Inc., the oldest rubber recycling company in the U.S., has left the butyl reclaim business and is seeking a buyer for its rubber mulch operation.

A number of internet business sites still show the company as active at 2000 Rubber Way, but clearly this is not the case. As usual with the internet, be suspicious of information pages that use software/robots to consolidate data from various unfiltered sources.

This is not the only former rubber facility in Vicksburg. Another company somewhere south of town had a troubled history. Rouse Polymerics International had a fire that belched black smoke many years ago. At a later date, the factory suffered an explosion that killed five workers. I do not know where that site was located.

US Rubber Reclaiming, Dec. 2018, Fuji X-E1 digital file

US Rubber Reclaiming, Jan. 2019, Ektar 100 film, Voigtländer Vito BL camera

There are still piles of rubber debris and scrap on the site. Mosquito habitat after any rainstorm?

I saw a belted kingfisher land on a pole next to the pond. I suppose he eats fish that lives in that water. Yummy....

A big concrete-anchored rubber shredding machine is sitting out in the weather. This is impressive mid-20th century industrial equipment. I am surprised that this could not be sold when the company closed, but possibly dismounting and shipping would cost more than anyone else would pay for it. When some companies close, the managers simply walk away, leaving the former employees to close the doors and figure out how to feed their families. Then the creditors must decide what to do with the junk left behind.

Water is ponding in many areas on the site. OK, plenty of mosquito habitat in summer.

The steel sheds seem reasonably intact and the floors were mostly dry. But who would buy this place and deal with the rubber debris?

The company posted signs about safety issues. I like the logo in the last picture, "Any fool can be careless. "How about you". That definitely applies to many drivers I see regularly.

The 2018 digital images are from a Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera. I set the camera on the Asta film emulation. The day was sunny and too cheerful - not right. Therefore, when January 19, 2019, was gloomy and drizzly, I returned with Ektar 100 film loaded in my little Voigtländer Vito BL camera.  I wrote a review of the BL for the 35MMC blog. This camera has a fixed 50mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar lens. Having one lens makes you carefully consider how you can fit your subject into the frame. I mounted the camera on a tripod and took most exposures at f/5.6 or f/8. I scanned the negatives on a Plustek 7600i film scanner. I also took black and white film; material for a future article.

Fate still unknown, the Carnation Milk Plant, Tupelo, Mississippi

The former Carnation Milk evaporated milk plant sits just south of downtown Tupelo off Carnation Street (where else?).

Postcard, unknown date, title "Carnation Plant looking west, Tupelo, Miss. [graphic]", from the Cooper Postcard Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

The 36,000-square-foot plant opened in 1927. According to the Daily Journal,

It opened Saturday, May 14, 1927. Tupelo threw an unprecedented celebratory parade and party, attended by some 15,000 to 20,000 people. It was a big day; it was a historic day. 

For nearly all of the next 45 years, the Carnation Plant lived up to expectations. The dairy industry flourished in Northeast Mississippi. Thousands of dairy farmers enjoyed consistent income, even through the Great Depression. Two and a half generations of workers made the Carnation Plant a part of their memorable and proud careers. The aging plant finally closed its doors in 1972.

But because of its solid, well-built construction, the old building has been considered for many other uses since it was shuttered 39 years ago – a police department and jail, city offices and even a history museum.

There have been numerous studies and plans drawn up to move the Oren Dunn Museum into this once-proud but now-lonely building. Currently, however, those plans simply gather age and dust – just like the Carnation Plant itself. For now, it is remembered only for what it once was, not for what it could be again. The once-shining example of hope and promise in Tupelo 80 years ago simply grows old, both in reality and in all of our Southern Memories.

The nomination for the National Register of Historic Places states that the plant closed in 1965.

As of 2018, the old factory is closed and unused. The Oren Dunn City Museum proposed to refurbish and use the plant, but the cost would have been $ millions, and in 2012, the museum abandoned plans to move its collection to the factory. The site has lost some of its outbuildings. Despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, city workers demolished a storage building and the manager's office.

One sunny afternoon in May, I looked around briefly. The building was secured, or at least there was no obvious access.

Some of the old architectural elements were photogenic. These frames are from a Motorola Moto G5 phone, but one day I need to return with a film camera.