Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Every time I check this page, I see something new.

Ive been watching it for a long time. Its strong.

One of the must-read threads here. Thanks to Chris for keeping it up! 🙂

Thanks, guys. Now that i'm feeling well, I am trying to catch up. I have a couple hundred more photos to finish editing and upload. Stuff I've shot over the last year. I'm finishing up the GE Factory stuff first, then going on to older stuff.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Kevin Gilliam was the last General Electric employee in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As facilities manager, he was the man who turned out the lights and locked the doors at the end of the last day of operations at the huge 100 year old GE factory complex on Broadway, just south of downtown.

The last day was February 1, 2015. Kevin retired that day after 28 years with the company, but his retirement was short lived. GE asked him to come back to work to oversee the abandoned facility, which was being vandalized. He said that teenagers were also climbing to the top of the buildings and doing dangerous selfies, hanging off the giant GE sign atop one of the five story tall factory buildings.

Kevin finally got to retire after GE transferred ownership of the property to the developers who hope to transform the former factory complex into a housing and retail center to be called "Electric Works." He has been leading the public tours of the complex organized by the developers in 2018.

I photographed him in front of a large display promoting the Electric Works project in the middle of the basketball court in the GE Club building, where he began each of the tours with a short talk on the history of the factory.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A phone booth, minus the payphone, in the former General Electric factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is a women's restroom in Building 26 at the former General Electric factory on Broadway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Interestingly, it is in very nice condition. All the other restrooms I saw in the factory buildings had floors covered in paint chips that had peeled off the walls.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The broom, and the tiny area of floor that has been swept around it, just seems like "Too Little, Too Late." It is leaning against the wall in Building 19 at the former General Electric factory complex on Broadway in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

As in most of the buildings here, the floors in Building 19 were covered in a thick layer of broken paint chips and dust.

 

[Paulbe]

Chris--what was manufactured there? Love the photos...
Paul

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris--what was manufactured there? Love the photos...
Paul

Several different things. There were nearly 30 buildings and 25,000 workers there at the plant's peak during World War II. Electric motors were the main thing produced there, but they also manufactured equipment for the electric power industry, like transformers.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is one of the men's restrooms on the fourth floor of Building 19 at the former General Electric factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

You can see me reflected in the mirror!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This ancient cast-iron sink is in a restroom in one of the buildings at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I made this photograph of an abandoned barn back in May on a beautiful foggy morning in rural Allen County, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This little American flag was standing on the steps in the spectator seating around the basketball court in the GE Club building at the former General Electric factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These lockers are in the bowling alley at the GE Club at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Several of the lockers still had bowling balls, shoes, and other items that people left behind when the facility closed.

The GE Club, built in 1927, featured a gymnasium with a basketball court on the top floor and a bowling alley in the basement for the use of GE employees.

GE closed the last of their operations in Fort Wayne at the beginning of 2015. The former factory complex is being redeveloped into a housing and retail center to be called "Electric Works."

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I found this graffiti scrawled on a wall inside Building 20 at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The workers in the building manufactured electrical transformers.

The graffiti says: "Transformer Mafia. Rules Are Out The Window!"

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A thick layer of broken paint chips and other dust covered the floors in most of the buildings in the former General Electric factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Someone wrote "GE" in the dust on one of the floors!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I read it as ICE.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is the entrance to an office space in Building 26 at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was one of the cleanest parts of the building! Most of Building 26 was devoted to factory spaces whose walls and ceilings have had most of their paint peel off.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These urinals are in a men's restroom on the fourth floor of Building 19 at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As in the rest of the building, the paint in this room was peeling from the walls and ceiling, covering the floor with a thick layer of broken paint chips and dust.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

In May 2018, the Clyde Theatre reopened after it had sat vacant for more than twenty years.

The theatre was opened as a movie theater in 1951 by Clyde Quimby, who also owned the Quimby Village shopping center, where the theatre is located. The theatre was later renamed the Quimby Village Theatre and changed to a two-screen movie theatre. That's how it was when I was young, when my parents often took my sister and I there to see movies.

The tall "Clyde" sign sticking up from the top of the marquee was gone by the time I began going to see movies there in the early 1980s. The theatre closed in 1993, and after being briefly used as a church, it was abandoned. By the time I photographed it the first time, back in 2008, it had already sat empty for nearly fifteen years.

In 2017, the old theatre found new owners and a nine million dollar renovation began. The outside was restored to nearly the same configuration as it had back in 1951; the theatre got back its original name and the original "Clyde" sign was rebuilt. The inside was transformed into a live music venue, but the art deco lobby was restored to look much as it had originally.

I made this photograph of The Clyde at sunset yesterday evening.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is on the first floor of Building 19 at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I think that the machine inside the door is a generator with a fuel tank.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is on the first floor of Building 19 at the former General Electric factory complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The sign by the office door says: "Right To Know Center. Material Safety Data Sheets For Hazardous Materials."