In 1883, Edward Friedrich founded Friedrich Refrigeration Company. As technology advanced, he developed and patented a brine cooler that became his leading product. To meet increased production demand, a secondary facility was built in 1923 on East Commerce Street in downtown San Antonio, Texas, merely three blocks away from the first plant. All operations were consolidated at the East Commerce Street facility when the first plant burned down in 1925. From the ‘20s to the ‘50s, additions were made to accommodate a changing market, different product lines, and WWII production needs, eventually resulting in a massive plant totaling 474,760 square feet on about 5.4 acres.

Friedrich’s revolutionary “Floating Air” system was patented in 1931; this resulted in the greatest changes to the plant and effectively made the Friedrich Company famous. They remained at the forefront of refrigeration technology, especially after creating an even larger, more efficient home cooling unit in 1952. Over the next few decades, the business was privatized, went public, and privatized again, with various companies overseeing its operations. Ultimately, the plant closed in 1990 because of increased competition from manufacturers in China, and all operations were later relocated to Monterey, Mexico in 2007.

As the site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in 2015, a private developer from Dallas called Provident Realty Advisors was able to get historic designations removed from all the buildings except for those considered most relevant to Friedrich’s legacy – the three closest to East Commerce Street, one of which bears the iconic ‘Friedrich Refrigerators’ sign, all of which will be spared and renovated. After years of delays, environment abatement work finally began in late January 2023. The Friedrich Lofts will cost $92 million and offer over 300 rental homes; half will be affordable, and half will be market rate.

I initially explored here in March, and it was in the process of being demolished/environmentally abated. The last time I went by was the very end of September, and by that point, everything had already been leveled, except for the 3 buildings they’re keeping, of course.


VLOG of the exploration!: https://youtu.be/MrZGxAJu3P8

URBEX INSTA FOR MORE DISPOSABLE PHOTOS!: HTTP://INSTAGRAM.COM/LONELYSTARURBEX

FLICKR if you’re not on insta!: https://www.flickr...ple/195818284@N03/


*photos taken March 25, 2023*



best view in the house!!
*only photo straight from the vlog and not taken with the disposable - the wide angle lens sorta kinda captures the scale!*



somebody get that file on my desk NOW!!



glad there's some railing, otherwise it might be a little unsafe



loving the use of natural light in here!



Mission Control vibes idk



the Eiffel Tower looks different....



soooo open concept very chic

That view from above is so cool! It's a shame developers have little respect for history.

Cool!

Sucks it was demolished… looks like a really cool place, and it also has some historical value (I love history) so it sucks it’s gone.

Posted by gummo That view from above is so cool! It's a shame developers have little respect for history.

right?! made me feel like everything the light touches is my kingdom or something like that lol

Posted by Skimmy Sucks it was demolished… looks like a really cool place, and it also has some historical value (I love history) so it sucks it’s gone.

it is quite lame at least they’re keeping some of it though! probably could’ve just renovated the whole thing…. i’ll have to speak to Mister Friedrich Refrigerator about this….

Stared at this spot weekly for a year and never once thought it would be knocked down so I put it off for other places. Then one day I drove by and boom it was mostly demolished. Only was able to see the back building and the front 3, all gutted. Super cool to see good documentation on this place. Most of it is bad first-person video and clickbait titles.