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Remembering Crawford Station
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"What is to give light must endure burning."
Crawford Generating Station, after 87 years of operation and a decade of abandonment, is now lost to history and the exploring community alike. At the time of its opening, it was the largest of five plants operating in Chicago; at the time of its closing, it was one of the last standing coal plants within a major US city.
The closure came after years of local protests concerning air pollution from the plant. According to the Clean Air Task Force, 27 deaths and 43 heart attacks were attributable to the station annually.
Demolition began in 2019 and was itself filled with a number of complications: one worker death, an imploded smokestack ("blanketing the neighborhood with toxic dust"), and a couple related lawsuits.
While not bearing the prettiest history, Crawford is one of my favorite sites to have had the pleasure of exploring. The sheer expansiveness and verticality of the site made for a sprawling exploration, and no site has given me quite the same feeling of an all-surrounding, boundless emptiness.
My crew explored the site on three occasions. The first was primarily to ensure that our PoE was valid, as the site was then considered undoable by some local explorers. The second was more thorough, leading to roof access. The third was during winter, and the site was largely demolished at that point. The site was still ascendable, at the accepted cost of risk.
Starting with the first two explores, these shots were taken from the base level. Many of the electronics remained, though damaged.
Once we began ascending the site, our lights became less and less useful. In the darkness, we were surrounded on all sides by an expanse of catwalks, stairways, pipes, and I-beams.
We eventually reached the roof, and were granted a fantastic view of the Chicago skyline. The quiet calmness of the night, accentuated by the endless city lights, was my favorite part of the explore.
The next exploration would be during the winter of 2019. Demolition was well underway at this point, and the place was rougher for it. It was still beautiful, though.
Ascending the station was harder this time. The plant was coming apart around us, to be honest. All throughout, disjointed metal was clanging and echoing in the cold wind. Stairways, eighty feet from the ground, would simply "end" on the way down, with nothing between you and the fall. Various pipes and leftover machinery were collapsing through the catwalks, now twisted and folded under the load. At points, ascension was impossible without climbing through the trusswork and steel. None of this was helped by the temperature: most of the metal was covered in frost.
My partner, understandably, chose to stop the climb early on. At this height, the metal was shuddering and whining in the flurry, and the remaining stairs were frozen. Alone, I eventually found my way to the roof, though the door was bolted this time around. Site damage is the last thing I'd choose to do, but I figured that I'd be one of the last people to even reach this door, if not the last. So, I managed to find an iron rod that I could wedge into the door, applied pressure… the door burst free and was blown open in the wind. The roof was littered with collapses, so I did not venture far.
Satisfied with what was to be our last exploration of the site, I made my way back down to my friend and we headed home.
It's hard to do Crawford justice with stories and photos alone. I hope that a great many of you had the opportunity to explore it before it was lost to us. In any case, cheers and farewell to one of the finer sites you could have found in Chicago. The burning is done.
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?” | |
Wow! Great narration and photos. A sad loss.
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Cool photos, it's always interesting to see a place mid demo.
https://www.flickr...62837453@N07/sets/
http://www.tfpnj.blogspot.com | |
Awesome post. Love the old electronics.
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