I haven't done one of these writeups on here in years but I miss making them. On a recent trip to Alabama with Sheavy and Mookster we visited what remains of the old Republic Steel mill in Birmingham. This place is about as good as it gets, loads of ancient machinery and other things about. Republic steel started operations in Birmingham in 1888 and continued up until 1972. The blast furnaces, rolling mills, and other steelmaking buildings have been demolished for years. Fortunately, the massive coke battery, blower house, boiler house, power plant, and a handful of other buildings still remain. 50 years of abandonment has not treated this place well, most buildings truly fit the definition of a death trap. Alas, here are the photos.
Starting off with the coke battery/byproducts plant, built in 1925:
DSC_5673 by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5661 by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5677-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5655-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
On to the blower house, complete with a set of Harrisburg blower engines and an Ingersoll-Rand compressor:
DSC_5631-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5627-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5650 by pearson, on Flickr
Then the boiler house, I took very few photos in here. This was the deathtrappiest of all the buildings on the property:
DSC_5694-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
Finally, the power plant. This was probably my favorite, it was equipped with three General Electric turbines at one point. Only one remains completely intact, one was completely removed and the other was stripped:
DSC_5698-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5717-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5703-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5707-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5719 by pearson, on Flickr
Here are some other miscellaneous photos around the property:
DSC_5688 by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5686-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5682-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
DSC_5678-Enhanced by pearson, on Flickr
All in all, this place was absolutely phenomenal. We spent somewhere around 8 hours on the property. These photos definitely aren't my best work by any means, this place was very tough to shoot for the most part with lots of difficult lighting situations and tight spaces. But, I had a great time shooting it and wanted to share here.
Starting off with the coke battery/byproducts plant, built in 1925:




On to the blower house, complete with a set of Harrisburg blower engines and an Ingersoll-Rand compressor:



Then the boiler house, I took very few photos in here. This was the deathtrappiest of all the buildings on the property:

Finally, the power plant. This was probably my favorite, it was equipped with three General Electric turbines at one point. Only one remains completely intact, one was completely removed and the other was stripped:





Here are some other miscellaneous photos around the property:




All in all, this place was absolutely phenomenal. We spent somewhere around 8 hours on the property. These photos definitely aren't my best work by any means, this place was very tough to shoot for the most part with lots of difficult lighting situations and tight spaces. But, I had a great time shooting it and wanted to share here.