FIVE CORNER INTERSECTION

I'm queer for five corner intersections.

Except in San Francisco where driving is madness and trying to find a parking spot will drive a nervous woman to drink. I once borrowed a friend's Monticello to drive around in SF. It was a V8 sedan with a hood as large as my bedroom. Driving up those hills and stopping at a stop light I couldn't see over the hood. I had to lean out the window to watch lights change.

Back to Granite City

Granite city is both depressing and exciting.

It's a small town where the only career choice appears to be cashier. Gas is twenty cents higher than in St. Louis. Dollar stores at every corner.

Some of the older buildings have been demolished including an old hotel that was no longer being used. The only new construction I've seen there in a decades is the landfill and subsidized housing. The city's main drag is a six block long strip mall.

Closed YMCA:


Sponge brick:

Large pebble mortar brick.


Decorative terra cotta surrounding doorway.

Bet you a hundred clams that this mosaic tile facade isn't original to the building. I cringe to think it may have been vitrolite.


Lisa's Diner. Hell no, I didn't go in.


Killer storefront with deep red vitrolite (and reflected clouds)

Shredded awnings on the abandoned building:


Love this brickwork that looks as if it's a perforated line:
Dusty two family


There's a layer of dusty film over everything in Granite City due to the steel mill. The whole city is a smudge like walking through an ash tray.
Facade of the Granite City library:

GRANITE CITY STEEL BUILDING (redux)

I had emailed the mayor of Granite City with a few questions and he provided email addressees of those who could answer.

One of my questions was about the Zephyr, the other about the architect of my favorite (and only) Modern building in Granite. I was referred to Joe Ribbing at US Steel.

His response:
The engineer/architect was Sverdrup and Parcel Inc. from St. Louis. Construction started in June 1958, the building was completed and opened for business in February 1960. The "L"-shaped structure originally housed both Granite City Steel's main offices and the First Granite City National Bank. The bank utilized the 2- story section along 20th Street, while the steel offices, now U S Steel, Granite City Works, occupy the 5- story section along State Street. Currently, the bank section is vacant and is being partially utilized for document and material storage. As such, we respectfully decline your request to take interior photographs of the facility.

Click on the title above to read about Sverdrup and John I. Parcel.

Side view, black bricks!

Back view, enameled steel


BTW, I've been at this for decades, writing to people for answers. It all started with Hostess Sno-balls. I just had to know who designed Sno-Balls. All I remember is they were designed in 1947 but have gone lost my correspondence. Of course I just emailed them.

THE MARK TWAIN ZEPHYR COMES TO GRANITE CITY!

A few days ago driving into Granite City riding over the train yard when I spotted a streamlined stainless steel Zephyr.

HOLY CATS, I squealed, IT'S A ZEPHYR!

A three car Zephyr (this is one of three Zephyr's ever made), looking oddly slim from 200 feet away. I saw a side road and within a few moments I was parked about 20 feet from it.

It's about five feet wide and practically demolished.

Curious as to why it was parked in Granite City (and worried it was headed to the Granite City Steel Scrap yard), I googled. Click on the title above and read about how it will be part of the downtown Granite City redevelopment (and one woman's sly comment about using TIF's correctly)! Interesting, I never realized G.C. didn't have a newspaper. I emailed the Mayor of Granite City yesterday asking for permission to photograph what's left of the interior. I would have climbed in but I was only with Beau and (once again) on private property.

Click on the Granite City tag below this post and scroll down for photos of an abandoned downtown Granite City.

For an understanding of just how skinny the train is, note Beau (canine) towards the lower right of the train for scale.


Boarding doors:



Nose of the train with etched Mark Twain signature. The holes above are where a bronze bas relief of Samuel Clemens was once bolted.

Will it be restored to this?

The shovel-nose front which is missing in the above photo was designed to quickly remove cows from the train tracks and looked like this:


THE ZEPHYR IS CURRENTLY OWNED BY BEN BUTTERWORTH, http://midamericarailcar.com

BLACK BRICK

We must revisit these bricks which are of course my favorites!

This is some seriously heady stuff. From a distance of twenty feet they look solid black. Getting closer reveals various values of black with plum and blue.

How were these created? It had to do with the oxidizing conditions in the kiln, and creating sudden temperature increases in a process known as flashing.

Common constituents were added to the clay mixture to produce colors. This brick may have had iron oxide with manganese oxide added. Vegetable materials were also added with a sudden temperature increase.

People wonder why I'm always happy.

HOT FISH - GRANITE CITY

GRANITE CITY

GRANITE CITY
Art Deco Bank building is now a pawn shop

GRANITE CITY DEMO

BLACK BRICK, BABY

Tim thinks this Modernist building in Granite City was designed by Harris Armstrong. The building was once a bank and is now the HQ for Granite City Steel. Part of the old bank interior has a bank of marble teller windows with a steel rail a la Mondrian. There's three little windows with chunks of Dalle glass.

The bank entrance has a modest steel slab sculpture in the front corner and enameled steel boomerang art on the interior wall (photos will follow if I get in later this week).

While we were looking in various windows a security guard pulled up and shooed us. The only information I culled from him was that all the steel used in the building had been produced at the Granite City Mill.


Here's Tim on the side of the building below enameled blue steel panels.



Full view of the building from the back:



Elevator tower with geometric design on the brick face:



Black brick with yellow flecks:

ABANDONED MAIN STREET GRANITE CITY

BRICK HOUSE GRANITE CITY