Pere Marquette NIKE site

Urban exploration in St. Louis, Missouri
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CaptNaughty
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by CaptNaughty »

Doesnt ring a bell. Oh well, maybe I'll figure it out one of these days
brandonman
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by brandonman »

Gotta say, I was pretty disappointed when my buddies and I went. We only found like 5 above ground empty buildings.
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SubLunar
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by SubLunar »

yep, not much to it.
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Chris
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Re: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by Chris »

To the OP...

Southwest CITY, southwest COUNTY, or southwest metro area (like Pacific)?
archinstl
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

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If in the Southwestern part of the City, it HAD to be the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam artillery shell forging plant on Southwest, next to I-44.
See 38.615471,-90.300515
When it was reactivated for VN, there was quite a scandal, as the contractor was involved in many, many slowdowns, and many, including some Army officers, lost their heads over it.
I think it finally produced some 105mm shells, but at the very end of the conflict, which was quite disappointing to the Army.

The buildings are still in use, albeit not for their original use. Huge buildings and in pretty good shape. The four smokestacks were supposed to be torn down earlier this year, but dunno - haven't been that way in a long while.

This plant, plus the one on Goodfellow, were the only WWII ammo plants in STL. The huge complex in Weldon Springs made TNT and DNT and other fillings. Some of the widely-separated wooden buildings were still standing when I was a kid. Remnants of the old concrete complex may still be there (I know there are threads on this here).
Last edited by archinstl on Sun Nov 11, 2012 11:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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CaptNaughty
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by CaptNaughty »

After looking at google maps with the coordinates, that would be it. I recognize the road that looks like a spillway next to it. Thanks for the info!
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Re: RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

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archinstl wrote: The huge complex in Weldon Springs made TNT and DNT and other fillings. .. Remnants of the old concrete complex may still be there (I know there are threads on this here).
Some are still standing, but they're all on the wrong side of the fence on active military property.

The grand-daddy of all the Weldon Springs war effort buildings was the "Equadome", which was demolished around 1998. I managed to explore it a couple times but had no camera back then.
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Re: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by Chris »

Those buildings are (were) Scullin Steel. They did all kinds of casting and forgings including bomb casings, but were not a munitions plant. They were a player in the steam locomotive wheel business, the Frisco was a big customer of their "scullin disc" driving wheel.

Image

Image

They're now used by a beverage distributor. The offices are intact across Manchester and are used by Copying Concepts.
archinstl
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

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You are partially correct; in WWII and Korea, the plant did indeed make armor, turret castings, and bombs under Scullin's stewardship. In VN, it was reorganized to make 105mm shells by a different entity.
See http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... f6878.html

The main, 1899, plant (pre-war and later) for locomotive castings was located on Manchester, just East of McCausland. The ill-fated St. Louis Marketplace is on its site.
The headquarters is still across the street, at 38.618973,-90.302497, with Scullin's name prominent at the top.

When I was a kid, I recall a number of tank turret castings sitting along Manchester; this would be in the late '40s-early '50s.
Last edited by archinstl on Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Chris
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Re: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by Chris »

That's interesting. I had no idea their facility was so much larger.

I've actually looked for photos of Scullin from when it was in operation but haven't come up with much.
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RE: Pere Marquette NIKE site

Post by archinstl »

While I'm sure that somewhere an aerial view of Scullin exists, I could not find one in a cursory search.
Type "Scullin steel" into a Google Image blank. Several photos of the old plant will pop up, but they are from a distance.
The main plant was over 1/2 mile (!) in length along Manchester and went all the way to the RR tracks on the South - possibly 400+ feet.
It had at least one 0-6-0 steam switch engine, which is now out at the Museum of Transport.

OT, but I discovered that John Scullin was one of the financial backers of the construction of the old Arena!
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