Building at 70 and Shreve?

[bluephi115]

nope nothing like that at all.

[thechariot]

the place is fucked. upstairs in the office areas theres a room with all wooden floors, and bullet holes in the wall. we were in the warehouse area rummaging through the bullshit when i heard 4 gunshots, and some homeboys laughing/yelling. we ducked into the dark rooms at the end of the warehouse area and ghostreconned our way back to the car. there are also many feral dogs around there, big mangy bastards.

[thechariot]

the place is fucked. upstairs in the office areas theres a room with all wooden floors, and bullet holes in the wall. we were in the warehouse area rummaging through the bullshit when i heard 4 gunshots, and some homeboys laughing/yelling. we ducked into the dark rooms at the end of the warehouse area and ghostreconned our way back to the car. there are also many feral dogs around there, big mangy bastards.

[redox]

I never have seen the place. Don't want to either..

[bluephi115]

yeah i ran into one of the dogs and scared me to death haha. no hommies or guns though!

[t7]

It looks scary and sketchy enough on Google Maps ... I hope the city does something with it. I don't see much of a point in saving an old manufacturing plant in that state.

[Meester Beeg]

Greetings, folks. N00b here.
I know this is an old thread but this building is what I was looking for.
Yes, that is the old Barry-Wehmiller machinery Co building. Physical address is on Rosalie but mailing address was 4660 W. Florissant.
You see, I worked there between 1977 and 1983. That used to be a beautiful, well kept building. sad to see it this way.
in response to `'what did they do here".
Well, they built bottle washers and beer pasteurizers.
The brick prtion of the building was the original office and production facility. The pic taken from one end with the pillars on each side was taken from the lower production/assembly floor. the mezzanine and the lower floor under the mezzanine was the area where all the lathes, punch presses, etc were and the middle was where the washers and pasteurizers were assembled. these buildings were quite large. In fact, they grew to be so big the metal/glass building was constructed as the new assembly floor. there were up to 4 or 5 at a time aligned east/ west. they were built in sections and then each section was loaded on a rail car or lo boy trailer. These things are as big as most houses. Standing on the top of one-as I frequently had to do you were about 20 feet off the floor.
They still needed more space so part of the old St. Louis car Co. on hall St. was leased and all the machining and warehousing was done from there along with pasteurization assembly. washer assembly remained at W. Flor for a few more years.

[Meester Beeg]

Con't.

When the washer assy was moved to the new area-what some are calling the warehouse, that opened up space for larger and more modern machinery. At one end of that lower area was "The Minister". A 400 ton Minster punch press with a 48 x 60 bed. When it was moved they used the overhead crane to lower it to the floor and then lift it onto a trailer that was located in "the pit" on the other end of the building. They had to dig a 3 ft deep hole in the new building so the overhead crane could clear it. I ran that machine many a day.
All of the warehouse area was inside the brick structure and the small additions on the back. the breezeway between the new and old building was called, "Rat Alley", for obvious reasons until it was enclosed.
The picture showing the pictorial diagram was of the solar power water heating system they were developing-in 1977! They spent a lot of money trying to make it work but the technology wasnt there to make it practical. Lots of hot water is used in the pasteurization process.
As for EPA cleanup the only thing I can think of that would be there is cutting oils and solvents and paint/solvents...and the wooden brick floors that were soaked in cutting oil. There used to be a white smokestack at the SE corner of the brick building for the boilers. Steam heat. There was a cafeteria in the glass/steel building on the upper level.
Up until just before I started there employees got 2 beers per man per day. Ironically, I started there almost the same day Falstaff shut down ops in STL. Yes, we had equipment in most, if not all the local breweries/bottlers and in many around the world.
I never spent much time in the offices but they were very nice-especially for an old building. The company was (is) family owned and they took pride in the place. There were homes across the street-and unless "The Minister" was punching holes in 5/8" steel, you would never know a factory was there.
They eventually moved the washer assy ops out and the offices remained until moving to Clayton.
All manufacturing was eventually moved out of STL as the union was killing them. In 83 a floor sweeper made about $10/hr. machinists/tool & die maker close to $20.
I know this is a terrible neighborhood-even the 6th district cop shop moved from just up the street, but I would love to go back.
If anyone has questions I would love to hear them!

[SubLunar]

Awesome! Thanks for that information.

[Meester Beeg]

Ironically I used to work for MODoT and had to go to the 6th District cop shop to report an attempted murder of a Highway Patrolman. Little did I know a few months later I would be working just a few blocks away.

Local empty landmarks are (were) the Hostess bakery (formerly Hussmann) and across the street from that was a BiState bus garage which was empty then.
Used to eat at the Fireside Inn across the street from Hostess. Then there was (is) the Combustion Engineering (now ABB) plant on Shreve behind B-W. And now the cop shop at W. Flor and Ruskin.

BTW-why do some call the B-W site "Terry Tech"?

[SubLunar]

It's from an old blog post on here. No-one knew what the real name of the place was, nor what its purpose was. So Terry Tech was a made up name.

http://undergroundozarks.com/blog/index ... ch_complex

[Meester Beeg]

Sub, thanks for the link!
Yep, it was in pretty bad shape in its final years. B-W kept everything in good order, so it's obvious whoever owned the building after them didn't give a rip. Darn shame because it was a wonderful old building.
The enclosed ramp in the pic was the employee factory entrance. parking lot was to its right.
Office entrance was at the other end with their entrance there, also.
The shot of the building with the two blue barrels is on the SE end behind the offices. The large overhead door was the entrance to "the pit" for shipping/recvg. in the background is the newer assy bldg, which was the warehouse used by the recyclers.

BTW-I went in my basement last night and looked in my old tool box I used there. I still had my ring of B-W tool crib chits. About the size of a half dollar and stamped with a decorative border with BarryWehmiller machine co around the circumference and my employee number stamped in the middle. #109. At its peak I think there were around 550 hourly employees if IIRC from my seniority list.
In 83 they were on the ropes and the bank called in a loan-a whole $5mil. They sold the European operations for I think $35 mil, paid the note and began a diversification plan. No one used returnable bottles any more, so bottle washers were obsolete and beer pasteurization methods changed so there is less demand for the type of pasteurizers they built.
The businesses that got them started almost spelled their demise due to not changing to keep up with the industry.

[Shemp72]

Holy shit, that's great info! When we went in there, it was a quick trip. I could see getting jacked for sure.

One of the pics from the link that Sub posted has a hand written sign that mentions Terry Tech.

[ucitygal]

Love learning more about this building!

[indolence73]

Great information Meester Beeg, Thank you so much for sharing!