Soon enough, there will be an 11 acre expanse of vacant land in Little Village. The Liquid Carbonic factory turned Washburne trade school is in the process of being razed, following a 10 year vacancy. Recently there has been political turmoil regarding the use of this land. Local activists and politicians want to tear the structure down and build a park in its place. It has been stated that Little Village lacks adequate park space, and the site is seen as a good opportunity, considering the land is already publicly owned. Though some local residents see the structure as a dangerous eyesore, others, namely LPCI, believe it could be adaptively reused. Washburne was originally slated for demolition in 2005 until the city ordered a stay of demolition. A study was then conducted to determine if the building was going to be granted landmark status. It wasn't.

Left:Washburne Elementary is the large building on the left side of this image, which was taken in 1906. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0004107. Right: The 1935 addition in 2007. It is in bad cosmetic condition, about to be demolished.

Elihu Benjamin Washburne
Photo: Washburne Chef's
Alumni In 1887, former Illinois congressman Elihu Benjamin Washburne died and West 14th street elementary school was renamed for him. Located on 14th street near Union avenue,the school continued as an elementary school until 1919, when the school was re-named and re-purposed. Washburne Trade and Continuance school began training students for various vocations with union sponsorship. Beginning with carpenters and electricians, the school rapidly expanded programs throughout the 1920's.

Jacob Baur
Photo: The Drugstore Museum Drugstore owner Jacob Baur moved to Chicago from Terre Haute, Indiana in 1888. He set up a business producing carbonic gas for soft drinks on Illinois street, where present-day River North is located. The business quickly increased production to the point where Baur was selling his own soda fountains and all the acoutrements, becoming known as the inventor of the soda fountain. The major product, however, remained liquid carbonic, which is a pressurized, liquified gas consisting mostly of carbon dioxide. We know it primarily as the carbonation in soft drinks, but it is also useful in a variety of applications from fire extinguishers to air coolant.

Baur's company re-located from the Illinois street location in 1910 to a new prairie school style factory on 31st and Kedzie designed by the architectural firm of Nimmons and Fellows. The firm's most famous building is the original Sears Tower, the Sears Merchandise Building Tower located at the corner of Arthington and Homan. The Sears building is the oldest high rise building in Chicago outside of the Loop. We are in progress of compiling a page - and eventually a book of the Nimmons' work.

Right: Bertha Baur, 1926. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0080527. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society. Left: Sears Factory, 1909. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0007193. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

Jacob Baur died in 1912, leaving his 55% of the company to his wife, Bertha. She remained with the company as vice-president until 1926 when she sold her interest for $3 million. After leaving the company, she entered a life of politics where she served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1932. She ran for the House of Representatives in 1936, and remained a committee member until 1943. She died in 1967. A year before she left Liquid Carbonic, the company was one of the first to begin selling dry ice. Dry ice is made by inverting a canister of liquid carbonic and releasing the valve. Washburne Trade and Continuance school outgrew its former elementary school environs and changed locations in 1934, moving north to Division and Sedgwick. It wouldn't be long until the school moved yet again, this time south to the vacated Liquid Carbonic plant on 31st and Kedzie. The plant received an addition in 1935, in the form of an art moderne style administration building designed by S.D. Gratias, which fronts onto Kedzie avenue. Chicago Public Schools purchased the plant in 1958 for $1.8 million. By the time of the move, Washburne handled all of the vocational apprenticeships within the Chicago Public Schools. However, problems began to arise. Previous to the mid to late 1960's, the school was primarily white. When the school began to be desegregated, unions began to pull programs as a result. There were 17 different unions at the school in 1965. A mere 13 years later, the number of unions had been cut nearly in half, with 8 remaining. By the time of the school's 1st closure in 1993, only 2 programs remained.

Characteristic prairie school style detailing on tower.

In 1994, Washburne re-opened under the City College system, but did not remain in the building much longer. Closing again in 1996, the culinary program moved to Kennedy-King college, renamed the Washburne Culinary Institute. The culinary program, which moved again to the South Shore Cultural Center in the mid-2000's, had long been the school's best program, and one of the best in the country, a reputation it still carries. The Liquid Carbonate factory building has been vacant since 1996. We first visited the factory in 2002 and have returned a number of times since. These photographs are from 2002/03, prior to any demolition work.

Click to view a pamphlet found in Washburne.

Left: The garage. Right: The cafeteria.

Images: Noah Vaughn, 2007

Noah Vaughn is an excellent photographer who has documented numerous abandoned buildings in the Chicagoland area, including Washburne. We've included two of his images, above and left. He has many, many more. Please check out his Flickr page and his new blog, Dump Site.

Right: The Administration building overrun with graffiti.

The following images were provided by an anonymous urban explorer, and were taken circa 2003.

Throughout the building there are piles of disused equipment, most of it well over thirty years old. The pile at left is mostly A/V equipment, while the machine at right is a large camera that was used for various technical purposes, such as creating separation negatives, line negatives, and copy work.

Left: A still life of assorted papers. A registration sheet for summer school, two visitors passes, and a sheet of asbestos cloth. I don't know exactly what asbestos cloth would have been used for. Hopefully not to blow one's nose. Right: This sample box of various styles of erasers was found completely intact. Barely visible in the compressed photo, it says 'They Correct Mistakes in Any Language' under 'Weldon Roberts Erasers'. I have always fond of kneadable erasers, white box, center.

Left: Reminiscent of a Byzantine church, this miniature cross-section has been left to the taggers. They even smashed out the tiny replica stained 'glass' windows. Right: Obsolete, vandalized computer equipment.

Page authored 18 January 2007.
Last updated 23 November 2007.
Written by Serhii Chrucky.
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