The Coke Plant: Beauty in Decay
The definition of ruin (noun): the remains of a building, typically an old one, that has suffered significant damage or disintegration.
If there’s any industrial site that challenges this definition, it’s the hauntingly beautiful remains of Anyox’s Coke Ovens.
The plant’s origins trace back to 1917, with construction beginning the following year in 1918. Thirty ovens were painstakingly hand-laid by skilled bricklayers from Chicago, experts in intricate industrial masonry.
Coal was burned with gas to create coke — a critical material for the steel-making industry. The byproducts of the process included gas, tar, ammonia, liquor, and benzol. When the plant was completed, operations were almost entirely automated, requiring minimal staff. At the time of its launch, it was the most advanced facility of its kind in North America, with a price tag exceeding $2,000,000.
The coke ovens remain an absolute work of industrial art. Ruins? Perhaps. But to those who visit, the faded remnants hold a timeless beauty that defies the word “ruin.”
