Industry

AK Steel Ashland Works

Located along the Ohio River in Ashland, Kentucky, this near-700-acre facility contains a coke plant, one blast furnace, a basic oxygen furnace, and other production facilities. Of interest is the abandoned blast furnace and hot strip, both of which was demolished after many years of disuse.

Alpha Portland Cement Company

Cement silos adorn this abandoned cement factory in Ironton, Ohio. Once producing quality cement for such projects for a major bridge project and providing foundations and roads for the area, it offered the residents of the nearby towns a chance for quality, high paying jobs.

American Can

Ault and Wiborg Company

The Ault & Wiborg Company on East 7th Street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio was constructed in 1930 on the western fringe of the central business district for the Queen City Printing Company. The 57,159 square-foot structure was home to multiple businesses and industries over the years, and was demolished in 2009. The company was a manufacturer of printing inks and dry color dyes and pigments that innovated the industry with coal-tar dyes.

Barboursville Brick

The Barboursville Clay Manufacturing Company was located in Barboursville, West Virginia, and operated from 1904 to 1979.

Buchanan Fuel Krypton Loadout

The Krypton Loadout is a small surface coal mining operation one mile west of Krypton, Kentucky. It is located along the CSX Eastern Kentucky Subdivision, formerly part of the Chesapeake & Ohio.

Buckeye Ordnance Works

The Buckeye Ordnance Works was in operation for only three brief years during World War II, and was later used in the production of agricultural products, bio-fuel, and various chemicals in South Point, Ohio.

Burned in Point Pleasant

Carlyle Labold Tile and Brick Company

Once providing plentiful jobs to an industrious region, the Carlyle Labold Tile and Brick Company in Coal Grove, Ohio provided hard ache for many who reside near it. Contaminated with ground chemicals and literally falling apart due to age and numerous fires, the property was demolished and has been remedied for future development.

Clyffside Brewing Company

Clyffside Brewing Company is a defunct brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. The brewery, which began in 1933 when Paul Esselborn, who was educated at the Royal Bavarian School of Brewing in Germany, organized the company in the former Mohawk Brewery structures on West McMicken Avenue. The company's signature selections included Felsenbrau beer and Old Hickory Ale that was "aged in the hills."

Coal Loading River Dock

Consolidated Grain

Closed in 1993, Consolidated Grain consisted of 40 silos that dominated the skyline in the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio for decades.

Crosley Building

The Crosley Radio Corporation, which was at one time the largest manufacturer of table-top radios in the United States, was based from Cincinnati, Ohio. Headed by Powel Crosley, Jr., he pioneered the ideal of affordable radios, appliances and other housewares.

Grain Distribution

This was once a grain distributor to the Norfolk-Western and Detroit Toledo and Ironton Railroads in Waverly, Ohio.

Hudepohl Brewing Company

Founded in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio in 1885, the Hudepohl Brewing Company relocated to its Queensgate location that was formerly home to Herman Leckman Brewing Company. Hudepohl vacated its Queensgate facility in 1987, and merged with the Schoenling Brewing Company, and relocated its manufacturing line to a location along Central Parkway. Vacant for more than 20 years, the ailing Queensgate location has drawn the ire of the city for its extensive deterioration, although active plans have the site being re-purposed into a mixed-use development.

Indiana Ammunitions Depot

The Indiana Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP), located just southeast of Charlestown, Indiana, was spurred by the passage of the first National Defense Appropriations Act.(10) Four days later, the Munitions Program was passed, in which the U.S. Ordinance Department sponsored private manufacturing corporations to design and produce ammunitions factories, producing smokeless gunpowder and other ordinances. The facility closed in 1992.

January and Wood Company

Once operating as a textile for nearly as long as the river town of Maysville, Kentucky has existed, the January and Wood Company closed its doors in 2003. Demolition began soon after, but was ordered stopped due to improper demolition techniques. It has since been fully demolished.

Kauffman Brewing Company

The John Kauffman Brewing Company is a defunct brewing operation at 1622 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was known for its "Gilt Edge," "Columbia," and "Old Lager" beers. It closed in 1919 when Prohibition was enacted, and Kauffman never reopened.

Kentucky calcite mines

Calcite mines were once in great numbers through central Kentucky, calcite used in the manufacture of gunpowder that was important during the Civil War. Calcium enriched water due to the abundance of limestone was vital and plentiful.

Lee Clay Products

Most of the structures have been restored, although there are a few that lay in disrepair or are abandoned. A railroad spur once stretched from the now-abandoned Morehead and North Fork line but has been abandoned since the 1970's.

Louisville Gas and Electric's Paddy's Run Power Plant

Louisville Varnish Company

Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant

Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant is an abandoned power generating facility in Marble Hill, Indiana. It was abandoned in 1984 after $2.7 billion was expended.

Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company

A multitude of structures litter this valley in the now-dead town of Superior, Ohio. Once a prosperious area boasting a hotel and a movie theatere, most of the town was abandoned in the 1960's.

New Boston Coke Corporation

Once employing nearly 5,000 during its height in the 1950s, its downhill slide occurred towards the 1970s because of intense foreign competition. Continued investment only drove the large steel mill further into bankruptcy and subsequent until its subsequent closure in 1980. By that time, it had only a fraction of the employees. The coke plant remained and became independent before being closed due to massive pollution emission violations.

Norfolk Southern - Coster Shop Rail Yard

Once a large rail shop facility for Norfolk Southern in Knoxville, Tennessee containing everything including a roundhouse, most of it has been demolished, leaving only a few scattered buildings to remain. The yard closed in 1998.

Ohio Edison Coal Power Plant

A massive coal-fired power plant in Toronto, Ohio that has been permanently 'mothballed'.

Old Crow Distillery

Old Crow Distillery, located south of Frankfort, Kentucky has its history traced back to the early 1800's. Once famous for producing Old Grand Dad, Bourbon DeLuxe, Sunny Brook among many others, it has been closed since 1987 as a result of a buy-out from competitor Jim Bean.

Old Taylor Distillery

Old Taylor Distillery is a defunct distillery located along Glenn's Creek south of Frankfort, Kentucky. Constructed by E.H. Taylor, Jr. in 1887, Old Taylor was known for a fine, quality product that was the first to produce one million cases of straight bourbon whiskey.

Olive Hill Fire Brick Company

Located within a very rich clay deposit, fire brick was produced for decades in Olive Hill, Kentucky that was shipped worldwide.

Pantasote Inc.

Located within the heavily polluted West Virginia Ordnance Works facility, this small manufacturer of resins had its own wealth of environmental problems.

Parker Tobacco Company

Parker Tobacco Company was tobacco redrying and threshing plant that became a large tobacco leaf purchasing, processing, marketing and commercial storage operation in Maysville, Kentucky.

Peter's Cartridge Company

Peter's Cartridge Company is a former smokeless ordnance and shot shell ammunition factory in Kings Mill, Ohio. Located along the Little Miami River, the 71-acre Peters Cardridge factory began production of ordnance in 1887, ending in 1944.

Pilgrim Glass Company

Closed in 2001, the Pilgrim Glass Company was located in Ceredo, West Virginia.

Plibricore Refractories

Located in the tiny community of Blackfork, Ohio, this once former brick factory begun its operations in the early-1900s.

Random Louisville Factory

Rockwell International

This very large industrial building in Winchester, Kentucky was once home to Rockwell International, which made truck axles. When it left 15 years ago, the building became abandoned and was only revived in the past two years by a recycling company and a truck driving school. Other parts are currently used for storage.

Schmidt Brothers Brewery

Schmidt Brothers Brewery is a defunct brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio, located at 135 and 138 East McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine. It was founded by Friedrich and Heinrich Schmidt and brewed what they referred to as the "common ale" of the city.

Schmulbach Brewery

Selby Shoe Company

The Selby Shoe Company opened a four-story factory along South Third Street in Ironton, Ohio in 1926. The facility was purchased in 1943 by the Wilson Athletic Goods Mfg. Co.

Soldier Brick Factory

Stamping Ground Distillery

Once a successful distillery for the town of Stamping Ground, Kentucky, the facility was abandoned when the company closed in the 1960s.

Stearns and Foster Company

Once the largest cotton consumer in the United States, this aged factory in Lockland, Ohio underwent new management and promptly began downsizing and eventually closed this location's doors for good in 2003.

Texaco Oil Refinery

The Portsmouth Brewing and Ice Company

The Portsmouth Brewing and Ice Company is a defunct brewery in Portsmouth, Ohio.

TW Samuels Distillery

Dating back to 1844, the TW Samuels Distillery in Deatsville, Kentucky produced the signature "T.W. Samuels" bottle and a four-year-old 90-proof label. The factory ceased productions during prohibition, but resumed afterwards, closing for good in 1952.