Playing Hooky

Two posts in one day?! I am procrastinating college work like an absolute machine. In fact I have just learned that my hard work has paid off, I've been accepted into the academy of business and technology!

This news is so exciting I think I will head over now! 

I'm here where is everyone?

Well shit, guess I spent so much time writing these blog posts that I missed the tiny window that the academy of business and technology lasted for. If by some miracle you know what this place is you might be thinking, Isn't the academy of business and technology the name of an elementary school? And too that I say not a very good one. 

"The Academy of Business and Technology" (Formerly known as St. Teresa) Was originally constructed in 1925 as a Catholic elementary school.

St. Teresa sometime in the 1900s.

There really isn't much info about this place online so the following timeline is my best guess.

In 1990 St. Teresa merged with St Ann to become St Martin De porres, I am not sure if this building was used for "St Martin De porres" or a different one but in 1997 The building (?) was sold to the covenant community development corp for $100,000

In 1999 the school had a major overhaul leaving all aspects of religion behind and transforming the school into a Profit Charter School under the name, you guessed it, "The Academy of Business and Technology"-What a stupid fucking name for an elementary school.

One might think a freshly renovated for profit private school is set for years. However you couldn't be more wrong. Prepare yourself for the list of notable events and funny moments for the 7 pitiful years the school lasted for:

• 2000 School Accidentally Hires convicted felon as teacher

• 2003 School fails ratings most students are behind grade level principal "Jhon Tinchr" denies wrongdoing

• 2003 $20,057 in budget cuts ($121 per student)

• 2004 First mention of two buildings operating

• 2004 Former St ter has 165 students k-3

• 2005-2006 School incurs $293,074 in management fees, and $268,268 in overhead costs (Employees did not receive any raises)

• 2006 cars are still in parking lot (2005-2006 school year)

• (St. Teresa closed in 2006 due to severe budget cuts(?))

• March 2006 Toledo Authorizer of Charter schools gives 1 year extensions to the school

• no cars during 2006-2007 school year

• 2007 Charter Operating with $328,000 shortfall, No licensed financial officer 

• Boarded up in 2008

• Other building closes in 2011 

• Transfered to a holding company 2022

If you insist.

The availability of staff in the office reminds me a lot of my middle school.

This is the first place we hit on my "Toledo super trip" which turned out to be a total failure as I got extremely sick after exploring here and went home. 

I wonder if they still teach kids how to tell time.

It was a little annoying getting inside, I had to slip under a loose board on the window of a door while being watched by everyone and their brother.

I am guessing not too many people have been inside here considering every surface of the building is not covered in Instagram handles and dicks. It does appear that someone took the artistic liberty of throwing every single bottle of paint they could find at the walls.

They say art is in the eye of the beholder, I think this person might have been blind.

I'm not reading all of that.

They seemed to have left everything behind besides the desks and chairs for some reason.

For some reason all the computers from the lab upstairs were down here.

Heading to the basement.

Pitiful cafeteria.

After breathing in enough asbestos to kill an elephant we headed to the top floor.

The computer lab.

It's amazing to me something like this can last for 17 years.

Government propaganda.

 

A map of the swamp lands and its inhabitants.

That is a lot of books.

Crunchy roof access.

We could hear some people conversating outside, literally just random people.

Unfortunately after leaving I got very dizzy and felt like shit so we had to cut our losses for the day.

Anyways enjoy the double post!

Mutagen out.

 

Forging Ahead

Post rewritten in 2024

This is actually the first new post of the new blog! If you still are not sure why I switched you can read about that here. I still haven't finished moving everything over but I want to make something new for once. 

Jackson Michigan's Lefere Forge has been a longtime landmark in the industrial district of the city. The towering narrow green and white building with its single stack is a stark contrast to the grey boxes that surround it. The forge had been operating in Jackson for 89 consecutive years when it closed.

Had it not been for the work of Riley Dudek, a descendant of Alidor Lefere, many of this information would have been lost to time, the majority of the following information has been paraphrased from her two articles which I have linked down below and encourage you to read for yourself.

The founder of the Lefere Forge, Alidor Lefere originally immigrated to the United States from Hooglede Belgium in 1905. At the time Belgium was experiencing a major economic decline which drove many of it's citizens to seek new opportunities in America. 

After working many different odd jobs, Alidor Lefere would partner with "Mr Wilkins" another mechanic, to found the Riverside Forge and Machine Shop in Jackson. At the time Jackson was the 8th largest city in Michigan.

Their small shop would specialize in turret and automatic lathe work. Due to the small but dedicated staff the Riverside Forge and Machine Shop had an excellent work pace with little to no overhead costs.

In 1929 the Riverside Forge and Machine Shop was sold off. In the same year Alidor Lefere begun the ground work on what would become the Lefere Forge. Despite the country entering the Great Depression, Alidor constructed five buildings which made up the Lefere Forge.

The Lefere forge started off hammer forging truck hubs and gear blanks. Alidor wouldn't let another economic depression stop his dream and throughout the Great Depression the Lefere Forge forged onwards eventually landing a contract with the Ford Motor Company. Riley commented on this stating "It is pretty incredible that an immigrant who had been in the country for less than thirty years and started out making ten cents an hour had landed a contract with the company who started the assembly line.". 

It appears someone can't read.

Alidor would spend the rest of his life working tirelessly to grow the company more and more. A large number of people working at the forge were family members of Alidor. Another excerpt from Riley's project where her grandmother recounts life in the forge growing up reads as following; “The only time we went down to the actual shop, to see all of the hammers and to hear the sound of all the banging hammers was awesome, and it’s too bad Riley that you can’t get that in your project, but to hear the sound of the hammers in the loud, working shop where everyone was doing their jobs very professionally with fire and steel and watching it all move down the line as each section of guys did their jobs was amazing.”.

According to their own website "Alidor Lefere invented process flow and handling techniques, with forgings from production cells traveling a series of conveyors until cool." Alidor also patented the process of putting "reverse draft" on heavy truck wheel hubs in 1932. This technique allowed the Lefere Forge to capture 98% of the hub manufacturing industry. Some of their clients included: Dayton-Walther, Kelsey Hayes, Motor Wheel, and Rockwell International. Rockwell International is the company that produced the B-1B Lancer (My favorite aircraft) as well as the Space Shuttle.

Lefere Forge's two gantry cranes were built in Detroit at the Northern Engineering Works sadly this place was demolished when I was still in my infant stages of urbex so I never had the opportunity to visit it.

 In 1959 Alidor Lefere would pass away at the age of 73 years old. However thanks to his hard work and dedication throughout his lifetime he left his family with great financial success. After his death the Lefere Family would continue to operate the Forge into the 21st Century.

In 2017 their website stated they specialized in "Hubs, Spindles, Body Forgings, Differential Cases, Flange Yokes, Wing Yokes, Gears, Adapters, Companion Flanges, Flanges, Valves, and Wheels.". Forged metal is often used in industries where a part CANNOT fail under any circumstances. Because welds are often weak points in metals parts, things like; aircraft, missiles, and engines are typically made of forged metal. 

In the early 90s the forge would greatly diversify their clients, going from only 10 clients to over 100. This move likely saved them from drowning with the rest of the industry during the recession. The Lefere legacy how now survived the Belgian recession, The Great Depression, and the 2008 Recession.

During the early 2000s the Lefere Forge would introduce CNC machines into their operation allowing them to produce non-symmetrical parts much easier than before. In 2009 the forge became ISO 9001:2008 certified allowing their Pressure Vessel forgings into the European market.

Unfortunately in 2018 the Forge would close for good. The closure came as a shock for many, including the employees of the forge. In an email to the employees of the plant the president stated "The last several years have been challenging financially, and a continuing labor shortage has not allowed us to operate the plant efficiently".

I somehow managed to pick the hottest day of the year to visit the forge. As I did my initial slow cruise past the plant to quickly scope it out I was disappointed to see workers actively gutting the forge. Not wanting to turn back after making a rather long drive I decided to make a hail Mary attempt at gaining access to the forge.

Parking in the lot with the employees, I confidently strutted up to them and gave them some bullshit excuse. I honestly don't remember exactly what I said but I was left undisturbed to roam the forge. Looking back on it I really wish I brought my Nikon. I shot many of these older posts on my iPhone because I assumed my Nikon camera sucked for low light. (It does but its better than my phone for a lot of things).

While I was exploring the workers were busy filling dumpsters with scrap metal and other debris. I'm still not 100% sure if they were scrappers or workers but I doubt that they were scrappers considering they had keys to the forge.

I originally wanted to climb the gantry crane and attempt to operate it however the heat and lack of water was starting to get to me. It was probably over 100°F inside some of the buildings. After a short cruise around the buildings I headed for home.

The powerhouse was my favorite part, I wish I had hung around longer here.

As of 2024 there are currently no plans for the site.

Mutagen Out!

Sources:

https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2018/11/lefere_forge_plant_closing_its.html

https://medium.com/@rileyedudek/forging-their-way-through-america-bd400fa27b5b

https://medium.com/@rileyedudek/the-lefere-forge-7206190e2b78

https://www.forgings.bz/lefere-forge/

https://web.archive.org/web/20080509165213/http://www.lefereforge.com/about.htm

 

Bookworm

Post rewritten in 2024

Attending church and being in a library at the same time? This is probably what Boomers imagine to be the perfect torture chamber for a Gen Zer. This time around I am writing this post for the 3rd time. The 1st post was on my old and now defunct website and the original version of this post sucked. The current date of writing this post is 04/11/2024.

The exterior of the church on Google Street View.

Tucked away in Toledo's Old West End is the overgrown remains of a cathedral. This building started its life in September of 1908 as Epworth Methodist Church. The original building featured only a single auditorium, Sunday School rooms, a kitchen and a dining room.

A sketch of the original church. (Image source here)

In 1922 the building underwent massive upgrades too add a sanctuary and other new facilities.

 

Floorplan of the new Church.

The church would continue routine operations until September 7th, 1958 when an arson attack against the church would leave the building a smoldering ruin. "We have lost a building so beautiful that in its ruins it lays a spell upon our hearts-and in our loss we have found a church that no vandal can destroy", This is how the church's reverend started his sermon the Sunday following the destruction of the church.  

Following the loss of the building the church began holding sermons and Sunday school at the now demolished DeVeaux School on Sylvania Ave. Eventually the churched settled down at a building on Valleyview and Central, where they still operate to this day.

As for the remains of the original cathedral, the building was purchased by the Mary Manse College in 1960 who renovated it into a state of the art library. The new facility featured a 154 seat auditorium, reading and studying lounges, and over 52,000 books. It even had a room dedicated to JFK.

The library conversion costed roughly $6,592,636 in todays money and took 7 years to complete. The college made an interesting choice by integrating the old style Gothic architecture with 1960s Modernist architecture. Sister Virginia Marie described the newly constructed library as "One of Toledo's showplaces". However, during these renovations the college made a grave mistake, the former peaked roof was converted to a flat roof. This choice would lead to disastrous consequences down the line.

Regrettably at this point I was still using my iPhone 7 as my main camera for exploring. 

Mary Manse College had been operating in Toledo since 1922 as a Catholic college. Ran by the Ursuline Order of nuns, the college offered degrees in arts, sciences, music, medical, and nursing education. The college was primarily a girls only college until it became coeducational in 1971.

By the 1970s the college was struggling severely with finance, resulting in its bankruptcy and eventual closure in 1975. Today most of the buildings of the former college are being utilized by the Collingwood Arts Center. Before coming here me and my friend goofed off in an old nun school on the campus for a bit before making our way over.

Funnily enough the Academy of Business & Tech (The same people that ran St Teresa into the ground) operated a school on the campus as well until it was shuttered with those signature red boards at an unknown date. Sadly we couldn't find any weak spots in that building.

The library would sit vacant until 1991 when Prayer Tower Church of God purchased the site for around $123,798 in todays money. The church (A small congregation), only ever utilized the 1st floor and basement of the building leaving the 2nd and 3rd floor in its library form still.

In 2003 the city of Toledo deemed the church a "public nuisance", the reason was never expressly stated. Assumedly pre recession Toledo was getting a bit cocky about their beautiful and historic Old West End, blissfully unware that the impending housing crisis was going to turn the entire area into a public nuisance. 

In 2005 Prayer Tower and the building shuttered for unknown reasons. Over the years other variations of the former Prayer Tower Church have formed and still operate to this day. In 2006, during a high point in scrap metal prices, the building was hit by a wave of scrapping in which scrappers tore copper pipping, tubing, and air conditioner units from the building. 

Despite the building being re-sealed afterwards the building quickly became infested with water which caused severe decay over the following years. I personally feel the building's flat roof is more to blame for this than the scrappers. Changing a peaked roof building to a flat roof is a terrible idea for longevity, buildings with flat roofs will almost always decay faster than peaked roof buildings, as once the gutters jam up these buildings are basically sentenced to death.

After another scrapping spree in 2008, the building was never resealed allowing for those curious to wander as they please through the soggy decaying wreck that was once a grand cathedral and modern library. I stopped here briefly sometime around 2015 when I was still exploring with family members. At that point you could simply walk in the front door. I don't have any useable photos besides exterior shots from that trip unfortunately.

My second visit to the library was in winter of 2022. I had finally gotten the brace off my ankle a week prior. I can say with experience that urbex with a broken ankle is difficult by still doable (It actually got us caught in an older post). When me and my friend arrived we were disappointed to find that the easy entrances of yesteryear had been boarded up. I assume the city did this in early 2022 when the property was forfeited to them. 

We ended up having to jump into the basement from a surface level window to get inside, all while being glared at by people from the neighboring apartments. I handed my friend my GoPro to record my leap of faith incase I re-broke my ankle again we would at least have a funny moment, unfortunately he forgot to start recording.

The building was a total mess, we could hear water dripping throughout the building and snow had accumulated on the ground in some areas. Everything inside the building was extremely brittle as well, simply touching walls or rebar would result in them turning to dust in your hand. I'm honestly surprised the building itself hasn't completely collapsed.

We nearly fell through the floor in several areas and my friend kept hitting his head on random things for some reason. We never ended up going to the 3rd floor of the building as I knew from my prior explore that it was completely empty, and the staircase we attempted to climb up started to break the second anyone put pressure on it, kind of like me!

We had a fun day checking this place out though, ignoring the cold winter temps obviously. The second floor still contained lots of books many of them dating back to the early 1900s. It's honestly a shame nobody ever came and picked through these books to see if any where of value to the Toledo Public Library.

In order to climb out we had to use a crunchy desk that allowed my friend to exit but broke when I attempted to use it. After a mad search I was able to locate a ladder behind a door. When I attempted to move the door to grab the ladder behind it, the door literally disintegrated. With my trusty ladder in hand I climbed out the basement window and onto the grass outside, not before loosing my pants because they got hooked on a piece of metal however. 

After putting my pants back on and enduring the laughter from my friend, we headed back to the car to drive home. At this point the both of us were tired, cold and exhausted. After this explore clothing was probably 1/2 clothing and 1/2 building debris.

Yikes

Before I redid this post it was one of my least favorite posts on my blog, at least now the improved text makes up for the crappy photos.

Mutagen Out!

Sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=UK1OAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=epworth+methodist+church&article_id=7644,4980918&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjkjdDi7bqFAxVUv4kEHap9BNcQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=epworth%20methodist%20church&f=false

https://www.epworth.com/about/our-history#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20Epworth%20United,now%20the%20Old%20West%20End).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Manse_College

https://books.google.com/books?id=mv1OAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA26&dq=mary+manse+college+library&article_id=7319,6063562&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiG5OW197qFAxVPhIkEHan7Ck4Q6AF6BAgJEAI#v=onepage&q=mary%20manse%20college%20library&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=o9QpAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=Prayer+Tower+Church+Of+God&article_id=1604,8091389&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqmaen_bqFAxWavokEHXFEBYQQ6AF6BAgHEAI#v=onepage&q=Prayer%20Tower%20Church%20Of%20God&f=false

https://tlcplarchitecture.omeka.net/items/show/32

https://mixerrreviews.blogspot.com/2019/03/holy-history-behind-prayer-tower-church.html

https://www.toledoblade.com/local/police-fire/2006/08/11/High-prices-for-metals-make-theft-lucrative/stories/200608110080