Elvis Has Left the Building
I've gone back and forth with myself on whether or not I should post about this place. My main concern is that posting exterior photos of buildings full of scrap metal would lead the less savory characters to flock to the site. However, upon discovering that this site had reached the YouTube Shorts page, I decided I might as well get ahead of the incoming flood of tacky Instagram photos and make the post now.
Coming in at a whopping 280 square acres, the sheer size of this site gives other large locations on this blog, like the Crown Vantage Paper Mill, a run for their money. I stumbled upon this site by complete accident while attempting to scope out the nearby Trenton Channel Power Station. Deciding that Trenton Channel was likely a bust, I contacted fellow explorer Finlay Hamm and we decided to check out this place instead.
We visited this site sometime in early March, I believe during the first week because I had attended Autorama the day prior. I wanted to visit the site sooner rather than later because I hoped to photograph Trenton Channel before its stacks were imploded just a week or so later.
The overall facility consists of two separate "sides," both working practically independent of each other. The East side solely manufactured inorganic products (chemicals not based on complex carbon molecules), while the West side manufactured organic compounds.
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The west side before it was demolished.
The complex began on the west side when Monsanto started construction on a phosphate plant in 1937. Four years later, in 1941, Ed O’Neal, who would later become chairman of the board at Monsanto, began overseeing the construction and startup of the new facility. Despite supply chain disruptions caused by World War II and a particularly frigid winter, Ed O’Neal had the plant operating at full capacity by the end of 1942.
According to a former employee whom I interviewed, the west side produced no consumer products. Instead, it focused on industrial products centered around phosphorus, including ingredients for the manufacturing of toothpaste.
A 1995 report by the Securities and Exchange Commission states that the west side produced dental and industrial phosphates for products such as dentifrices, dish detergents, and water conditioners. The site also manufactured phosphoric acid, phosphorus pentasulfide, and phosphorus trichloride, which are used for metal treating, cleaning and etching, plant food fertilizers, and oil additives.
Around the same time as Monsanto was constructing the original phosphate plant, they were also collaborating with Shawinigan Resins of Canada on the manufacturing of Polyvinyl butyral resin. This collaboration led to the development of a new type of interlayer for laminated glass known as "Saflex.".
According to Saflex's website; "Saflex is a plasticized polyvinyl butyral film that bonds with glass under heat and pressure to form laminated safety glass. The Saflex interlayer sandwiched between the layers of glass is responsible for the enhanced performance properties of laminated glass. It is sold as refrigerated or interleaved rolls and is manufactured in a variety of formulations, colors, and thicknesses for use in laminated architectural, transportation and specialty glazings.".
Saflex was originally used exclusively for architectural purposes until 1951 when they developed a process to apply a gradient color band on the automotive interlayer. In 1956, construction was completed on the new east-side plant, which began producing resins for automotive Saflex in the early 1960s, along with its sister plant in Ghent, Belgium.
Inside the dryer.
Soon after production began at the Trenton site, Saflex introduced the "High Penetration Resistant" interlayer in 1965. This new design tripled the penetration resistance of Saflex windshields. Have you ever tried to break a windshield before? Unlike side or back windows, windshields don't shatter into a million tiny pieces when struck with something (or in the case of my car, sitting in my driveway apparently). The reason windshields retain their shape even when severely damaged is because of the interlayer. This prevents your windshield from turning into a claymore in the event of an accident, or in the case of people who don't wear seatbelts, it makes it easier for your family members to glue you back together.
In 1997, a divestiture by Monsanto led to the creation of Solutia Inc. Solutia specialized in the manufacture of polyvinyl butyral, ethylene vinyl acetate, and thermoplastic polyurethane. Shortly after its creation, Solutia assumed control over the Trenton site, continuing to manufacture Saflex as well as "Butvar" and "Gelva" resins.
The security booth, note the covid signage, this is the 4th place now that I've explored with covid signage. The others include Martin School, Wernert Elementary, and Outer Drive Hospital.
In 1998, Solutia decided to form a joint venture with FMC Corporation, another US-based chemical manufacturer, to create Astaris LLC. This joint venture assumed control over all of Solutia's organic compound production, including the west side of the Trenton plant.
In November of 2005, Astaris was bought out by Israel Chemicals Ltd, which showed no interest in continuing operations at the Trenton site. As a result, the site closed just months later. By mid-2006, the organics plant was mostly demolished. Today, the site has been partially redeveloped as the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.
In 2009, Saflex production was discontinued at the Trenton site, and the north half of the site was mothballed. It remains unclear if this portion of the site was ever used again and, if so, what it was used for. When we explored it, the Saflex building appeared to have been recently inhabited. However, much of the equipment left behind appeared to be related to the process of interlayer production.
This strange train-like device ran on electric rails down the hallway
Unfortunately, the Saflex building was extremely dark and difficult to photograph without my tripod or a large light. Some areas also had a concerningly sweet smell. We decided to err on the side of caution and not spend much time in those areas.
The cutting room was very difficult to photograph, my photo of the cutting machine came out super blurry so I cant use it.
This was probably the only room inside the Saflex plant with any sort of natural light.
The layoffs from the Saflex closure totaled around 115 of the 187 persons currently employed at the Trenton plant. Despite the closure, the plant would continue to make and supply Butvar to other sites producing the Saflex interlayer.
In 2012, Solutia was acquired by Eastman Chemical Company for $4.7 billion. Eastman was actually once a subsidiary of Kodak. Despite this acquisition, the only change the Trenton site experienced was a name change on one of the signs out front.
As time went on, the Trenton plant became more and more unreliable. In 2017, due to an environmental dispute with the Trenton Channel Power Station, the site's sole provider of steam, the facility was forced to truck in portable steam generators until the issue was resolved. The plant was now operating with a skeleton crew of only about 80 people.
Finally, in 2020, it was announced that the Trenton facility would close its doors for good. Eastman stated the main reason for the closure was low demand and financial difficulties caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Another cited reason was the aforementioned cost of operating portable steam generators and the need to eventually find or construct a powerhouse on site as Trenton Channel was set to close in only two years.
Despite a planned closure date of 2020, the plant continued to operate until April 2021 due to an unexpected increase in resin demand. On May 2nd, 2021, production was fully halted, and on December 1st, all equipment at the Trenton plant went silent for the first time in 80 years, never to be turned back on.
The closure of the facility left roughly 80 people jobless and caused a noticeable decrease in taxable income for the city of Trenton. Since the early 2000s, Trenton has lost several key businesses, including McLouth Steel and the Trenton Channel Power Station.
In July of 2022, the property was purchased by the Commercial Development Company, which specializes in the redevelopment of Brownfield sites. Brownfield sites, if you are unfamiliar, are lands that are difficult to redevelop due to possible contaminants left behind by their former occupants; the Toledo DuPont plant and Moore Chrome are both examples of this. Plans were soon announced to liquidate all equipment onsite and demolish all remaining structures.
Due to my laziness and refusal to scout anything in person ahead of time, we entered this exploration quite unsure of what to expect. All Google Earth images showed some sort of vehicle present, with the exception of street view, so we figured it at least had some sort of security personnel or, at the very least, alarms.
To our surprise, we found there to be zero on-site security, and every door was unlocked. This made us partially relieved; however, we still had to keep our guard up, as Trenton cops do not take kindly to trespassing, and neighbors love to snitch.
The site was massive and took us all day to explore; we didn't even get to see everything before it was time to head home. Before we left, we decided to climb the recovery structure to get a good overview of the site.
The recovery structure distilled waste streams from Butvar production to recover Ethyl Acetate as a by-product, which was then sold off.
The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge where the warehouse for the organics side used to be.
It doesn't appear that CDC has made much progress on gutting or demolishing the site in recent months. I am unsure if or when they will resume, but honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't been ripped to shreds by scrappers yet. I guess the scrap prices must be low. I remember before it was demolished, the old Riverside Osteopathic Hospital had issues with scrappers constantly getting arrested there.
Photo by Finlay.
Mutagen Out.
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