Steel Was a Major Industry

057, originally uploaded by Ptah21.

From Mick Melvin:

The buildings of the American Steel and Aluminum Corp. in Hartford, CT caught my eye as I drove home from work one day. The buildings cover a couple of blocks in Hartford on Homestead Avenue. There is a building that looks to have housed the executive offices and a couple of buildings for the steel and aluminum that ASAC distributed. It is in a depressed section of Hartford. This part of town has lots of older houses and stores with flashing neon signs. Most streets are strewn with trash, broken glass and plenty of potholes. The ASAC is not the only abandoned business in the area, but it interested me because it covered so much space. The place has been out of business for about 2 years, even though it looks like longer. Weeds have taken over the parking areas, trash covers a lot of the site and kids have taken plenty of shots at the many windows of the buildings.



What really caught my eye and drew me to these buildings is the fact that steel was a major industry in this country. I didn’t notice that it was a steel company until I was stuck in traffic one day. I first saw the for sale sign of the main building. I then saw the sign for the company that had inhabited the site. It got me thinking about our troubles as a country right now and made me think about all the families that thrived during the time these buildings were at full capacity.

When I did finally go back to take the pictures, I could almost hear the people and machinery. Most people probably drive by places like this and don’t take a good look. The only people in the area were just passing through, like I usually do from work. It’s the backside of America we usually close our eyes to and just go back and forth to work blindly.

Abandonded, originally uploaded by Ptah21.