THE ARCHITECTURE WHICH DEFINES OUR LANDSCAPE IS A TANGIBLE PART OF OUR COLLECTIVE HISTORY. WHEN HISTORIC STRUCTURES ARE DEMOLISHED, A PART OF OURSELVES IS RELEGATED TO MEMORY AND CONDEMNED TO BE FORGOTTEN. IN THE REDISCOVERY OF OUR ABANDONED, OFF-LIMITS, OR OTHERWISE HIDDEN ENVIRONMENTS, I DOCUMENT THEIR EXISTENCE AS WELL AS OUR OWN THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE ADVENTURES PRESENTED HERE
The Carter Carburetor Corporation of Saint Louis was built in the 1920's and operated here until 1984.
The company was founded by William Carter, a bicycle shop owner who experimented with automotive carburetors. He soon sold the company to the American Car and Foundry company (ACF), which had been instrumental in the earliest refrigerated railcars (utilized by Anheuser Busch and Armour & Co) and whose Berwick plant built the first ever all-steel passenger locomotive car.
Saint Louis' Carter Carburetor plant manufactured carburetors for gasoline as well as diesel engines. Carter Produced the first Four-Barrel carburetor in America, which was among the most popular carburetor type. It was used on many brands of cars and was especially suited for high power engines. Carter even produced their competitor's products (the Rochester Quadrajet) when the demand was high enough. Other notable carburetors produced here were those made for the Willys Jeeps. These modified carburetors were waterproof and the Y-S model was capable of keeping the engine running even at steep inclines.
The rise of fuel injection meant the downfall of the carburetor in automobiles and in 1984, the plant closed. It is currently an EPA superfund site due to PCB and other contaminations, the cleanup of which is estimated to cost $30 million.
This blog is dedicated to the pursuit of adventure and features urban exploration in Saint Louis, Missouri and beyond.
1. With the exception of historical photos, all of the photographs here are copyrighted and not to be used for any purpose without my consent. The historical imagery is courtesy of the Historical Society or as otherwise noted.
2. "Don't try this at home." I absolutely will not be held responsible for anyone else's stupidity. I do not recommend anyone try visiting any of these locations. Sometimes I am granted access to the things you see here and attempting to follow in my footsteps may get you arrested, hurt or killed.
3. I do not condone or tolerate: vandalism, theft, littering or any other disrespectful activity in any of these locations. I have the utmost respect for the history of these locations and for the history of my city, Saint Louis. "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints."
4. Do not ask me for (or post) specific location information. If identifying information is not provided in the post, there's usually a good reason for that. Any information will be provided either at the time of posting, or updated years later, at my discretion.
5. Any reference to "I/me, we/us" anywhere on this blog is probably just a metaphor. Metaphors are oten employed to simplify complex technical details when storytelling. As such, they can never be considered as admission, nor proof, of guilt; They do not provide sufficient evidence as to who (or what) actually took any of the photos shown here. I/we may or may not actually exist.
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