Skylights

In this old repair shop, vines fall from the rotting roof to meet mossy concrete. Even though it had been dry for days, water dripped in from the roof to make permanent puddles between workstations. It was full of color and sound and industry and nature.

The tunnels were full of bricked-up doorways. I wonder how many rooms under there are totally sealed from the outside world…

The approach to the dock is rigidly geometric. I always thought its outline was beautiful against the lake that, by contrast, was always moving.

In the nurses’ dormitories, beds, couches and chairs still sit. It’s unclear whether these are remnants of the homeless shelter in the 80s or the actual nurses.

The roof had structures bigger than most buildings in South Bend.

A nice view of the aurora borealis (“Northern Lights”) strong enough to outshine the industrial lighting at the power plant. The lights in the foreground direct ships discharging coal for the station.

The machine shop today.

Standing where Globe (later, Whitney Bros) Shipyards one did, and observing the red-to-yellow brickwork transition. Like a mullet, it’s all business in the front.

The stock house tanks were long scrapped for their steel, but what remains gives a sense of what it looked like.