What neighborhoods have the abandoned warehouses? (Chicago, Cicero: 2013, suburbs, title)

[dlong1991]

Theres a nice row of old warehouses along Western Ave between Roosevelt Rd and 18th Street. Extends west to the Marshall Blvd area, and it is safer than K-town.

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by hat_man

Thanks for the info. Those are a little too far south for the story to be plausible. What is the Lower West Side like? Or possibly the Near West Side? Any chance of the type of area I'm looking for being in either of these? Possibly North or South Lawndale. Traveling there is just not an option at this point even though I know it would really help.

There is an industrial corridor that runs in between Pilsen (Lower West Side) and Bridgeport/McKinley Park along the South Branch of the Chicago River, just north of and parallel to I-55, more-or-less from Halsted to Western.

There is also a rail yard lined with old warehouses (the majority of which I would guess are abandoned, though definitely not all are) in between McKinley Park and Back of The Yards, along Pershing between Ashland and Western. It's South Side, but not far south like the places others are mentioning.

[hat_man]

Vlajos and jwaiter...I did try Google. And Bing and Alta-Vista and even crawlers like Dogpile. The information you find there are mainly real estate sites and urban re-development sites that talk about how much nicer the places are now and how they have been "brought back to life" and are now becoming better places to live. Not the information I am looking for. This is a short piece of fiction and on a deadline. If I were writing a book or even a novel then I would have taken the time to sift through the hundreds and hundreds of hits brought back by numerous searches using many key words and phrases. I have lurked this site for many years and very often use the information in these forum for settings for my stories. Most of the folks here are helpful and the information is usually spot on and transparent enough the you can get a feel for an area from folks who "tell it like it is". Your sarcasm is not appreciated.

To EVERYONE else that has offered information...Thank you. Especially the folks who added addresses. This allows me to use Google Maps (yes vlojos and jwaiter I do "give it a whirl" sometimes) in Satellite Mode and try and "see" what an area is like. It also helps with telling the story by giving me directions and distances that are realistic. I'll be pulling up the GM satellite images of of the areas listed by nearnorth and dlong1991 and checking out the link from nana053 this morning.

Again thank you to everyone that has helped. Folks like you are the reason I keep coming back here.

[emathias]

I second the warehouses on Pershing along McKinley Park, they probably fit what you want well even though they aren't technically "abandoned," just under utilized. Another good location would be Cermak where it crosses the river, around the intersection with Lumber Street.

Murders in K-Town are nearly always drug-related, as it is basically one of the biggest heroin markets in North America, which is why it's so violent at times. I don't know how many warehouses are there, though.

Even Bridgeport, along 35th west of Halsted, has several warehouses or warehouse-type buildings that could fit the bill. In general, anywhere with freight railroad lines is going to have warehouses along it at various points.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Leo ( The Lip) Durocher, who coined the phrase "Nice guys finish last"....

He was a Chicago Cubs' manager. So I guess he'd know!

Back to topic -- I know there are some in South Lawndale just east of Cicero along the BNSF line.

[Pantless1]

I second Roseland and Pullman... back when I was a reckless teen in the 90s they'd have rave parties in those abandoned warehouses... I'm sure they are still there.

[ChicagoMeO]

Heres a few suggestions -

Madison Street west of the United Center (or whatever it is called now).

95th Street, near the Calumet Fisheries fish shack restaurant.

Anywhere near the Steel Mills along where Whiting, Indiana is, in fact take a ride on the Skyway and theres LOTS of cool industrial stuff there.

Also on Halsted - by Goose Island? theres a little canal there, boats, it looks cool/industrial.

Also take Canal Street south of the loop, go over to Taylor Street, now, you see the Michael's Craft store,well you can go in their parking lot 1 block east of Canal and when you go down that little street leading to the parking lot (its in back of those stores), you will get a fabulous view of the train tracks that lead out of Union Station, in fact you can go over to Wells and catch a pretty cool view too.

[rparz]

No one mentions the west loop / meat packing district? Down Lake Street from Halsted til about Ashland? I used to go to warehouse parties all the time and the local residents always complained.

Also around Hubbard and Paulina.


Sketchy enough to party is usually sketchy enough for a murder.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by rparz

No one mentions the west loop / meat packing district? Down Lake Street from Halsted til about Ashland? I used to go to warehouse parties all the time and the local residents always complained.

Also around Hubbard and Paulina.


Sketchy enough to party is usually sketchy enough for a murder.

Good point, you can go at least to Western along Lake and it's filled with warehouses. People rent them out for parties all the time.

[hat_man]

Thank you all again for the advice. I think I am going to use an area on North Morgan street between Fulton and Carroll streets. It looks pretty abandoned but still having people around at all hours. I know there is an AmeriGas LP station of some sort there but the buildings just west of the tanks look like the type of area I am looking for. Unless anyone has any better ideas or thinks this isn't the right type of area I'll use it. Does anyone have any idea which police precinct would cover this area? Finding that information has proved harder than I thought.