Rauland in Melrose Park, IL, a western suburb of chicago. It was located at 25th and North ave. The huge facility was recently demolished, around 2003 and is now a huge warehouse of an unknown company. Unfortunatly, I have no pictures of that plant. I plan on getting pictures of zeniths other plants very soon. There was one at 1500 N. Kostner in Chicago, and another at 4245 N. Knox, which belive it or not is next door to Independent Mechanical Industries Inc. which I who I work for. Literally just across the street is the admiral plant which still stands!

In my avatar is the picture of the distribution center in North Lake, IL which is just down the road from rauland (northlake is next town west of Melrose Park). the distribution center did exactly what its says, but was also a huge show room for every zenith product currently made. The old distribution center is now owned by "Tribune Direct".
That Zenith sign you see once lit up at night and was the coolest and brightest sign you could immagine. It was not neon, it is composed of all flood lights, basic edison base bulbs that just simply screw in. There must be hundreds of them and the perimeter of the sign was flood lights too. The sign still stands today but has not lit up since 1998 or so.

I used to make the air-core coils for the gold-videoguard tuners in the plant in Paris, IL, back in '74. I don't think the plant is till there (That's what they get for laying me off).

Rich P.

Rauland (the last location) was in Melrose Park, IL. I think I heard that the building had originally been a commercial bakery, which gave it the unobstructed floor space to change from cookie ovens to CRT ovens. Maybe someone else here knows the history?

I remember stopping in Springfield on vacation some years back, and visiting a cave. The cashier saw my Zenith jacket and chewed my ear a bit about Zenith shutting down the Springfield plant, putting her husband out of work. Another thing I found when I went to Zenith was that the brother of my former boss at Motorola worked for Zenith, I think at the Springfield plant.

Illumination (or lack of it) on Zenith Radio Corp. sign
 

Why is this sign no longer illuminated at night, and for that matter, how long has it been standing? My best guess (this is only a guess) as to why the lights aren't used now is that it is now much too expensive to operate the hundreds of floodlights, etc. of which it is made. The only other reason I can think of is the wiring, sockets, etc. are now so old (and it would be too expensive to repair) that it isn't safe to operate the lighting any longer.

BTW, as I write this I am listening to the Internet stream of radio station WRLL, Berwyn, Illinois, "Real Oldies" 1690. I like oldies, but the only oldies station on AM in greater Cleveland went to a news-talk format last year, and the only other so-called "oldies" station on FM in Cleveland plays only '60s-'70s records during the week. It has a program it calls "Jukebox Sunday Night" which is mostly '50s oldies, but unfortunately this program is broadcast only on Sunday evenings. I can't for the life of me imagine why the FM "oldies" station didn't pick up the AM's oldies format (which was modeled after the Top-40 format of CKLW radio in Windsor/Detroit in the '60s-'70s) when the latter dropped it. I guess the owners of the former oldies station in Willoughby, Ohio (east suburban Cleveland) figured they could make more money with their station carrying mostly satellite syndicated talk programming than to continue their live local oldies format (the latter was on the station for over a year). The AM station could have picked up a satellite feed of an oldies network, such as one of ABC's "Pure" satellite networks, if the station were the least bit interested in continuing as an oldies broadcaster. The programming wouldn't have been live/local anymore, but at least the station's image as an oldies station could have been preserved. Now the AM radio dial in greater Cleveland and northeastern Ohio is nothing but talk (and Radio Disney on 1260, plus a standards station in Akron, Ohio on 1590), but this is probably the case everywhere in America these days. A local station 20 miles south of here went silent last year after its latest format (Sporting News Radio sports talk) failed to generate the listener base the station's owner had hoped it would. Another problem that station had was that it was daytime only on 1560 and could not get authorization to operate low power at night (or the station could have gone to an exclusive Internet radio format as an oldies station, etc.), but that's another story.

If someone (whatever corp owns that sign) wanted to, they could replace the flood lights with either LEDs or fluorescent and reduce maintenance and power consumption. Granted, the temperature of the light (color) would change somewhat, but at least it would be lit up again. Doubt it will happen though, why would a company want to pay to advertise for someone else?

Anthony

Really enjoyed the pictures also the comments from old tv nut. Those would have to be some memories and I for one would love to hear more from you about your design work there.

So sad really what has happened to most all corporate manufacturing in America. Zenith was a great company in its day. Where will this all end? I think I read somewhere that the US is now being referred to as a declining super power. I think our best days here are probably over and I feel sorry for the next generation having to compete in the global marketplace.

I agree that old tv nut's stories are great-I'm glad this venue is here to share things like that.

I debated, last year, on whether or not to buy a 13" Zenith that was made in Springfield, it looked like about 1980 or so. Could have got it cheap, and it might still be there, but thats getting pretty new & I gotta draw the line somewhere!

Maybe someone could try & save the old Zenith sign, before a dozer gets it someday?

Nice to see an AKer nearby!!!
 

Sorry that Zenith died. Seems like American Industry is going to hell :thumbsdn: Really sucked. I would have preferred to see tarrifs on Korean stuff and to keep American Jobs. The Goldstar built dehumidifires built for us (SEARS) really suck!!! Ditto their refrigerators. Our buyer should be fired for dealing with Goldstar instead of Whirlpool or Maytag. Tell you what. I dont sell it. The salespeople that do have problems. Told you so!

You would not beleive the latest problem with these dehumidifiers. The water hose connector does not fit on the back of the unit. Instead of replacing the back plastic panel so the hose fit properly Goldstar broke the back panel where the hose goes to make it fit. :thumbsdn: God I hate that company.

Everthing we carry made by them SUCKS big time. I refuse to sell there stuff. Period.

Thanks for the memories!! Zenith was a good company! Our government needs to start protecting our industry. They dont have the BALLS to step in.
Sorry for the Vent :worried:

Eric

This Plant Brings back memories, as the plant & office faced the back of Amundsen Park which was one of the nicer areas in the City until around 1986 when the neigborhod changed.

I worked for a company that used LG industrial contactors.

20 - 30% DOA rate on most batches. owner bought them cause they were cheap and 'looked better than the Telemachaniques we used to use". Yerah, the Tele lasted a LOT longer and was a LOT better out of the box...

A few cow-orkers at my new gig have Hyundai's. I don't get why, the things are all barely new and falling apart. Oh yeah, they were cheap. Only thing that'll make Korean cars look good are Chinese ones (which I'm sure Walmart's gonna be selling any day now)....

Its been nearly 3 years since I visited the zenith plant to take pictures. I was in the area yesterday and decided to take more. I have a better camera now than I did back then.
Looks like the photos I originally posted are lost on AK. These are some of the latest photos I took.
What made this visit more interesting is the fact that I was able to look at part of the inside of the plant. Since the building was divided into businesses, walls were put up in various locations that were once open of course.

I was in and out quickly as I did not want to be seen. Expecially since one of the businesses was into granite couter tops, which is big money. I dont need anyone thinking I was in there to plan out a theft. Nobody would belive that I was interested in the building for what it once was.

In the pictures with the double doors with the signs above are when I first walked in. It looks like the building hasnt changed a bit since the 1940's. The signs were really neat to see, as well as the vintage fire alarm panels.

If you look at the photo of the main enterance at 6001 W Dickens, you can see on the wall what is an incomplete zenith AM/FM radio mounted to the wall to be used as a PA speaker. The knobs are not punched into the speaker cloth, just the tuning dial ring and the zenith logo are present!

The pictures taken through the windows look like orignal zenith office material. When I went into the building, stairways were locked up with those foldable security gates.

I think the best part is the fact that the "ZENITH" watertower is still there in nice shape!

I can see a typewriter on a desk in one of those office windows. How long has that plant been abandoned? It would be nice to get some experienced urban explorers in there to rescue those documents. That stuff should belong in an archive somewhere.

Thanks for the interesting pictures.

It looks like one of those X-box games where the playing field is an abandoned industrial park. I always wonder who changes the fluorescent lamps in those places? :scratch2: Same deal in that Zenith plant!

Someone contact the Abandoned-But-Not-Forgotten folks - they explore old sites like this and do a great, non-destructive photo essay. Their methods sometimes cross over into B&E, but only to photograph, never to steal or deface.

Doug - Thanks for the pictures and info. All these years a Zenith plant was one of those things I figured I'd never get to see.

Cheers

Quite a time capsule!