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| Former National Lead site on June 19th, 2025 |
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| Former National Lead Company on June 4th, 1998 Credit: John Smatlak |
Address: 18th & Peoria/900 W 18th St
Built: ~1900-1923
Demolished: 2007
Currently: Being redeveloped into apartments
History
Lead smelting had occurred at this site in Pilsen since approximately 1886-1891, when it was first occupied by the Southern White Lead Works, who appear to have later merged into the National Lead Company, the name most commonly tied to the site. National Lead began building at the site in 1900, filing permits for an assortment of 1-3 story brick industrial buildings, culminating in a $95,000 1907 purchase of 25 homes and lots to give them full ownership of the block. With this new land secured, they continued building until 1913, with facilities including offices, a laboratory, a powerhouse, and warehouses. Things go pretty quiet after this, aside from one more building permit filed in 1923. The site plugs along as a factory does, only appearing in job postings and similar formalities.
A report prepared for the EPA claims that lead smelting operations ceased in approximately 1981, and by the mid 1980s job postings referred to the fantastically generic Tool & Engineering Company at this address, a division of NL Industries later sold off to Farley Industries. They themselves taper off right at the turn of the century- considering most of my information on them comes from a 1992 bankruptcy court document, I can’t imagine they were doing very well financially.
The site lay dormant for a short time, though it’s exact demolition date is unclear. Some captions for photos of the building refer to it catching fire and later being demolished in “approximately 2007”, and certainly the entire block vanishes into dirt when flipping between 2005 and 2007 aerial photography. I can’t find any sources harder than that, but at the end of the day a motley collection of low/mid-rise industrial buildings catching fire and being demolished isn’t particularly newsworthy, so it could very well be what happened.
Now, I did casually mention an EPA report up there, and I’m sure you’re not surprised to learn that a one hundred year old lead smelting plant dumped a notable amount of lead into the ground. As part of larger lead testing in Pilsen, 67 cores were dug at the former National Lead site in 2000-2001, several of which tested at over 400mg/kg* of lead in the soil. This was initially handled pretty quietly- the site was enrolled in an Illinois EPA site remediation program, 2,130 tons of soil were excavated and removed from the site, and in September 2002 it was given an NFR (“No Further Remediation”) letter, indicating it was now within safe limits. However, a followup in late 2007 brought issues back up- as we know, the entire site was demolished and cleared in 2007, and any contaminated soils considered contained underneath concrete were now laying around in big loose piles of dirt and gravel.
The report I have doesn’t go into detail on what happens next, but notes that site remediation had restarted, and that the current owner had plans for redevelopment. Of course, as with any real estate development just about to start in 2007, the 2008 financial crash quietly put an end to whatever plans were in motion. The site’s current saga began in 2013, when Property Markets Group approached Alderman Daniel Solis about their plans for a large residential development on the site, then owned by the Midwest Jesuits. PMG and Solis came to an impasse over the number of affordable units to be included in the development, but PMG soldiered on regardless until 2016, when Solis succeeded in downzoning the property back to industrial in order to stonewall them. Despite this, PMG purchased the property outright in 2017 and launched a lawsuit against the city the next year, alleging the downzoning was illegal and unconstitutional.
This slowly ground it’s way through the courts and in 2022, as part of a settlement with Property Markets Group, the City of Chicago purchased the entire property for $12 million. Current plans call for 432 housing units, split between high and mid rise buildings, 2 and 3 flats, and townhomes, with a “majority” being affordable. These units are spread across 6.3 acres, comprising the site of the National Lead Company buildings between Sangamon and Peoria, the former parking lots between Peoria and Newberry, and a smaller slice of land to the west comprising the former CB&Q Sangamon Branch right of way, and a small lot used by a truck driving school. As of February 2024, city contractors have begun a final remediation of lead and hydrocarbon contamination, and aside from a fresh sprinkling of grass and woody shrubs, that is where the site remains today.
More photos of the site's current condition can be seen here
Bonus: The CB&Q 'Sangamon Branch'
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| Embankment wall for the CB&Q 'Sangamon Branch' as it descends to street level |
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| Remaining bridge abutments on either side of 16th St |
Immediately next door to the former National Lead Company site is an abandoned Chicago Burlington & Quincy (now BNSF) right of way, which once held a branch line varyingly referred to as the Sangamon Branch, or as just an unnamed part of the larger Lumber District. This branch peels off the BNSF mainline, crossed 16th St on a small curved bridge, and glides down to street level alongside the National Lead Company site, continuing south to Cermak Rd where it would have split out into several individual sidings to serve industries, and reconnect with the main “Lumber District” spur to the west. When this line last saw service is unknown, but based off Streetview imagery it was formally taken out of service in 2012 with the removal of crossing signals, and track south of 18th St was removed in 2016.The rails between 18th St and the BNSF mainline were pulled up two years later in 2018, and finally the derelict bridge carrying the track over 16th St was removed in 2024.
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| Former right of way visible alongside Sangamon St |
At this time, the only physical remnants left are the grade & embankment carrying the tracks down to street level (soon to be flattened with the redevelopment of the National Lead site), and a series of skinny empty lots on the east side of Sangamon St. South of Sangamon St, the right of way has been transformed into the El Paseo Community Garden, and further south of there, the last remnants can be seen in the awkwardly shaped, roughly triangular shaped set of lots between 21st and Cermak. The Lumber District as a whole was once a large, sprawling spider web of spurs, mostly along Cermak, but today the line only serves two customers- Domino Sugar (2905 S Western Ave) and Sims Metal (2500 S Paulina St), terminating immediately east of there on the other side of Paulina.
Bonus^2 : Chicago Surface Lines
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| A Chicago Surface Lines trolley passes the National Lead Company, ~1940s Credit: Central Electric Railfans Association (CERA) and John Smatlak |
Like many streets in Chicago, a streetcar once ran down 18th St; this 1940s photo posted by John Smatlak and attributed to the archives of CERA shows a trolley passing in front of the National Lead Company building, showing it while it was still operating. Today, CTA bus route #18 runs past the site, with bus stops at 18th & Sangamon in both directions
FURTHER READING ON THE LUMBER DISTRICT & THE RAILWAYS OF PILSEN
The Forgotten Railways of Chicago: Pilsen in Forgotten Lands, Places, and Transit
Blue Island Lumber District in Chicagology
SEE ALSO
18th & Peoria Development on the 25th Ward’s website
- We demand 100% Affordable Housing at 18th and Peoria from Pilsen Alliance
- Dutch Boy Paint (a major product of the National Lead Company) on Wikipedia
SOURCES
- A full list of sources can be found here, but I would like to give a special thanks to Block Club Chicago, dnainfo, Crain's Chicago Business, Archive.org, and the Newspapers.com archives of The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Inter-Ocean
- and Midwest Antiquarian (@Eric_Erins) who's posts finally got me to make this blog
*which was the standard at the time, recently lowered to 100-200mg/kg
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