A century ago, most of America’s paint and dye came from Buffalo, and Schoellkopf’s near monopoly on the business. Aniline dyes, the most common colors at the time, put the blue into blue jeans, blue pens, blueprints, and just about anything else blue, and the purple into carbon-copies and grape kool-aid. However, competition from overseas and water pollution from the chemical processes required to create aniline, brought the company to a grinding halt in 1978, and despite attempts to expand into food coloring and other organic chemical production, the last workers went home in 2003. The vast majority of the toxic site met the wrecking ball gradually as the company contracted, leaving only the central offices (imploded in 2008) and this power plant (still standing), surrounded by an enormous, fenced-off brownfield.
It’s alive! AAAALLLLLIIIIIIIVVVVEEEE!!!!!11!!1!1
