Hope Factory

Sitting on 1 full block of land in Essex County, NJ, there sits a giant mega building once known as Thomas Edison's battery factory. the West Orange redevelopment program took this building under eminent domain, and tried to take a few others on the street. Anyway, a brief history of the place:

Thomas Edison developed the Nickel-Iron (NiFe) battery in 1901, at his factory in West Orange, NJ. It was used as power in electric cars in the early days of automobiles. It was considered better than the older model, the Lead Acid battery. This model was so effective, it was in use until the 1940's. He mass produced these batteries at his plant until his death in 1931. The plant was then converted into a couple different stores, before abandonment in '08. The redevelopment tried to take it and convert it into condo's, but the plan fell through when they realized that they had no more money left. What i don't think the town cared to even think about was the fact that the area itself is probably a superfund site, due to the actually manufacturing of the batteries. I have included a couple pictures below:

Interesting, we were talking about this site on our last trip as places to check out.

Just a though: Probably not the best idea to advertise these locations on the public forum. Also let's start using pseudonyms, m'kay? Scrappers, cops, vandals, etc troll these forums for locations, why make it super easy for them (or even those of us with harmless intentions) to discover these locations.

First off insanebuslady, anyone who lives close enough to this building to go and harm it already knows where it is. It takes up a full block of land. Second off, anybody who is going just so they can destroy this building is going to have another thing coming when they try to get in the way we did. Third, there is really nothing to see in here, shown in the pictures below.

Also, Across the street there is a building that used to be a dog kennel. i used to take my dog here sometimes, when my family would go on vacation.

I saw the portable bathroom is this a sign that time is running out for this massive structure or just contractors doing some repairs.

no its getting renovated into townhouses. at least it was, but the renovators ran out of money in the budget, so now it is just sitting there

ANJ:
I was talking in general terms. Why make it so easy for just anyone to find these places you've worked so hard to discover/get into yourself? Don't forget that not everyone is local. If they really want to know they'll PM you and ask. I used to post location names, in hindsight it was a bad idea, places get trashed and burned. I'm not telling you what to do, think about it.

Ok once again with you "old number 7" pictures, i found out the location of that in one second. not saying i have mal intentions, but its not like you put it in morse code. Also, all other buildings on this site are listed under their real names. Sorry im dumb enough to post stuff under their real names, although i am smart enough to not explore buildings on locust ave in bloomfield. I dont care what you say THAT is a shithole area.

abandonednj wrote: Ok once again with you "old number 7" pictures, i found out the location of that in one second. not saying i have mal intentions, but its not like you put it in morse code. Also, all other buildings on this site are listed under their real names. Sorry im dumb enough to post stuff under their real names, although i am smart enough to not explore buildings on locust ave in bloomfield. I dont care what you say THAT is a shithole area.

I'm not calling you dumb I'm just giving you food for thought. It's a discussion I've been having with some of the other members of the site too. And as far as exploring in shitty areas, a nice heavy steel tripod (as long as your camera isn't attached) or a 4-cell maglite have dual-functionality if you know what I mean.

Oh and with my Pumping Station post, that was my bad; I copy and pasted from a much more private forum I'm also a member of, usually I remove those details.

And dude. I'm really not trying to put you down. Please understand that. But locust ave, although not the best neighborhood, REALLY isn't that bad. I have a storage unit on Locust Ave, I know that neighborhood. Once you get your license drive a little South-East of there and find out what a bad neighborhood is.

oh im well aware. its just its proximity to newark and east orange that makes it have a negative feel to it. just like the building thats explored in belleville is really close to newark, so i wouldnt go back

Ya sometimes bad neighborhood have tons of abandoned stuff in them. Newark has some nice industrial abandonments as does Harrison, I'll probably get around to doing those this summer. Like I was saying bring something that makes a nice club in case you have to bonk someone on the head. Usually bums or the other riff-raff don't want any trouble but I had a pretty scary standoff once, but we just yelled at each other while I did my best Babe Ruth stance with my tripod ready to hit this dopehead and he got the message. I'd be pissed if I scratched my Bogen Manfrotto tripod cracking some bum over the head, but it never came to that!

id use the flashlight. im not much of a photographer so i dont have a tripod

I think it would be cool if they kept the building and turned it in to condos like what they did to my place. My condo complex was a carpet mill and a bunch of old warehouses. My building is at least 75 years old and it's got history.

that is what they are doing

Yeah, I know. Thank you captain obvious.

LithiumBaby wrote: I think it would be cool if they kept the building and turned it in to condos like what they did to my place. My condo complex was a carpet mill and a bunch of old warehouses. My building is at least 75 years old and it's got history.

abandonednj wrote: that is what they are doing

LithiumBaby wrote: Yeah, I know. Thank you captain obvious.

Your wording was a little confusing Lithium.

uhhhh.... yeah whatever.

LithiumBaby wrote: I think it would be cool if they kept the building and turned it in to condos like what they did to my place.

You can't see how that wording is a little bit confusing?

Sorry don't take it personal, just saying..

Thanks for the grammar lesson kids! I don't understand why this is such an issue with you. roflmao.