Whenever someone mentions Chicago, a few things immediately come to most people's minds. Delicious deep dish pizza, the iconic overhead 'L' trains that criss-cross the city, and chewing gum. Chicago is the home of probably the most famous chewing gum manufacturer in the world, Wrigley, and from 1911 until they moved into a new facility in 2006 this huge factory was their manufacturing epicentre producing Spearmint, Doublemint, Juicy Fruit and everything in between. In early 2014 the factory office block also dating from 1911 was demolished but after that work seemed to stop, until it picked up again at the end of 2016 and as of now there isn't a whole lot of the 175,000 square foot factory left.
To be honest I'm amazed we didn't get caught and/or arrested here. Somehow we managed to get all seven of us through the fenceline during mid-morning rush on a very busy inner city crossroads without any repercussions. Now seven is a group size I'm usually quite uncomfortable with but this being Chicago, and a fairly rough part of Chicago, the numbers game plays a big part. So we split off into little groups and explored at our own pace, the Chicago natives in our group mostly just chatting and chilling and the 'out of towners' exploring properly.
Inside was like no other factory I've visited before or since. Large areas of flooring were coated in either incredibly sticky glucose that had leaked out of the pipes and tanks over the years, plus a select few areas which were coated in a solidified gum-like substance which had a feel underfoot much like that of a gym crashmat or that bouncy surface found in children's playgrounds. To add to this, the factory was well sealed on the upper floors with few broken windows so the entire building smelled strongly of spearmint.
I was a little disappointed with the first areas we saw but things got better and better the higher up the production floors we got. It being Chicago the interior of the building was pretty heavily graffitied but there was loads of stuff left inside.
Thanks for looking
To be honest I'm amazed we didn't get caught and/or arrested here. Somehow we managed to get all seven of us through the fenceline during mid-morning rush on a very busy inner city crossroads without any repercussions. Now seven is a group size I'm usually quite uncomfortable with but this being Chicago, and a fairly rough part of Chicago, the numbers game plays a big part. So we split off into little groups and explored at our own pace, the Chicago natives in our group mostly just chatting and chilling and the 'out of towners' exploring properly.
Inside was like no other factory I've visited before or since. Large areas of flooring were coated in either incredibly sticky glucose that had leaked out of the pipes and tanks over the years, plus a select few areas which were coated in a solidified gum-like substance which had a feel underfoot much like that of a gym crashmat or that bouncy surface found in children's playgrounds. To add to this, the factory was well sealed on the upper floors with few broken windows so the entire building smelled strongly of spearmint.
I was a little disappointed with the first areas we saw but things got better and better the higher up the production floors we got. It being Chicago the interior of the building was pretty heavily graffitied but there was loads of stuff left inside.
Thanks for looking
