Reichhold Chemical

[woodwardboy]

Does anyone remember the Reichhold Chemical facility in Ferndale along the railroad tracks?
Also, anyone have pictures of what this plant looked liked at ground level?
thanks...

[lilpup]

Watched it burn from my great-aunt's front porch. Could never see much building or equipment detail at ground level because it was behind a block wall and gates.

[woodwardboy]

was there always a bad smell from this plant?

[lilpup]

once in a while, not always

[detroitbob]

Henry Reichold reorganized the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall...a brief bio is at the link.

http://www.reichholdcenter.com/about.html

[woodwardboy]

yes.. thanks for the bio on Henry Reichhold, I am also familiar with his relationship to Henry Ford as well.
I had heard stories from local residents that the Ferndale plant was an absolute mess regarding environmental pollution.

[detroitbob]

I remember hearing of problems with that 8 MI location, but I don't remember the time period. Reichold had a stormy era with the Orchestra. He installed the Karl Krueger s the conductor and when Krueger left in 1949, Reichold's interest waned.

[lilpup]

Reichhold's was at Woodward Heights [[9-1/2 Mile) & the Grand Trunk tracks. I believe the cleanup involved deep injection wells [[that might still be in use?). Attention wasn't paid to stuff like that when I was a kid. The place had been operating there for decades before environmental concerns became fashionable.

[Wingnatic]

I grew up in Ferndale on Marshall street off of Hilton near 8 Mile and remember the awful smell from time to time and that was about a mile away , also knew of a family friend who worked there died of cancer [[not sure if there was a connection) , and a family who lived off Hilton between 9 & 10 Mile , every one of them has something wrong with them from cancer to sterility . I vaguely remember we had some sort of white liquid fallout type of stuff on cars .

[Wingnatic]

This was probably somewhere in the mid 50's to mid 60's , a long time ago so thats the best time line I can remember .

[lilpup]

You guys must have been downwind. I grew up three blocks west of them, for a while they were even a paper route customer of mine. Sometimes I'd walk by and there would be a really light, lighter than mist or the lightest rain, fallout from their steam stacks but nothing else. They might have blown a safety valve once or twice but I certainly don't recall any regular chemical fallout issues. The pollution at the site after they closed it was due to their onsite tanks and general use. It was soil and potentially groundwater contamination, but those neighborhoods were on city water well before that - possibly ever since the houses were built. I know our neighborhood [[built mid-1920s) had septic but I'm pretty sure it always had city water.