Isbell Seed Co, Jackson

 If you've seen my Michner Plating post, or live in Jackson, you probably have seen the foreboding ruins of Isbell Seed. The complex sits at three stories, built in 1917. Nobody has successfully made it into this fortress due to Jackson City's intense crack-down on exploration. Metal hooks and fences are welded over windows, whilst the building is already completely blocked off with fiberglass, used for the metal process.

The last tenant of this property was SalCo engineering, they manufactured machines, machine parts and such.

I found this photo in a book called History of Business and Industry in Jackson, Michigan

Taken in 1930, this was my attempt to retake the photo:

This is what the factory looks like  if you were standing on the opposite end of the building facing the towards that photographer, I guess. in 2022 the greenery surrounding the plant was cut down.

Here's a photo I took of the plant before its graffiti-annihilation, and physical destruction.

First floor of the long building seen the the first photo. This area had some old machinery made by SalCo. Engineering

The 'Waterfall Project' was my favorite. It seemed to be a mess of valves and pipes.

The "Chimney corner" of the building had a steam pipe insulated with asbestos, meaning a big asbestos mess. On the other hand there was this cool machine.

In my head this building always represented an industrial era gone by. Jackson used to be a thriving city of almost 100,000 citizens; And this is prime real estate that should be turned into an apartment.

This is a heat treatment machine I believe.

If you look closely that machine ventilating into the smokestack. Another interesting thing is that missing window in the middle used to be a conveyor that connected the Michner Plating extension to this complex. It seems to have been blocked off.

Outside you can see where the Jackson County has torn up the once-verdant courtyard, leaving boring mess.

Most of the machinery on the second floor was restricted to this section in the wide building. You could also see the supports for the former conveyor, which may have been left for the structural integrity.

I thought these steel baskets looked pretty cool, like large cheese-graters.

Here's a better view of the wedge. An odd, angular, protrusion of the factory, seen in pic #3

I took a blurry photo, but there was a dipping pool behind the conveyor. This section was located on the second floor of the long building, I didn't explore much further than this.

This is the third floor of the wedge building, I noted that the place had an attic, and the walls on the left remained unpainted. This room was also the storage for all the racks seen throughout the plant.

I also got a photo in the wide building on the third floor. This structure is immaculate.

This is the third story of the long building. It seems someone had a failed grill in and caused a fire, in fact I saw a few grills lying around, and several scorch marks.

This is the attic of the wedge building. Words will never describe how unusual this architecture is. I loved this little space too, even the platform on the fifth floor, with the light bulb hanging above it. And every part of the place was sturdy, with sounds comparable to a house.

To the right of the walkways is the tiny door that gives access to the rooftop. It's mostly sturdy, but feels unsound when you walk on it. Clearly I was not the first here.

Here's the attic room from outside, it has some decent shingle-work.