The Allied Paper Mill of Kalamazoo, MI
Built in the 1890s, finally abandoned in 1998, the Allied Paper Mill now stands forlorn and empty.
Welcome to the Allied Paper Mill section of AlliedPaper.org. The Allied Paper Mill was the first factory featured on this site (hence the name AlliedPaper.org), and is probably the most well-documented of all the locations on the site.
If you wish to return to the main AlliedPaper.org page, you may do so by clicking on the link above. Otherwise, continue on to read more about or take an online tour of Kalamazoo's Allied Paper Mill.
Demolition Progress:
The demolition of Allied Paper has begun. Several sets of photographs of the demolition activity are available by clicking below:
| Demolition Update I | First Week of August (2004) |
| Demolition Update II | Second Week of September |
| Demolition Update III | Early October |
| Demolition Update IV | Late October |
We have prepared photographic 'tours' encompassing most parts of this abandoned paper mill for your education and enjoyment. Or, scroll down to read more about the Allied Paper Mill's past and present.
|
|
|
||||
|
||||||
Allied Paper Info:
The Allied Paper factory currently consists of three mill buildings, Mill C, Mill D, and Mill E, and a power plant. There are also several electrical switchgear cabinets on the property, a Consumers' Energy substation (which has now mostly been removed by Consumers'), and the remains of an overhead viaduct that once carried steam, process water, and perhaps electricity between the above mentioned buildings on the north side of Alcott street and the former Mill A and Mill B buildings south of Alcott. (Mills A and B were torn down some years ago.)
The Allied Paper Mill had already been completely abandoned when I first became aware of its existence, but Mill C still had electrical service to its lighting and remaining machinery, and some of the control panels in the Power House were still lit, although the building's overall electrical service did not appear to be online. However, several weeks after a court hearing about the property in the summer of 2001, Consumers' Energy deactivated and then removed most of the components of the substation that had been powering the facility, leaving it completely dark.
In December of 2000, the remaining portion of Mill E, the vast majority of which had been torn down in the past, collapsed under the weight of the snow that had accumulated on its roof.
On October 18th, 2001, one of the front sections of Mill C consisting mostly of laboratory and office space caught fire, evidently as a result of actions by vandals or other criminals. The fire department quickly extinguished this fire, and the damage was confined to the office/lab portion of Mill C largely due to the firewall between it and the other areas of the mill.
On July 18th, 2003, around 5:00PM, the section of Mill D containing the Latex and Clay Tanks burned down. According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, the neighbors suspect arson, and I would concur with this since there is no electrical or natural-gas service to Mill D. Click here for more information and photographs of the wreckage.
In 2004, the City of Kalamazoo hired the Homrich company to tear down the rest of the Allied mill once and for all. As of mid-July 2004, workers have begun removing asbestos from the mill buildings, but work has not yet commenced on the actual demolition of the mill.
Additional Links:
Jeremy Winkworth's Allied Paper Site (Includes Allied photos from 1980!)
Read Entries from the Powerhouse Operations Logbook from 1987
Other Factories at AlliedPaper.org
E-Mail the Author (allied@alliedpaper.org)
We'd love to hear from you: If you visit this site and like it, don't like it, if you're from Kalamazoo or work in the paper industry, if you're familiar with Allied Paper, used to work there or know someone who did, or would just like to say hi, please send an e-mail to allied@alliedpaper.org. All e-mails will be held in strict confidentiality unless you instruct us otherwise. Also, if you happen to know anything or have any information about any of the machinery or other objects seen in the factory, we'd really like to hear from you about it, so drop us a line.