Stories

A Last Look Inside An Old School Blacksmith Shop!

December 17, 2023January 2, 2024

A few years ago we got into an old blacksmith shop that felt like a time capsule. While I was there, I took a series of photographs.

Background

In Morton, Illinois there was an old blacksmith shop on Adams street that was built in 1910. It was pretty much in continuous operation until the early 1980s. Since then the building has been vacant.

Karl Glueck, Sr of Morton owned and operated the shop for about 50 years until his death in 1983 at age 80. Karl lived just a few blocks away and would walk to work everyday. In later years the shop did small engine, lawn and garden repair.

December 2017

We found out through a friend in Kansas that the building had sold and the contents were being liquidated. We didn’t know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised by what we did find.

So on a December day I loaded up in the truck with my father to see what we could find.

The front part of the building was where the original blacksmith shop was with the forge. Everything still looked like a working shop, as if one day he left and never came back.

The further back in you went, the newer the building was. There were winding hallways with shelves filled with everything from pipe fittings to stock steel.

We didn’t have much time, so we went right to work digging. The Liquidator was selling most hardware and usable metal by the pound. There was a large selection of plow shears, plow coulters and lots of bolts.

There was a scale outside that we weighed our buckets on.

We didn’t get a lot on that first trip, but my father and our friend Phil went back a few more times and got more hardware and miscellaneous items.

A Restaurant?

The plan for the old building was to give it a face lift and convert it into a steakhouse. One of the coolest things about the exterior was the painted on sign, but unfortunately it was covered with a new coat of paint and a replica was reproduced inside.