Between Darkness & Light | Hooven & Allison Cordage Company

The VCXPEX events were a great way to check out locations I usually would not see. Old industries in Ontario were few and far between and often had been restored with some adaptive reuse or so run down that it was unsafe to enter. Enter the former Hooven & Allison Rope Factory or Cordage company, depending on where you looked and who you asked. This massive 19th-century rope work factory in Xenia, Ohio, was a local attraction even though it had been burned three times.

Tracking a complete and chronologically accurate history of the Hooven & Allison Cordage Company proved difficult. Mainly because the people involved and the location of Xenia were all tied up in the same industry, rope making. In 1869, G. Hooven and M.C. Allison formed a cordage company on Cincinnati Avenue in Xenia, Ohio. The cordage works produced a natural fibre twine by hand using a traditional technique. The Hooven & Allison work caught the attention of Robert Kelly, who in 1876 discussed the employment of a mechanical method of producing rope. The pair agreed to Kelly’s suggestion and constructed a powerhouse to drive the new rope-making machines. The new method allowed production to skyrocket and increased demand in the factory. The company would expand by adding a second mill in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1879. Hooven would pass away in 1881 and Allison in 1888. Robert and four other individuals would take the company and incorporate it under the name Hooven & Allison in 1889. Hooven & Allison would be one of many cordage firms in Xenia but arguably the largest. The company would provide rope and cordage for the US Navy and weather the economic turmoil of the inter-war years. The biggest boost to the company came with the start of World War II, especially the US entry into the war in 1941, when Hooven & Allison would supply miles of rope for the increased construction of civilian and military vessels for the war effort. After the war, Hooven & Allison found itself embroiled in a legal battle in 1945 over taxation on gross earnings, with the case reaching the US Supreme Court, which is still a notable decision by the highest court in the United States. Even in the post-war era, Hooven & Allison continued to expand and grow. Changing with the times as synthetic fibres entered the rope-making field, Hooven & Allison would stay in line and add these to their production lines. By this point, the company was the largest rope maker in the United States and even survived the economic downturn in the late century. As market forces shifted, the company shut down in 2003, closing the doors of its seven-building complex. Three fires between 2007 and 2009 would cause extensive damage and gut several buildings on the site, most being traced to arson. Realising that the buildings could no longer be restored, the city ordered the demolition of the site and an EPA assessment. The assessment found the usual contaminants, including PCBs, asbestos and petroleum in 2011. Environmental cleanup and demolition occurred in 2013, with the smokestack coming down in 2014. The property remained empty and up for sale until 2022 when it was purchased for future redevelopment. One interesting side note is that Hooven & Allison continued to exist as a company until 2011 when it became part of Orion Rope Works.

I first learned about Hooven & Allison during the first VCXPEX event. I can’t fully recall when the group went. It was probably on Sunday when I travelled north to attend a Film Photography Project event in Findlay, Ohio. I heard good things from the other explorers who went there, so I took the chance to see it when the option to see it came up for VCXPEX II. The trouble with any location in a small town, especially one targeted by arson in the past, is that there is often security. No direct security on site, but rather security in the sense that locals keep a closer eye out. But when exploring with locals, they know all the tricks and safe entrances and exits. Parking out behind the site where our cars would not attract too much attention. From there, it was a matter of going up over the top and down the hill. The hill provided plenty of cover, but the overgrown fence quickly breached. There was only a single point where we could have been spotted from the street, but thankfully, being in a residential area, it was quiet, and we were out of sight quickly. The entire place was a hazard; by this time, the three fires had taken place, and plans for demolition were in play. Honestly, I’m lucky because demolition started a few months later, in 2013. Despite the extensive damage, the site proved interesting, with plenty of architecture, open areas, and a powerhouse intact. This wasn’t the first abandoned location I checked out after it suffered a major fire. As locations go, I only regret not finding a way to get better shots of the exterior at the front of the property. But that could have caused too much additional attention. Despite only getting on a single trip, I was happy with that one trip.

I can’t say much about my photography here; having only a single visit, there isn’t much in the way of growth. However, there are some interesting notes on my photography. First, it is one of my early attempts at using a multiple-image panorama. I have played with something in the past, but I don’t use much anymore because of my use of ultrawide lenses. It does work in this case, but a slightly longer lens, like the 35mm, might have worked better. But I was also limited to only being able to combine three images at a time before my computer would pitch a fit. You can clearly see my use of flat and leading line composition and focus on the big empty. Another interesting thing is that this was the only time I shot the original Agfa APX 400; I have not shot any since then, but I did get into using APX 100 and APX 25 in the coming years.

Exploring a burned-out location is not without risks. Hooven & Allison was not the first time I visited such a location. The one I enjoyed a few times was New York Pork in Toronto. In both cases, the locations were fairly intact and you will be fine with enough caution. And some places that had not burned often presented far more danger to serious injury if you weren’t careful. Despite this and the attention, the location proved the perfect spot for a single visit. I couldn’t have done anything different on a second trip without bringing a different camera, maybe a large or square format 120 camera. You have seen most of the images here, but you can find all the rest over on Flickr.