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Doug and Jon, My Googling Rochelle yesterday came about as a result to a visit to Northern Illinois University to study the Rochelle Sanborn maps. In the latest version available (1931 - 1949) there is no meat packing plant in the 16 maps of Rochelle. This in itself isn't conclusive, as the 16th map - the farthest southeast map - stops before where the Standard Oil bulk facility and the current plant stand today, but I was surprised.
What brought this trip on, was a purchase on eBay of a booklet called "Rochelle - Plan for the Future." This was a development plan prepared by Evert Kincaid and Associates from Chicago in 1954 for the city. It had nothing on a meat packing plant, but again, the maps only extend down to just before the bulk oil facility. What did catch my eye was a photograph of the Standard bulk oil facility in conjunction with a proposed "by-pass" of the city to take traffic out of downtown Rochelle.
The picture shows the Standard bulk oil facility is opposite of the Q's coal tower and water tank. What was surprising, is there is nothing but an empty field south of the oil facility. This land is where the Swift Plant - confirmed by several different sources last night - was built in 1961. Though the photo is undated, it is used this 1954 publication. This, combined with a close look at all of my other resources, plus the Sanborn maps seem to indicate there was no Swift plant in Rochelle prior to 1961. Since I'm modeling Rochelle in 1950, this is a huge disappointment. I would like this to be wrong, but I don't have proof otherwise.
Jon - I tested your Oswego link and it worked perfectly - thanks! This saves me from going down to NIU when I want to look at the maps!
Rich G.
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From: 'Douglas Harding' doug.harding@iowacentralrr.org [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sat, Aug 30, 2014 11:54 pm Subject: Re: [CBQ] Re: Rochelle Swift Plant Rich, very good question. I am not familiar with Rochelle, and have very minimal notes on that meat packing plant. So I don’t know the answer to your question. The good source of information would be the Sanborn maps, even better some city directories from the time period in question. I don’t have access to Sanborn maps of Illinois, nor to any Illinois city directories.
Doug Harding
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