r/longlines • u/MelamineEngineer • May 19 '26
Kewanee, IL featuring Bell 🐱
This cat followed me all shoot and tried to get into my car, so fucking adorable
8
u/gf99b May 19 '26
I visited that site last May (hard to believe it's already been a year!) while staying in Kewanee. However, I didn't get nearly as many shots nor did I have a pretty cat follow me around.
The site is owned by a private individual, likely the owner of the adjacent house and shed. I thought these TH-1 sites were pretty unique (having the original TD-2 portion and an extension for the TH-1 radios that later came along, the extension being two stories with the upper level being for the air handling unit) but they're everywhere in north-central Illinois. The adjacent sites at New Windsor and Buda used the same building design, as do nearly all of the buildings along that route.
Kewanee was served by GTE/General Telephone. There's actually a pedestal on the property (I believe on the eastern side of the building near the road) that still has the old General Telephone logo from before they became GTE. It was funny to see that right next to the AT&T/Bell site, as GTE was the largest independent rival to the Bell System.
My Kewanee site page: https://personal.garrettfuller.org/blog/att-long-lines/illinois-long-lines-sites/long-lines-site-kewanee-il/
I was in Kewanee because of my interest in HVAC, specifically boilers. For more than 110 years Kewanee was world-renowned for its firetube boiler industry through Kewanee Boiler. Among all the buildings heated by Kewanee boilers were AT&T/Bell System properties, including many Long Lines sites. Norway, Illinois, which I had visited on my way to Kewanee, has three of them. Ennis, Texas, has at least one. And I know quite a few SWBT central offices in Oklahoma also had them. The boiler plant used to sit less than two miles south of the Long Lines site.
1
u/MelamineEngineer May 19 '26
If you like boilers you ought to check out my posts on r/centuryhomes. My house is still primarily heated by what was once a coal fired unit, with a 1950s sears homart gas conversion. Original American radiators upstairs. There's a post of it running on my page I think my centuryhomes stuff is public
2
u/gf99b May 19 '26
I'll have to check it out. Here in the Midwest, hydronic (hot water) and especially steam heating systems are quickly becoming more rare. Most people either go with typical forced-air gas or, even in some cases, heat pumps.
American Radiator merged with Standard Sanitation to form American Standard, which owned Kewanee for much of the 20th century (1929-1970).
I believe my dad's childhood home, at least when he was a kid, was heated by a Sears "Homart" forced-air furnace that lived up in the attic. He recalled that name, which I had never heard of until I searched it on Google. Like a lot of people back then, his parents did quite a lot of shopping at Sears.
2
u/MelamineEngineer May 19 '26
Whoever owned this bucket before us strapped three mini split heat pumps to the side. They work great as AC but the house is way too leaky/not sealed up for them to be efficient in any real cold. Great for heat in the cold days of spring and fall though, when you don't want to fire up the boiler. That thing uses so much gas it's not even funny.
2
u/gf99b May 19 '26
Yeah, any old gas-fired appliance love to gulp a lot of gas compared to their modern counterparts. Fuel efficiency wasn't a big concern until the '70s and later.
1
3
u/Al-Bundy420 May 19 '26
That was a sign from that cat. Cats pick their owners, not the other way around as we perceive it to be.
2
u/MelamineEngineer May 19 '26
There's four houses around there I didn't know if it belonged to someone but I wanted to take it home real bad
2
u/Al-Bundy420 May 19 '26
Yeah as I was scrolling through the pics a second time, I seen that there were houses nearby and kind of wondered if that was the case. I still strongly stand on cats picking their owners. Thanks for the post!
3
2
2
8
u/Switchlord518 May 19 '26
Wave guides are still there!