From afar, TCI Ensley Works is an anomalistic sight. Smoke stacks rise inexplicably out of a square kilometer field of tangled vines and thick thorns which conceal anything underneath. Nature has nearly covered this brownfield site yet the monolithic ruins that remain expose it's industrial past. In the snow, TCI takes on an a more mystical delineation. The Ensley Works was once a massive steel mill operated by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company from 1888 to around 1978. Significant due to its duplex process of steelmaking and open hearth design,1 TCI Ensley was a major producer of steel in The Birmingham Industrial District until later decline in the 1970s.
- Historic American Engineering Record. Tennessee Coal & Iron Co., Ensley Works. PDF. Retrieved from the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/al1062.