Johnson Motors

A Lack of Fire & A Lot of Smoke
Name(s):
Johnson Outboards; Outboard Marine Corporation Plant #1; BMCA/BRP Waukegan

Address:
200 E. Sea Horse Drive
Waukegan, IL 60085

Years Active:
As Johnson/OMC: 1926-2000
As BRP: 2003-2012

Summary:
Colossal headquarters and assembly plant for a former marine industry titan. Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors were built here until the early-1980s, then the building was repurposed for a number of corporate, training, tech service, product testing and R&D functions for OMC until the company declared bankruptcy right before Christmas 2000. Bombardier quickly re-opened the aging facility with the long-term plan of relocating to Wisconsin, which ultimately didn’t happen until 2012 — when the building literally started falling apart.

Status: DEMOLISHED 2016; water tower still stands.

Article: No

Flickr set(s): July 2016

Video: OMC XVI

Loot: Some paper things and an OMC banner that was hanging in the manufacturing area.