Mysterious Factory Photographs

No idea where these were taken, but they seem to have all come from the same photo album. Found them in a St. Louis antique store. The one that caught my eye was this dramatic, post-fire picture of a young man sitting calmly in the factory ruins:

 What kind of factory was this, anyway?

I like the expression on the guy on the left.

Loading some kind of contraption onto a cart....and below, a standard group shot:

 And of course the gag photo with the guy pretending to be asleep. Any ideas as to where this was or what they made?