The area we had entered upon the discovery of the warehouse was rich in ruin. Scattered about within sight were the remains of about four separate structures, some more impressive then others. The most impressive (and intact) was the warehouse, while the remaining ruins were essentially only glorified foundations. But due to the fact that we were standing along a rather steel hillside, even those foundations could be impressive at points. It all depended on your perspective.

First up was the building immediately next door to the warehouse, a structure who’s identified by Sanborn maps as being a 1 1/2 story store house 80 feet long by 50 feet wide. I’m not sure what the technical difference is between a warehouse and a store house, but since Sanborn made a distinction I can only assume there is one. It can be seen in the archive photo above as the tall building just behind the warehouse. From this end the foundation was only a few feet tall, but unlike the warehouse this particular building had a basement. A basement we knew we had to enter somehow.

We walked around to the foundation’s east wall – which lay just a dozen feet or less from the nearby road – and followed it down hill to its opposite end. As we descended the rock wall next to us grew in size and relative impressiveness. At its southern end the wall had partially collapsed, revealing an easy egress point to the basement.

As we made our way over the way we took a second to take a closer look at those walls – which were rather thick and robust (especially for a store house). They sure don’t make them like they use to, that’s for sure.

Once inside we realized that we could have more easily entered through the nearby doorway – which was partially blocked by brush. The doorway was lined with a wood jamb and was much larger then that small doorway found next door at the warehouse. But this one was missing its red brick header.

The basement was what we expected it to be – plain and uninspiring. The only point of interest to be found is this oddly placed brick outcropping set into the building’s west wall. The wall turns out to be an interior dividing wall, as soon we would discover a doorway into an adjacent room. These brick outcroppings were usually put in to protect a steam pipe as it entered a building, but this one had no opening for such a pipe. The next best theory was that those bricks were part of a chimney that once sat inside the building. (maybe the difference between a store house and a ware house is heat?) If that was the case, however, you would think that you could make out a chimney in those archive photos, but in the photo above its really hard to tell either way. I guess in the end its possible, but not much more then that.

Making our way through a rather overgrown doorway we enter the next room, and find just a lot more of the same. On this side of that dividing wall we were able to make out a slight ledge which made its way around the foundation’s perimeter – probably were the building’s floor would have rested. With nothing much else to see here, we climbed our way back out and moved on to the next set of walls sitting just across the road….

To Be Continued…