I'm deeply indebted to the developer for allowing us to tour this fabulous old building, despite its dirt, leaks, mold, and mess. Most people are understandably uncomfortable with exposing their homes in a less than perfect state—just imagine how hard a sell this place as a future setting for shops and condos must be, especially for those without imaginations, given its current condition. But I've always loved these abandoned, semi-secret, worn spaces. The developer is quite young, in his 20s, and I really hope this works out for him—and for the town, which needs all the help it can get.

In the meantime, here are my efforts at documenting a bit of civil war history...clicking on the 200 pixel wide thumbs will load up a 512 wide image; you can click on that for the full-size version. And no, I don't have any exterior shots—I ran out of memory (long story)—which in any case is of a fairly standard Italianate-storefront type.

basement. We had to descend an extremely steep, almost ladder-like stairwell to get to this, but it proved to be my favorite part of the building—so mysterious!

Since there are other people wandering around in this shot, I'm going to guess it's from the first floor.

Of course, I totally and completely forgot to adjust the white balance on the camera; as it was I shot these at -1.7 to -2.0 ev (1-2/3 to 2 f-stops) and braced the camera as best I could against walls and poles for the 1/2 to 1 second exposures. But I like the way they came out.

The second floor was unsafe, but we were allowed on the third, where I took this image. Note the dual light sources, one from the window and one from a light, and how the color differs. I also like the way the brick wall to the left goes in and out of focus. This image was rotated a bit, and then cropped.

Overlooking the historic part of town. Are those gothic arched windows not fabulous? You just don't see curved muntins like that anymore. The glass is beautiful too, with a bubbles and slight waviness.

Another nice textural shot, rather elegiac. It happened to rain much of the day, so there were puddles and the sounds of dripping water, which just added to the melancholy ambience.

photos taken 19aug; file created 23aug07.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.