I've been waiting for this to happen since my old roommate and I used to ride our mountain bikes around the then completely desolate canal walk in the early 90s. We've come a long way since then, and this seems like it will be another positive step for downtown Richmond.
The images below give a before and after view of one of the 1970s buildings that is to be torn down, and a look at the renovation of the pedestrian bridge:
My friends and I used to go down there all the time at night back in 2001-2002. We called it the "ware-house", we would climb the cat-walks,climb the 2 brick smoke-stacks,venture through-out the whole building. Three of us one night had an encounter with an extremely violent home-less man who kept yelling that the "ware-house was his house" and proceeded to follow us underneath the cat-walk in the dark screaming obscenities and throwing rocks at the walls....freaky shit...seems funnier now at 30.
ReplyDeleteGreat story Andre. I've had some fun experiences in abandoned buildings as well. Kids today must have to hunt a lot harder for stuff like that, seeing how all the former abandoned buildings I've been in here are now renovated and occupied.
DeleteI used to help my father close both the north plant and south plant down. What you walked around in Andre was the distribution plant and it was open the whole time you were in there too. I have done the same as your too andre but i got the behind the scenes because the plant was shut down and closing when i was there working for my dad
ReplyDeletewhat year did it close down?? 1965?
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