Saxon Motors 2 - The Wrath of Flar! - Elk River, MN

Oh No! A sequel!

My first Saxon Motors story appeared in February, 2018. It detailed the my friend, Trav, and I walked around the property. I took a bunch of pictures outside of dealership building and car lot. Specifically targeting the terribly tacky tagging along the south side walls. I was somewhat proud that if you searched "Saxon Motors Elk River MN" on the Googles, my story was one of the first results that would come back. It became one of my signature pieces. Over the last few months, I noticed that story was getting a lot of hits, seemingly out of nowhere. Interesting that there's suddenly new interest in Saxon Motors...

Then I got word in early June that Saxon Motors was being prepped for demolition, and I immediately made plans to check it out. What I saw when I got there left me no other conclusion, I needed to write the sequel! And any sequel worth the time it takes to write it, needs to be bigger and bolder and flashier than the original. With more enhanced graphics and a gripping tag line!

So without further delay, I give you...

Yeah... Probably not...

When researching this story (something I didn't really do the first time), I decided to hit up the "street view" on the Googles. Perhaps it would offer up a picture of Saxon a little different than the ones I'd taken. Well...

How about a (blurry) shot of Saxon Motors while it was still open!

September, 2008, is one of the earliest dates I've seen on the Googles Street View recently. Sure glad they didn't feel a need to update their images. I'd say there can't be a whole lot of people -besides me- looking up Saxon Motors, but the increase in traffic says otherwise. 

So that's what the place looked like in September of 2008. 

Nine years later, Saxon Motors looked like this.

I took my first set of photos of the property on November 5, 2017. Trav took me up there on a perfectly gray and cloudy afternoon. I was in back in Minnesota for a few days, and during some rare down time, I asked him to "Take me somewhere abandoned!" This property stood out to me right away, and I finished writing the story of that day, a couple of months later.

Once I moved back to Minnesota, later in 2018, I was aiming for a yearly wellness check of the place. Just a simple drive by to see if there was anything new going on at the property. I had no reason to follow it any closer. There wouldn't likely be much other than new graffiti to take pictures of. 

As much of a fan of the Beach Boyz work that I am, it never seemed to be worth the time.

I didn't find this picture until after the story went online, but I'd snapped one from Highway 10 eastbound, on September 27, 2012. My dad and I had gone to his appointment at the V.A. Hospital in St. Cloud. I was in the passenger seat of his truck, snapping pictures out the window. My goal that day was to find a Michelle Bachmann for US Representative sign. Needing evidence of the kind of crazy she represented. Seems almost quaint after what we just went through... I found a few of her signs, but the photos all turned out blurry. 

Saxon Motors was built in 1994, as a General Motors dealership and service center. The building was renovated and remodeled in 2003, then closed for good in 2009.

My first post-move drive-by Saxon Motors Wellness Check, took place on May 18, 2019. The building was browner from recent rain... Other than that, nothing new going on here.

It has sat vacant since then.

Under a blanket of fluffy snow, March 7, 2020.

And finally, Saxon Motors on June 12, 2021. 

The building has been completely gutted and demolition will soon begin. Once the land is cleared and cleaned up, construction will begin on two 90 unit, market rate apartments. How the city and developer agreed to this plan is something I can’t even begin to try to summarize. I suggest you follow this link to a story in the Elk River Star News, explaining the questionable tax incentive terms the city finally agreed to, in order to rid the city of this eyesore. It's a good read.

Bottom line is Saxon Motors is finally going away, and hundreds of people will soon be living on the space it used to occupy.

I parked my car across the street and walked over to the empty lot in front of Saxon. Scattered throughout the lot were various piles of light poles, wood chips, scrap metal and broken pavement.

When I drove up here, I was expecting to take a few pictures of whatever stage the demolition was at, then go back home. But after seeing what the place looked like now, I knew that I had a new story to write...

On my previous visits to Saxon, the entire place was boarded up, with few gaps to even look inside.

But today, all the boards and doors have been removed. Leaving the place wide open. Technically, I was trespassing during my time spent here, but I crossed no barriers to do so.

So there.

In fact, all of the Saxon Motors doors had been removed and were now piled up around the building.

According to that story in the Elk River Star News, that I linked earlier, amongst the different proposals for this site over the years would have kept the Saxon building intact. One would have converted it into temperature controlled storage, with apartments included on the property. Another proposal included turning the land into a boating marina, complete with a man-made pond on site. While there were several ideas floated about keeping it an auto dealership, the Elk River city council voted 3-2 to not allow auto sales on the property.

An old business real estate listing I found online (dated 2014), had the former Saxon Motors property leasing for only $6/square foot, per year. That would include approximately 30,060 SF gross leasable area. But you wouldn’t know any of that from the lack of on site advertising. At the very least, couldn’t a contact number have been spray painted on the boards covering the windows? Were you supposed to ask the Beach Boyz?

But none of those coverings were in place today. Saxon Motors was left wide open, and I’m not turning down this kind of opportunity. I know there’s pictures inside that I need to take. 

One last look around the lot before I duck inside. Just to make sure no one, be it police or security, or especially the Beach Boyz, would be following me in.

Now I’ve finally made it inside the previously boarded up lobby. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of stuff to see in here. Everything had been removed down to the cinderblock walls. If I had to guess, I’d say the interior walls and fixtures had been removed years ago, given the amount of tagging directly applied to the cement.

So my interest in seeing this place looking like a closed up car dealership was kind of a wash. Looking at this room, it could have been anything before this. There’s nothing to identify it as an auto dealer, it’s just a large cement room, with cutouts where doors and windows used to be.

During my research, I found a few intact interior pictures on Loop.net! I'm going to have to remember this as a source in the future. They provided pictures to another story I wrote a while back, when I needed an open Subway to match up with an abandoned Subway. Since I found these after the building was gone, I wasn't able to match them up in a "before and after" combination. 

There used to be a wall dividing this room. And the little elevated desk that guy is sitting behind would have been where the rough patch in the middle of the floor, from the previous picture. Those cubicles are long gone as well. 

That area would be on the left side of this picture. I'd assume there were offices in this area. With the wall running across where that red beam stands. Kind of mean of Saxon to deny "Felons R Us" a window in their office. Except for the one looking into the service department, behind the cement block wall.

Standing where those cubicles once were, looking out the north doors, with the truck warehouse in the distance. The tagging in here was exceptionally lame.

Let’s go through the penis door and check out the former Saxon Motors service department!

As a customer -back when they had them- you'd drive your car into the service bay. Which was basically a drive through hallway, behind the main lobby.

Got anything to show me Loop.net?

Thanks! 

Cars would enter through that bay door, and talk to the guys working at computers or behind the service desk. A large room behind here looked to be stocked with parts. For cars, I'd bet...

Well, I came pretty close in duplicating the correct angle for this picture. All of that stuff you saw in the previous picture has been taken away. The computers, desks, counters, shelves, all gone. But it looks like our pals Flar and Dert found a new friend in Chec. (He makes a great Mix.) I pictured the three of them taking turns standing on each other's shoulders, so they could tag high up on the ceiling. Now that's cooperation!

Wonder why they tagged "Don't turn around" on the wall.

What could be behind me that would be so scary? Is someone here?

Oh! It's only Ryft! 

He likes math! And fishing!

I don't know why "Service Me Bitch" made me laugh as hard as it did. 

Semi-above that, you can see where the signs have been removed from the wall. Those signs are still in the Loop.net picture.

Once you're done being serviced, you'd drive out the exit door back into the lot. It was probably cleaner back when this was still a thing.

Outside the service exit, on November 5, 2017.

Now entering the service storage area. The door on the right side enters the trucking warehouse. We'll go check that out in a bit. This room looks fairly interesting. 

It's the Hot Box!

Someone painted "Death changed me" on the ceiling. There was an ongoing theme in some of the tagging inside Saxon. Whomever did it would like me to believe that they are a spirit floating around the halls of Saxon. For what purpose was not made clear. 

But I'll keep looking!

At this point, the spirit wanted me to know that Grego has a vag. And after some satanic anti-fear, the mantra of knowledge over nonsense, became clear. This could all be important information...

Almost as important as knowing that the Beach Boyz eat ass.

And that there's a poorly painted dong on the ceiling.

In the far corner of the room looks like what's left of the Saxon Motors computer network. Obviously the hardware is gone, but I'm surprised the framework was still here, since not much else was. And I like that face painted on the wall. Need to take a better picture of it.

That works.

Not sure what all's going on here, but I kind of liked it.

God I hate poetry...

The door to this room had a bunch of stickers affixed to it . Including an actual Saxon Motors logo. 

It opened to another smaller room off the collision center, with a staircase leading to the completely dark second floor.

I didn't go any further up the stairs. I had no flashlight, and didn't want to waste my phone battery.

Here’s the reverse side of that staircase.

Before moving onto the next room, let’s go back outside and two years earlier, for a little perspective.

It’s May 18, 2019 again, as we look down at the northwestern corner of the Saxon. I’m about to wander myself into the larger browner building with all the doors on it. They were all closed up then. They were all open now.

Before going back inside, and jumping back two plus years into 2021 again, I have to turn around for a picture of this Fresh Trade Ins sign. Which was gone in 2021. Along with all of these light poles, which were piled up in places all over the lot. 

This is what I saw when I left the service department. I’m calling this big open room the Saxon trucking/parts warehouse. Since I have no perspective of what it was used for when it was open, and the doors appeared to suggest that use for it.

Someone tagged “Don’t turn around” on the wall behind me. I didn’t heed that advice and found three open doors next to me. Two of them were fairly dark inside, but the middle one had a toilet!

Sure, it had been smashed and rendered unusable, but it’s still a toilet! There was a sink next to it, and it you felt like putting a large 3D porcelain puzzle back together, it could be a sink again!

The mirror was shockingly not shattered? I'm assuming Flar, Dert and all the rest, didn't want 7 years bad luck. But the paint job amused me. It’s not a very accurate likeness, but it made me laugh.

The dark space behind the restroom was just a slightly larger wrap-around, with doors on both sides. 

Restroom walls inside the wrap-around room.

Back out into the trucking warehouse. The open doors on the left side would close to this. 

Well, at least in November of 2017...

But today, we're going to exit out of the half closed Flar door, and walk around behind the car dealership. I 'd like to see if the Beach Boyz updated any of their graffiti that we laughed at, three and a half years ago.

Here's that same Flar door, closed and locked up in November, 2017. Flar never did get around to finishing off the green paint in his R. Musta been too tired.

He should have just used a roller, like 2Canz$ did... 

His tag looks just as it did in 2017...

Actually, I don't think I saw any of 2Canz$'s later work, anywhere inside Saxon Motors. Maybe that bitch he claimed he'd take back in 2017, now wont let him out of the house to play with the rest of the Beach Boyz? Bitches will do that to you 2Canz$... They let you in, claiming to love your wild side... Then one day... Bam! You're her bitch now!

Looks like they just couldn't decide on a theme and quit trying on this door...

A few paces to the right of that door...

Is this door!

Now back in 2017, the garage door was closed and locked, and wouldn't let me in. While the window above it was shattered, and Trav was reluctant to give me a boost.

Regretfully, I didn't take a picture of this area in 2021. The garage door was left wide open, but the window above was now covered with plywood. At least I get to see what was hidden behind that door..

Why, it's The Powda Room! 

Dope!

And the door in the back of The Powda Room is unlocked! 

Said door opened to a staircase. This would obviously lead me up to the room with the boarded up shattered window. But there was no light at the top of the stairs, meaning no light in that room. I started up the stairs and stopped...

About half way up, I took this picture. Then I had second thoughts about going all the way up the stairs. I wasn't prepared for any deep eploring, being my number one concern. I had no flashlight, other than my phone, with me. I had no idea what was up here, and no one knew I was here. I decided the smart thing to do was stay at ground level. Where there are abundant easy exits, in case something goes wrong.

I still kind of regret that stance.

Really wish I'd seen some of the second level...

Oh well... Also at the bottom of the stairs was another penis door!

It's not like a Penis door would ever lead to anything bad?

Which opened into the Saxon Motors Collision Center. 

The garage was very dark, and fairly large, so a flash didn't work so well. Seeing as the other side of the room was open, I decided to go back out through Tha Powda Room, and walk around the outside of the building. There's more artwork I need to see out there!

Fire hydrants have been turned off around Saxon. Good thing the (not visible here) Mississippi River is at the bottom of the hill in case of a fire. Guess they could always form a bucket chain, carrying water up the banks. There's a lot in need of saving here...

Like this signature Dert original. Complete with curly-que's inside the letters and an impossibly tied comical money bag. Tie it like that and you're gonna lose all of the golden doubloons inside!

And this classic Flar, with heavy concrete barricade obstructing the view. Good thing that barricade wasn't here in 2017, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to use it in my clever cover photo!

And you definitly don't want this early era Dert, in bold classic block letters, ruined by unexpected fire. The experiment with yellow highlighting is hard to see in the sun and shadows from the trees. Personally, I'm more into the fluffier looking reddish-purple Dert from a few steps ago.

Of course if you had Dert all over your car, you'd probably want to clean it off. Well, believe it or not, Saxon Motors had it's own car wash! According to one of the four images I found on Loop.net, Saxon Motors a gross, moldy old car wash inside. Guess by the time they took pictures for the real estate listing, cleaning it up a bit wasn't all that important.

I only found one possible location, that had a door opening on both sides, and would have been wide enough for a car wash. I'm assuming this would have been the exit on the southwest corner of the building.

The car wash entrance would have presumably been the last door of the Saxon Collision Center. That door lead to an area that didn't access the rest of the garages in that building, and was the only part of the property that was not open. So I didn't go into this room. I'm assuming that's where the car wash used to be. But I don't know since the place was closed.

You know who really needed Saxon Collision Center to be open?

This guy...

Back on the March 7, 2020, Saxon Motors Wellness Check, I passed this truck a block or so away. That's quite the tire blowout! I've wondered if that tire blew on highway 10, just after the 169 exit. That driver was desperately trying to keep the truck going because of the Saxon Motors sign he (or she) just saw. The sign reading: "We'll be here", only to find they're not.

And haven't been for quite awhile.

Coming back around the corner, I spy a pretty easy access point. Looking across the 5 garage doors, a large opening to the service bay, that has no barrier. Guess I’ll got back inside Saxon here…

Looks like a couple of service bays here. The second floor wall has been ripped away, but I’m not sure where that door was supposed to lead. Unless there was a staircase here at one point. Or more of a second floor. Something had to have been here previously that wasn’t today.

Looking up the stairs that sat behind those two bays. Even though there was more light at the top of these stairs, since the walls above were removed, but I still didn’t go upstairs. And yes, I regret not going upstairs. 

Shattered and shuttered window just outside the collision center doors.

Under the stairway that I covered earlier. (The one that was just inside the open garage, with the second penis door, that led into the collision center.) That door on the right side of this picture opened back into the room that I just came from.

From a different angle.

The interior of the collision center was a large open room that was very dark inside. There only light was poking through the boarded up garage doors, but it was still very hard to see in here. I used flash with my phone to take the pictures, but other than that brief burst of light, I was walking around in about 95% darkness while inside the collision center.

Here’s a Loop.net image of this very room and a similar angle. 

Walking cautiously further into the collision center.

Just to the left of this picture was a closed door leading into another room. It was unlocked, but pitch black inside. 

I snapped this picture while standing in the doorway. As I said, it was completely black in this room, and I didn’t want to risk going inside and having the door close behind me. Likely nothing would have happened, but I sensed a possibility of being locked inside the Saxon Collision Center. As I mentioned previously, no one knew I was here, so I figured it made more sense to leave this room quick.

I never even saw the second door (a sliver of which is visible on the left side of this picture), which likely opened into the car wash.

I held the door open behind me as I took this picture then ducked back outside as quick as I could. Since this room had no light inside it, I didn’t get a look at the graffiti until I went home and reviewed the pictures. Had I more light during my explore, I would have definitely taken a better shot of the “Butthole Monster” on the wall. 

Hey, he tried...

Looking back across the collision center from the opposite angle.

The back wall. Which looks familiar from earlier. Oh, and the Beach (Bog) Boyz apparently run yo set.

Here’s those two bays again. Hmmm... I didn’t see this earlier, but there’s an additional set of stairs that lead to the room. Which was left open. Yeah, I’m really regretting not going up there. I should have wandered around the Saxon Motors roof. I’m betting I could have taken some really nice shots of the Mississippi River from that vantage point. 

Sigh...

Tagging in cursive is strange to see. These R’s look like M’s. If you read it that way, it changes all the intended meaning: “Lucifem is you me meal fathem.”

Kill yourself indeed...

The other side just has some really tacky and dumb art. 

So now I finally knew what was behind those closed up garage doors at the Saxon Collision Center. The one with that great "Make Art Not War" tag on it. As seen on November 5, 2017.

And on June 12, 2021. 

This picture was taken as I walked back to my car. Before I left the building, I went back through the service department to get a few additional pictures. Those were mixed in with the appropriate rooms, earlier. 

All told, I was inside Saxon for just over 10 minutes. Looking back at these pictures, I should have taken twice as many. I didn't take nearly enough pictures that showed the larger areas, in relation to the layout of the building. My efforts to get in and out quickly, led me to focus on the smaller details, while missing out on the bigger picture. 

And I should have gone upstairs...

******

I also should have gone back for a few of those mid-demolition pictures I love so much, but I didn't make it back until July 31, 2021. I'd made the drive back with hopes of cleared land, with Saxon completely gone. That would have wrapped up the story correctly.

But I didn't want to wait.

So... All of Saxon Motors was demolished and cleared away... 

Except for one single support column in the Saxon Collision Center?

Maybe they want to use it in the new apartments?

I parked the car across the street again, and walked the sidewalk to each end of the property. Not bothering to go in for a closer look this time, because there really wasn't anything to see.

On the southwest corner of the property, what's left of Saxon sits in sorted piles.

FREE MUIC!!!

New cars used to be parked here.

The flagpole has yet to be raked away by the shovel.

I love this hand painted road barricade!

The clearing of Saxon's land included the vacant area filled with lots of dead trees and tall weeds. Looking beyond the hill, you can see the Elk River Lodge and Residential Suites.

Years back, this was an AmericInn motel. (It was built in 1979.) Again, special thanks to the Googles for not updating this street view since September, 2008! I'm almost positive there was an indoor pool in that end room with the tall windows. My grandfather stayed here in the early 1990's, so I've been inside the place, albeit a long time ago.

No longer a motel, the Elk River Lodge has been converted into 36 one bedroom and studio apartments, ranging between 418-560 SF, with a community kitchen and lounge. A long multi-stall garage had been built across the center of the parking lot. 

Wonder if rent will go down since they lost the breathtaking views of an abandoned car lot? I know I'd be demanding a discount.

As the building and lot are being ripped from the earth, the Saxon Motors sign with the "We'll be here" slogan, is still standing across Zane Avenue. 

And that's all kinds of awesome!

I promise there will not be a Saxon Motors 3.