Gates Rubber Company - Demolition Diary part 7
Wow, it's been over a year since I last wrote one of these...
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Deviating from my normal routine, I didn't make it up for my weekly Gates photography until later in the afternoon.
Normally I'd be at work on a Sunday afternoon, but my job called my bluff and forced me to stop pretending I was a supervisor. Which was fine, I'm not ashamed to admit that position was not for me. My sudden demotion gave me a few extra days off this week, so that's a bonus! Laura was also still visiting family in Minnesota, and wouldn't be back until Tuesday. Might as well take advantage of unexpected alone time off to take pictures!
However, this was a mistake as the sun interfered with nearly every shot...
But let's go anyways!
Sportique scooters recently closed their Englewood location. They fled in favor of a new Denver location, a few miles north on Broadway. Of course they took that cool little scooter that sat on the roof, above the sign. Maybe they didn't like their neighbors, Nature's Kiss, next door? I'd have a different opinion of that place, if that were the case...
Demolition continues at Englewood High School. I photographed that place weekly -if not more- much as I did Gates.
That will be a story for the future.
The old Shriners building at Logan and Floyd was recently sold, and would soon undergo a renovation into multiple townhomes. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the old Fez shaped sign that used to hang off the side of the building.
Further up Broadway, Angelo's CDs new location has opened up, next door to Bushwackers Saloon. I miss looking for new music and standup comedy CDs at Angelos, every few months. it was close and usually had what I was looking for. I could stop in on my way to work, then my co-workers in the office that night could have new Mike Patton screaming at them!
Bushwackers closed not too long after Angelo's opened. Another bar (that I can't remember the name of) operated there for a while, before closing as well. These days, it's another bar known as The Brutal Poodle, which it has been since late 2017.
Once Bushwackers was done, this sweet mural was painted over. Becoming a basic light blue wall with a dark blue and yellow stripe running the length of it. Sad... The white bird painted above the panther always reminded me of Bob the Duck.
If you look very closely, you might be able to tell that I combined two photos to make this one.
Not sure how though, I did such a good job!
Several blocks north is Herman's Hideaway, a popular live music venue that's been here for decades.
One of my Pizza Hut drinking buddy's roommate's bands played Herman's Hideaway a few times, back in the late 1990's. He played guitar in The Burn. Somewhere, I have one of their CDs. Probably in one of my boxes of CDs that I haven't looked at since I packed up before leaving Denver. (Many of which came from Angelo's!) A lot can be said for the convenience of MP3's...
But I really do miss physical copies of music...
Stupid party bus blocked off what could have been a good picture of the abandoned 1940's era Sinclair gas station, at Broadway and Florida. This gas station had been closed since before I moved to Englewood in 1996. I loved seeing it every time I drove north on Broadway, and it always appeared to be looking worse each time. As a fan of abandoned gas stations, this was one of the best!
After seemingly decades of sitting neglected, in 2017, Sinclair was remodeled into a Snarf's Sandwiches shop. Workers spent months gutting and rebuilding the structure, while keeping the integrity of an old Sinclair station. They did an incredible job with it. If this couldn't stay as an abandoned 1940's era gas station, what they did with the property was a lot better than just flattening it for something new and ugly.
Driving past Gates and into the RTD Park & Ride Lot, I could see the sun was going to cause major interference with any pictures I wanted to take.
Today really needed to be cloudy!
Oh look, the overflow lot is closed today...
Well RTD, you should have barricaded the access point then...
Closed or not, it's wide open right now, so I'm going to drive in anyways!
The overflow lot was on the north edge of the Gates property. Parts of the Gates buildings went back as far as the Light Rail bridge, with this parking lot in front of them. When I'd drive under here, I'd usually park at the end by the power plant. Which was the closest building in this picture. A white car is parked in front of it. Not sure what the white car is for, it was usually parked here. Unless it wasn't...
Gates’ former power plant.
Yeah, the sun was definitely at a difficult angle for photographs today...
I parked my car in front of the power plant, and walked down to the end of the fenced off lot. There had been a great deal of demolition progress to this part of the factory, since I was here last week.
Standing in the shadow of the north end of the main factory building, I got a better shot of the rapidly disappearing structure, without too much sun interference.
Better look at my sun shield.
The alley between the two buildings.
Love that old school fire escape.
Whatever that machine was with the big black wheel on it, had been completely buried by building rubble the last time I was here.
Even fighting the sun, I loved that was able to get shots like this. With the cut-away interior now lit up to show everything that was left behind when Gates ceased operations.
Again, not as clear a picture as I would have liked. There was just so much going on that had been frozen in time when the factory closed, I'm happy to have some sort of record of it.
Accounts written by urban explorers said that Gates was almost like a giant maze. Walls and rooms that blocked paths, seemingly randomly, on all floors. As these walls were being peeled away, you could get an idea of how the place was remodeled whenever the need arose.
Zooming in a bit to see more detail.
And a little bit to the left…
And a little bit more to the left.
Okay, time to go back out to the RTD Park & Ride lot, then around to the sidewalk in front of Gates. If it weren’t for all the pesky fences, I could do this a lot quicker…
Too bad the hanging broken roof parts cover up the fourth floor.
I'm guessing there's cool stuff I'm missing out on seeing behind it.
One more shot of this part of the building before walking away. Looks like that metal shed on the roof is about to fall off. I do like how the entrance door doesn't have anything underneath the stairs. Bonus points for the chunks of cement floor hanging from all the re-bar. And there sure was a lot of it holding the floors together.
I'm sure the boarded up windows were all shattered behind them. They extended up about 10 feet, as the security fence is 6 feet tall. Red paint almost sorta kinda matches the brick.
Walking back out to the front, along the entrance to the RTD Park & Ride. There's a fenced off section in the lot, used to hold stuff either related to the demolition, or RTD. With no evidence, I'm going to say those barrels are holding toxic waste.
They're probably empty...
Despite the sun ruining my picture, I kind of like it.
Turning around at the intersection of Broadway and Tennessee. The building on the left dates back nearly 100 years, and was once part of the Gates complex. Unlike the factory, this building was maintained as is still used as offices, The intricate brick-work puts the building it's attached to, to shame.
Gates former main entrance, looking in at the front of the building.
It was very windy this afternoon, as you can see by the flapping cover on the security fence, on the right. I had just been taking pictures from there, before walking all the way around to here. Using the packed snowbanks to stand on, to take pictures over the fence.
Zooming in on the building... There's that ruined machine with the big black wheel again!
Damn sun...
Looking into the northwest corner of the building, from the sidewalk.
A few more steps to the south.
The area with the shovel parked in it used to be where the office building (closest to Broadway) used to be. As debris was removed, it looked like this part of the basement was once some sort of mad scientist's lab. Now the floor has been removed above it, going into the building.
Even with no evidence of what was once there, looking at the basement wall, you can see something was there. With a nice open door into the main factory's basement. That will be gone in the next few weeks.
With the freezing temperatures and whipping winds, I'd had enough of walking around. So I didn't bother walking down the rest of the block for any pictures of the south side along Mississippi. While driving by, I could see there hadn't been any changes to that part of Gates, so I could save time and frostbite.
But first, I'll zoom in on that door!
There's stuff inside, but I can't see what it is...
Walking back, the sun didn't ruin this picture!
This gives a better idea how large the basement of the office building was.
Looks like it went down about 12-15 feet from ground level.
A final look into this part of Gates...
The northeast corner of Gates...
Some of that low brick wall that held back the old Gates landscaping in front of the factory. There's that old Gates office building, across the street again. Those traffic lights at the end of the block serve as the entrance to the RTD Park & Ride, with the Light Rail Train bridge crossing over it.
That's where I need to walk.
And I'm very cold.
One last picture of Gates before I put the camera away and my gloves back on.
Not having to aim the camera into the sun would have made so many of these pictures better. I did get some decent shots, but a lot of the ones I really wanted were nearly impossible. Mid-afternoon was just an all-around bad time of day to do this.
I waved to the RTD security cameras as I walked by. Hoping it made the person stuck watching the footage's day a little brighter. Grateful the heater in my crappy car is one of the few things that still works. (My cassette deck hasn't worked since 2007!) I need to defrost my fingers before driving back to Englewood.
There was one more stop I needed to make before calling it a day on photo taking.
I could already hear my couch calling out to me...
Although I'm betting I stopped at Del Taco before going home.
I really miss Del Taco...
The former Funtastic Fun building (at the corner of Broadway and Dartmouth) is nearing it's own demolition date. As of now, there wasn't a security fence on the property, so I could take pictures from better angles. Though I'd better do it today, no matter how cold it is, just in case they plop a fence around it before I get another chance.
Funtastic Fun is another story for another time!
******
If you've missed any of the previous installments of the Gates Rubber Company Demolition Diary,
here's your chance to catch up!
here's your chance to catch up!
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