Gates Rubber Company - Demolition Diary part 10

June 09, 2023

An unforeseen tragedy struck the Gates Demolition Diary Project.

On Sunday, February 2nd, 2014, I took my usual set of Gates demolition photos, plus wherever else I went that morning. Upon getting home, I copied them to my laptop, from the digital camera, re-saved all of them in Photoshop, then wet about my business. A few days after taking that week's pictures, the hard drive on my already old Mac PowerBook G4 fried.

Despite being very consistent in keeping my files backed up, I hadn't yet copied that week's photos to an external storage device. Worse yet, I already deleted them off my digital camera. And I never do that before they're backed up. There was no avoiding it. Gates demolition pictures from Sunday February 2, 2014 were lost forever.

I was so distraught over this, that I skipped the week of Feb 9th completely.

During that time, I had a conversation with the Mac guru at my job. He had me send him the model number and he'd steer me in the direction of hard drives that would be compatible. At this point, the computer was roughly ten years old, so finding reputable parts wasn't the easiest thing to do. And I sure didn't know where to start.

After researching the options, I had my new hard drive ordered and sitting on my desk for an additional week before I decided to finally swap them out. Barely a clue as to what I was doing, beyond some YouTube videos to guide me.

I got the machine apart with no problem. I even swapped the drives with very little problem. Putting it back together was a big problem. The position of the clips keeping the top and bottom connected, are near impossibly bound by a tight lip, making the seal on all four sides too difficult a task for me. The clips on the lower right corner, didn't line up after far too many attempts.

But the machine booted up immediately, once I declared it ready for a test. By some miracle of all miracles, it worked on the first try! Not counting that last clip that stayed unattached. Which may or may not have been the cause of the DVD drive not working anymore. Not a big deal, although there are still reasons that I'd like to burn a CD at times, but haven't been able to do since 2014.

After a very tense afternoon of working on it, I declared my computer fixed on February 26, 2014. First order of business (after re-loading all the software I use) was to edit the Gates demolition photos from Sunday, February 16, 2014. Having left them, with my fingers tightly crossed, on the memory card in my digital camera.

So let’s go see what I saw!

******

I didn't work the night before, so I didn't start out the photo tour a few blocks away from Gates. Pretty sure I had stayed up all night anyway. I usually kept the graveyard shift schedule on my days off back then. After waiting for sufficient daylight, I drove north on Broadway, east on Mansfield, then north on Logan, so I could stop for photos of the ongoing Englewood High School demolition.

Really should write that Englewood High School demolition story one of these years...

Continuing north on Logan, up to Kenyon. No, not my old really crappy apartment, but Kenyon Avenue. Where I'll drive west, past the site of Flood Middle School. (I did write about Flood, parts one and two.) Demolished in 2013, and currently looking like this:

This would be the future home of Alta Cherry Hills. I name I detested. Cherry Hills is about 10 blocks east of here. Don't name something in Englewood after the town NEXT TO Englewood. I don't care how elegant you think it sounds. It's still just a giant pile of overpriced apartments. I heard it was renamed something different, a bit later on, but they still kept the Cherry Hills part. Guess it was cheaper to only change half the sign?

The shoes are a nice touch.

After getting back to Broadway, I continued north through downtown Englewood.

Driving past the doomed former Funtastic Fun building, another story I need to write.

And at the opposite end of the block...

I read recently that the Twin Dragon restaurant closed in April, 2023, after being open for 47 years. The owner decided to retire, and it's cool they are able to do so. Twin Dragon had a really good Mongolian Beef, served with the appropriate amount of onions. Not 90% onions, New Dragon! While I only ate inside the restaurant once or twice, the Twin Dragon was frequently in our carry-out rotation at work. It was also our go-to when Laura and I wanted Chinese.

A few blocks up Broadway, past the Englewood city limits, and on into Denver, you get the Sonic Drive-In. I'm not a fan of Sonic, and haven't been since the first time I ate there. Does everything have to be slathered in Mayonnaise? Even the milkshakes too? Riding the idea of serving food at a drive-in, to touch that nostalgia button that fewer and fewer can even relate to, is clearly a gimmick. And it's worked. The fine folks at Sonic are hoping that means you wont notice just how subpar the food quality is.

These days it's a brunch place named after bacon. But several restaurants and remodels ago, this used to be Cross Genetics. A short lived marijuana growing supply store that opened up in what previously was very convenient and often patronized 7-11. When it was still 7-11 (pretty sure it closed in 2011 or 2012), it was the easiest to get in and out of along the Broadway northbound route to my job. Although the non-stop harassment from homeless people grew annoying, I still stopped. Hundreds of gallons of sugary soft drinks, those great ham and cheese mini-sub sammiches for $1.99 (later $2.99) each, roller grill Taquitos, and more packs of cigarettes than I'd care to admit.

(I'm almost at my one year anniversary from quitting cigarettes, minus a stress relief pack in August of last year. I miss cigarettes almost as much as I miss Del Taco. Some days more than others…)

I also bought cigarettes at this Smoker Friendly store, on the opposite end of the block. Although, my preferred Smoker Friendly store was at Belleview and Federal, just north of the new King Soopers.

This Subway sold me a few sammiches over the years, just not very often. A few weeks ago, I had that once every other year craving for a Subway meatball sammich. Not only was it now $10, but it tasted more terrible than ever. Subway has cut so many corners and degenerated their food quality by so much, I was wondering if they'd been purchased by YUM Brands.

But if you skip over that cell phone store, you can get an excellent ham and sausage calzone from Joyce's Famous Pizza. Joyce's was also a regular in our work food rotation.

Enough of that, let's get to Gates!

Which is looking significantly smaller, from the intersection of Broadway & Mississippi. I drove the additional two plus blocks north, to the RTD Light Rail Park & Ride. From there, you weave around the lot, to where it allows you to pass under the bridge and onto an overflow lot on the former Gates property. The southernmost point of which, was directly in front of the demolition.

See!

I’d been wondering how long this silver-colored shed on the Gates roof was going to stay up there, before tumbling down to the ground below. Gates had been removed literally to its front doorsteps, but there it stands. Not falling yet...

My favorite part of all this demolition was seeing what was left inside the factory, as the layers of wall were peeled away. Like this room on the second floor. There’s a door, and some 2x4 framing around it, suggesting the sheetrock had been removed long ago. So what was this room used for?

ENHANCE!

Oh! Confined Space Equipment!

Although, with the walls removed, it’s not really a confined space any longer. It’s kind of wide open. Even more so with the Gate walls removed exposing it.

Looking more to the southeast at more wide open Gates. Including that sweet exposed staircase/elevator shaft combo, leading up above the roof.

For a change, there wasn’t a large pile of destroyed Gates laying all over the ground, obscuring the first floor (or more). You could even catch a glimpse of the basement, in places.

So much old rubber making equipment left behind...

Shelving and racks that could have been repurposed. Although, I’m betting they were completely filthy with stuff both safe and toxic. As useful as those shelves on the third floor may have been in storing something like baseball card albums, you’d probably get head cancer from just looking at them too long.

But as I was looking at the ground, something bright and yellow caught my eye...

Do Not Start!

And do not use the proper spelling of the word disciplinary!

I may not get to keep any of the shelving that was left behind, but I’m damn sure keeping this “Out of Service” equipment sign. It had fallen out of some part of the building, and blown over to the the parking lot, where I could pick it up and take it home, without doing any actual trespassing.

Gates knew I was somewhat preserving its legacy, and decided to toss me a gift for my efforts.

And I appreciate the gesture!

That yellow warning tag was not affixed to this piece of obsolete Gates equipment.

So that means I may be able to start it up without facing disiplinary action.

Have I mentioned just how much I love this staircase?

Almost as much as I like how someone climbed all the way to the top of those stairs, just to paint “WEED” on the wall.

What about weed? Is that where you’re supposed to go to enjoy your weed, when you’ve broken into a giant defunct rubber factory? You know, this is Denver. I bet you could have enjoyed your weed anywhere inside the factory and no one was going to say anything. Weather the walls give you permission or not.

Continuing on looking south into the vast darkness of Gates.

I wasn’t able to enhance the photos enough to read what the third floor signs said.

There’s another staircase in the northeast corner of what’s left of the building. It’s not as cool and falling apart, as the other staircase (yet).

Some of the rebar-heavy concrete Gates pillars laying on the ground, by the basement hole. left behind by the office building that was demolished first at the site. (Back in November and December, 2013.) The big hole in the ground was now being used for trucks to drive down into, take on a load of Gates debris, then back out and around the building to get on Interstate 25, and be driven to wherever they were dumping all the pieces of factory.

New apartments are going up across Broadway (left side of the picture) that match the less new apartments across Mississippi (right side of the picture). The US Bank at the center of this picture would survive until the Summer of 2015, outliving the Gates factory by a good year, before it would be demolished.

For the story of that US Bank, and other buildings that used to be on that block, go read this.

Since I'm finished with photos from this angle, I'm going to walk up to the former Electric Plant, on the north edge of the property and back. For a February morning in Denver, it's fairly warm this morning. The only remaining snow is just piles from plowings. Nothing left in the streets or lawns.

The Electric Plant stood separate from the main plant.

Through the alley, you can see another part of the building, on the west edge of this cluster. Gates used to consist of at least 10 buildings, scattered around this immediate area. This cluster of buildings are the largest and last remaining of the Gates campus.

I like this look down the alley.

Electric Plant as it looked in February, 2014.

North edge of the plant, with the Rocky Mountains on the horizon.

I miss seeing the Rocky Mountains every day. Almost as much as I miss cigarettes and Del Taco.

Hey! I think that's the Electric Plant!

Hmmm... I see a sign...

ENHANCE!

Sure hope someone tells the demolition crews...

I've previously written about keeping an eye out for interesting litter, while taking pictures of abandoned buildings.

Stuff that as soon as you see it, you need the backstory.

And Durex aren't even that good!

If you're buying condoms, just spend the additional quarter for LifeStyles.

Cheap bastard...

Someone got banged in their car before the other one took the RTD Light Rail home.

Under the non-lighting of an abandoned rubber company.

So very romantic.

Symbolically then, returning the product to it's representative birth place.

One could even look at this as a vigil...

That was on the ground just about where I was standing. So I looked over the fence and took this shot for perspective. Those blocks in the ground, next to the Electric Plant, used to support a network of electrical stuff all condensed into a tight amount of space. I've seen a picture of it (may have borrowed it for a previous Gates Demolition Diary?), but I have no clue what any of it does...

And a look out at the parking lot from the condom wrapper vantage point.

The aging Blueberry Honksicle can be seen at the far left.

Time to get back to it and drive around to the US Bank parking lot.

A through the passenger side window shot of Gates, while waiting in the turning lane onto Broadway south.

US Bank was still open in 2014. Today being a Sunday made it not matter, but I usually parked in the lot across the alley, which was designated for customers only. What if I had an account here, but didn't come in? I'm still a customer, just not at that particular moment... How would you handle that situation, US Bank?

I jaywalked across Mississippi and took a look to the east.

All of these lots are being filled with large clusters of apartments and townhomes, out to Logan Avenue.

With the removal of Gates, and the eventual clearing of the Broadway facing block of Mississippi, this dense industrial area, will be completely converted to dense residential. All within close distance of the major RTD Light Rail station. It's a good re-use from what it was.

Brought to you by these guys!

Of course there's something you’d have to keep in mind if you were building on and/or buying land in this area. The Gates factory had a notorious reputation for polluting the ground it stood on. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what is in the soil, and getting uncovered as these buildings are removed. Even after the buildings were gone, work continued for several years on site cleanup. Nothing has yet been built here either, so there’s obviously still an issue. Be it environmental or political. No amount of scrubbing is going to eliminate a century of this stuff sitting on top of it. And no one knows what the effects of living here afterwards, will be either.

But I don’t live in Colorado anymore, and won’t likely be living on top of Gates anytime soon either.

So, I’m going to start off by walking north on Broadway, almost to where I was previously parked. Getting the perspective from the other side of the fence.

I really want to know what was inside this cube.

Love that the parking lot light is still on.

Shovels resting on a Sunday morning.

An untouched Gates parking lot sign.

I hope this was saved.

I doubt it was.

Looking at the northeast corner, with the destruction on the other side.

An undamaged Gates exterior light.

I hope this was saved as well.

I really doubt it was.

Wide open access to the Gates basement!

Zoom out for perspective.

The staircase/elevator shaft combo tower.

What remains of it anyways.

Back in 2007, an urban explorer fell down an open elevator shaft, and died a month later from his injuries. While I don't think it was this particular shaft, I thought I remembered reading that all elevator doors inside Gates were welded shut, to prevent it happening again. After a brief search, I couldn't re-find that information, so I may have just made it up in my head.

However, you can find plenty about the guy who died.

There was a lawsuit about it and stuff, I'm not going to get into it.

Open Gates and the truck turn around.

The staircase/elevator shaft combo tower, from a differenter angle.

This immediate part of Gates hadn't been demolished two weeks earlier, when I took my last photos. The set that was lost to the fried hard drive. There was one picture that I absolutely hated losing from that day.

Roughly the same angle, taken January 26, 2014.

The staircase/elevator shaft combo tower rises above the roof. You cant see the bottom quarter of it, because it's blocked by other parts of the roof. That part of the tower had already been demolished by February 16th, but the missing photos from February 2nd had some great shots of this:

This beautiful and colorful art was painted on the side of the tower, where it extends from the roof. (Thanks to whomever took it from the roof, and made it available on the Googles) I'd seen pictures of this painting from several sources online, and was excited to take a few shots of it myself, albeit from the street. The cloudy sky that morning made those pictures really pop, and I really hate that I lost them.

The truck turn around hadn’t gotten this established the previous week. But it looked like a lot of effort had been focused in clearing the property of broken Gates. Back in January, it was really starting to pile up. This looks about as clean and organized as your can get, given the task at hand.

Formerly the main walkway to front entrance of Gates.

With some benches that haven't yet been scrapped.

Behind an ornamental half-wall, with the truck loading area beyond.

Time to take a walk down to the south side of the factory.

I haven't done that in a while, and it's a nice enough day to walk around for a bit longer.

South down Broadway, hard right at the Mississippi intersection.

A narrow single-lane road leads up to the rear gate of Gates, then across a bridge over Mississippi Avenue. Mississippi itself continues on westward, underneath that bridge, multiple railroad tracks and another bridge.

Another decorative brick half wall, holding back a pine tree.

Downtown Denver is off on the horizon, behind the Gates lot and RTD Light Rail Bridge.

The west facing exterior wall of Gates.

I'd say this door is pretty well blocked.

The second and third floor used to have a two story skyway, crossing Mississippi Avenue, to the additional Gates factory on the south side of the road. This was removed in 2007, when that factory building was demolished.

The Badger Meter Read-O-Matic wasn't moving. Guess that probably means water service to the factory is shut down.

Hope there's not a fire...

As I walked up the ramp approaching the rear Gates gate, I could see some more trash blowing around the road. One of which was a small yellow scrap of paper. Which warranted closer examination...

A carbon from a work order, requested December 27, 1976, for a project needed by January 5th, 1977. Requested from James in Engineering, last name removed for anonymity. Hard to believe this piece of paper lasted some 15 years inside of the factory being used, then an additional 23 years, sitting inside the abandoned factory, to somehow end up outside the building, and on the road below. Bear in mind, all of the demolition is taking place, nearly a block away.

Thanks Gates, another nice souvenir!

That basement window has been left open for years. Speaking of, how many years has that empty 2 liter bottle been crammed between the wall and pipe coming out of it?

About 20 feet from where that work order carbon was, I found this (more beat up) page, on the ground, partially under the chain link security fence.

Again, all names were removed because I don't feel like being sued by any former Gates employees. This was just a basic information sheet covering who is doing what for a future collaborative report, dated March 3, 1977. I'm guessing that with his name hand written at the top of this page, this was Don's copy. If that's the case, and the handwriting (and what nice handwriting it is!) under his name's topics seem to back that up, he may need this page back to finish his report.

If you know Don, ask him if he needs this, and I'll get it back to him PRONTO!

The west-facing back side of Gates. A lot of past access points are haphazardly patched with grey painted plywood. None of which ever kept the people out of Gates that really wanted to go inside.

I always wanted to go inside, but never did.

Looking further down the back of Gates. Fences prohibited me from walking back here, so I was at the mercy of camera zoom. Which sucks because that building had a bunch of really sweet graffiti on every reachable surface accepting of paint.

This one's pretty cool.

I was feeling extra sporty today, so I continued my walk around Gates to under the bridges and out Mississippi, to take a look at the Back of Gates, from the other side of the railroad tracks.

As the road and sidewalk inclined enough to meet the ramp up to the crossing bridge, I climbed back up that hill, and walked towards the tracks. It was exhausting. I had to break for a cigarette.

Gates used to operate buildings on this side of the tracks as well.

Most of those buildings were demolished about ten years ago, if not earlier.

Thanks to the poor tagging, I don't know what's required in this area!

Along the fence there was a makeshift memorial.

I don't know the story behind it, so I took my picture and moved on.

The boards placed between the tracks would seem to imply that this are was at one time used for vehicle crossing. Likely between the different buildings on the Gates campus.

On the far left side of this picture is the former Gates water tower, which used to sit on the roof of the main plant. It was removed and placed on the ground a few years before demolition started. The purpose was to save and preserve it, for possible incorporation into whatever project replaces the factory. That's pretty cool, I'm glad they showed some foresight.

I couldn't get any further north along this fence, so I turned around and walked back.

The bridges over Mississippi Avenue, and the deteriorated road it serves.

Looking down at Mississippi underneath me.

The sidewalk I used and am about to use, is on the left side of this picture.

Looking up from where I was standing.

Looking west down Mississippi, which is intersecting with Santa Fe Drive, at the center of this picture.

Just beyond the Carpet Warehouse (on the left), is the Breakfast King restaurant.

Which suddenly closed on January 3, 2022, after 47 years in business. Sadly, I never ate at the Breakfast King, despite hearing it's legend for years. I definitely regret that.

So I walked back down the side walk and under the bridges to get back to my car.

Along the way, I noticed these three boxes on the wall above me.

First...

Second...

Third...

They appear to be lights, tucked into protective boxes.

Then heavily tagged by pedestrians walking by.

That used to be the plank that Gates made the bad employees walk...

(Now they just throw them down an elevator shaft....)

Broken windows...

More broken windows...

Looking back at Gates, with the new apartments on my right.

Reflecting on how fast this area had changed since 2005.

Before jaywalking back to my car across the street, in the lot across the alley from US Bank.

Then getting in and back out on Mississippi and wait for the lights to allow me to turn left onto southbound Broadway.

Driving back from Gates, I didn't find a whole lot of stuff I haven't photographed to death over the last year or so.

So here's one!

Thrillseekers Climbing Gym closed in March 2018, when the owners retired. It opened in 1992, in the old Ritz (or Jewell) Theater building. The theater dates back to 1926, and has undergone a massive remodel over the past year, restoring the old theater atmosphere, updated for new retail use. The listing for the building on LoopNet needs to be seen.

Safely back in Englewood, you can find Jimano's Pizzeria. Years back, shortly after they opened, I found that their pizza had a very similar recipe to a local pizza place I frequented in Coon Rapids. So ordering from Jimano's (or Garanimals, if you're Lisa) was very similar to ordering from Mansetti's.

They even cut the pizzas in squares!

Now sitting empty in the Gothic Theater parking lot, the former China House operated out of this tiny building for many years. (Before China House, this was one of several Rockybilt Hamburger stands, placed around the Denver metro area, starting in the 1930's.) The city of Englewood even produced it's own 3 minute documentary about this building:

This all sorts of rules!

Hey Crapids, steal this!

When I moved to Englewood in 1996, the Gothic Theater had already been closed for several years. It would be closed for several more before re-opening in the spring of 2000. But I was enthralled with the place while it was closed. A November 1997 photo shoot of the Gothic was one of my first ever buildings that I dedicated precious 35mm film to covering.

I found out during the Gothic Theater's last stretch of being open, it was a venue used for mainly rap and rock concerts, in the late 80's and early 1990's. Not long after I moved nearby, I found out some of my favorite bands had played shows at the Gothic, like Nirvana (1991), Mr. Bungle (1992) and Faith No More (1993). Thanks to the internet, I have audio copies of all of those shows.

My favorite part of all this, if you went to one of those shows, you could have parked right next to the Gothic Theater.

For 50 CENTS!!!

All you had to do was drop 2 measly quarters on the counter at the China House. 50 cents is all it cost to watch Kurt Cobain scream at the Gothic Theater in 1991. Or Mike Patton scream in 1992.

Mind blowing.

I took a few more pictures of assorted buildings (that I don't feel like write about) along the way to my final stop of the day. The Littleton Blvd. King Soopers had recently closed. That store, and the west side of the Littleton Square Shopping Center, would be demolished for a much Sooperer King Soopers, opening in the fall of 2014.

Naturally I had to show up to take pictures of these buildings getting cleared out and prepped for demolition, days before the shovels struck them down. After all, I have to write this story...

(I'm making you follow the link instead of showing one of those awesome pictures here!)

After I was done with that picture taking at Littleton Square, I drove Bannock north, past the crappy apartments, past Norgren, past where Littleton Prep Academy moved after leaving Columbine Square Shopping Center (a place I REALLY need to write about), past more crappy apartments, including Silver Cliff, where Super Sad A's Fan Rob used to live...

Yup!

And on into the Englewood KMart parking lot...

Serving as a shortcut on the way to Del Taco, so I could pick up a bowl of Fiesta Rice for Laura, a Del Beef Burrito for me, and some Tacos for both of us.

I miss Del Taco.

Almost as much as seeing the Rocky Mountains, smoking cigarettes and uh... Del Taco...

Yeah, I blew that one...

******

Dating back to June 1998, I've owned 2 Macintosh computers that have been of the utmost of importance to developing my writing. The G3 Tower was used daily until around 2009, when it was replaced by the laptop. That G3 Tower sat in a closet until early 2016, when it was donated to the Museum of Ebersole.

I bought the Macintosh PowerBook G4 in the Spring of 2008. A former co-worker sold it to me for $1000. He bought it brand new in 2004, but rarely used it. Immediately it became my daily use computer for all things writing. It's so old that it hasn't touched the internet in 8 years, because the O.S. can't be updated enough to load even the simplest of web sites.

The original hard drive fried in February 2014, but you should have known that already. In 2015, I pieced together a working Windows Box, for actual internet usage. With those two piecemeal options, I haven't needed to upgrade two of the most important tools in my creative life.

This can't last. The PowerBook is showing it's age as it approaches it's 20th birfday. The monitor is already showings signs of giving out, and the hard drive seems to run harder and more often than it should be. I'm concerned that one of these days very soon, I'm going to turn it on and see that same sad question mark that I saw in February, 2014.

So I'm being extra vigilant in my backups. Just in case I turn it off for the night and it doesn't wake up in the morning. I hate that I'm going to have to find a new solution soon, or I'm going to be without something I really need. But I don't want new and top of the line, I'm used to 2004's technology, and that’s just fine by me…