I got excited just rolling up to this place. The building has seen many uses, the most recent is a job corp. What's a job corp? It's a last ditch attempt to save the youth from the city. And by youth I mean black kids. I saw only one white kid there. In a way, its a secured location. Far from civilization. There was no barbed wire fence but the remote wilderness was enough to scare away the city kids. They had no idea how to survive or navigate the woods. They were like a pack of animals. As I did work there, I'd casually observe their behavior. Rude. Disrespectful. A modern feral dog had more class. I didn't let that ruin the architecture though. There was a 1902 stamp on the foundation somewheres. No, it's really not that old. Theres plenty of farm houses back home that date into the 1800s.
Very cool. I found myself wandering a bit when I was going back and forth getting supplies. It was such a contradiction seeing this wonderfully constructed piece of masonry that was infected with the shittiest youth that destroys everything in sight. Certainly this building did not deserve this punishment. The work involved crawl spaces. Crawl spaces with a steam leak. There was a thick fog rolling across the floor and the temperature hovered around 130 degrees. Toss in 100% humidity and it made for a great work environment.
The age defintely showed. Everything was peeling, cracking and crumbling. A building like this should be preserved. I'd love to own something like it someday. Obviously its a horrible investment.
Never seen Gym spelled this way. Its plausible though. Short for Gymnasium. I suspect it was from the World War 2 era. It was written in nazi style. Electrical nightmare. The fact that things worked was pretty amazing. Realstically its a pretty simple system, a simple system waiting to blow up.
A new HVAC system was going in, to supplement the original boilers. Speaking of boilers.
Not the best shots. Not the best place to talk either, considering how loud this room was. I did have an affinity for catwalks and pipe mazes. I needed to reach a junction box that was facing away from the catwalk. It required me to balance myself on the guardrail and suspend myself above the boiler to reach the face of the junction box. This type of work is statistically dangerous, I do miss it at times. Its a different kind of thrill.
Hallway of doom. All the piping above is not original. Over the years the ceiling height kept getting lower with new conduit, water pipes and heating ducts put in. Now the ceiling rested slightly above my head level. Just look at the doorway at the end of the hall in comparison to the height of the pipes. Although nowhere near modern, its clear an attempt has been made to continual update the place.
A lot of my work took place here. Not sure what you're looking at? I'm above a hanging ceiling. This is in the main chapel. At some point a hanging grid ceiling was put in place, possibly to cut down on the heating bill. The chapel was converted into a game room of sorts. Everything had a chain and lock on it. Really? City kids steal stuff? The hanging ceiling was going to be removed so the lighting needed to be removed. Up above was more great work, giant wood beams and arches. The true makings of what used to be a church. All this was hidden from the ground level. At the end of the chapel was a walled off portion. I made entry out of curiosity and found myself in the head of the chapel. A beautiful alter, made of marble that has been partially dismantled. Above the alter was a ceiling of biblical paintings, like what you would see in chapels that are truly old.
All of this, tucked away to not be seen. It just felt wrong. This is the kind of moving forward I dont like. Is this really progressing? Or is it simply making the best of an aging situation?
Regardless, I enjoyed working here simply for the fact that I could explore a bit and get more than just a paycheck.
