A Library and a Brewery

Winter 2010.

 

This handsome church was built in 1927.

It stands on the fringe of a neighbourhood that has fine victorian homes and other impressive & far larger buildings.

Unfortunately it came to become abandoned somewhere along the way.


The strange thing was that it later became a library.

Even though it has now become an abandoned library, it made me love this city even more to see that they even attempted this advanced building re-use.


The installed library floors were very stable & I didn't hear them creek at all.

They were so extensive that I forgot I was in an old church more than a few times...


...then I'd come to a wall and there would be impressive stone arches standing in front of me.

It was interesting to be eye-level with church arches instead of at the floor-level.


This church/library also had a ~100 seat theatre in the basement.

I took a few quick pictures & then joined Fajita Steve in harassing the artfagging Don.


I tried to climb up to the bell tower as well, but after climbing onto a decaying handrail, then on top of a rickety door, I pulled myself through a hole to realize that there was only a 3-foot high wall around the rooftop.

With an apartment complex a stones-throw away, I decided against taking the exterior staircase up to the bell tower.


Leaving the church, we decided to also bust up this brewery while we were in town.


The items leftover were pretty boring, as the place had clearly been used for storage after the passing of its brewery years. In my opinion, the best items left behind were rubber stoppers for beakers, which were really useful for throwing at Don.


The brewery's interior was made up of flat floors separated by vertical ladders. Steve made it up a couple, then abandoned going all the way to the top, due to his fear of heights.

I personally thought the view was worth my 8-odd floors of vertical ladder. My only complaint being that we had to be a bit cautious on the rooftop, as we didn't know if being spotted would be a problem.

We would climb down and hit a nearby liquor mart for some celebratory drinks. Steve paid for his with a $20 and the clerk gave him back a fistful of $1s - which Don & I enjoyed, as many shifty characters were about the liquor store, all keeping their eye on this unfamiliar character with a fistful of $1s.

Good library/brewery/shady times.


As for the future, the church has been purchased by someone & hopefully that leads to some type of renovation. I didn't check for news on the brewery, but I really doubt there is any.


 

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