04 Mar demolition completed on one of two adjoining 19th century rowhouses on huron street – its neighbor will share same fate the following week

on the way to the office this morning i made a stop at the corner of huron and state to document the progression of a demolition, a site at which my repeated requests to salvage ornament ultimately fell on deaf ears. this was due in large part to my lack of familiarity or relationship with the wrecking company that had been assigned to bring down the houses, to make way for a 20+ story apartment building.

despite my hands being tied and feeling utterly helpless, i soon overcame the disappointment of witnessing the machine begin its attack. i had to bypass the wrecking bars and hammers, and go straight to the camera and lenses, skipping straight to documentation of the gradual destruction of these two houses, which had stood at this corner since the late 1870’s or early 1880’s (research ongoing).

it’s at times like this that part of me wonders, stemming from a business standpoint, whether i’m wasting my time on a demolition that i will not benefit from monetarily. after all, i am running an architectural salvage business, one that survives on a cycle involving acquisitions and sales of artifacts to cover monthly overhead.

nevertheless, thanks to my amazing team i get the chance, in sporadic windows of time, to pursue what interests me most – documenting the various facets of the death of a building (e.g., photographic surveys, salvaging ornament, building materials, unearthing privy pits, etc.). this, i do in the highly systematic manner that i have painstakingly developed to ensure a given structure has been recorded adequately for future research purposes and the like. with the urban landscape changing at an alarming rate, the old being removed to make way for the new, it is imperative that i be present to make a record of what is/was lost. this way i can stitch together a richly detailed narrative surrounding these structures, in hopes of achieving a deeper understanding, or broader scope of our city’s architectural heritage through a given span of time.