 |
|
|
UER Store
|
|
sweet UER decals:
|
|
|
 natxtron
     
Location: memphis
urbanesquelation
 |  |  | lincoln american, north main, memphis
< on 9/8/2005 3:58 AM >
|  | | | The white Lincoln-American (originally Columbian Mutual Tower) built in 1924 at 60 North Main is a smaller version of the Woolworth Building in New York City. The shorter building to the north at 72 North Main is the B. Lowenstein and Brothers Building built in 1882.
(see photos posted) There are actually two shorter buildings that join together and wrap around the lincoln american building, located on the southeast corner of jefferson and north main. All three structures are under massive deconstruction. But while the linc-am is just being stripped, the two smaller buildings are caving in. Supposedly, this is all going to become one big condo complex and first floor shops. That info is from two years ago and i don't see a whole lot of improvement.
Access was much simpler than we first thought. Several years ago we could just walk right into the linc-am and take the stairs to the top, which was always securely closed off, even with tools and equipment. But then the inside of the building use to be much more interesting than it is now. Now the building has an eight foot chainlink all the way around. In an alleyway on the east, the fence is clipped just enough to roll in with a bag on. This brings you to the smaller of the two buildings which is completely open. There is even a handy pile of lumber to walk up and into the first floor windows.
On the east sie of the building, the floor is fairly safe. The further north, the worse it gets, till we couldn't walk any further without falling into the basement. The staircase is mostly intact leading down into the basement and sub-basement, but again, the floor of the basement is fifty percent gone. The sub-basement, of course is concrete, but I didn't want to risk walking under what was left of the ceiling. Most of the heavy stuff has been removed it seems, though the sprinkler pipes and boiler are still intact. I brushed my head on a piece of pipe that was so horribly rusted that it turned to powder and a chunk fell off. There are a few old emergency water barrels and a gigantic pile of old cracker tins, most of them rusted and empty. One of them, though, still had seven pounds of stale crackers (or whatever they've turned into). I can only imagine some homeless guy feasting on five hundred pounds of government crackers in the basement till he went insane. And I thought eating ramen noodles was wearing thin on me.
Not much else to look at other than the four foot deep pools of crystal clear water that seem to have collected around the building supports. I half expected to see some blind cave fish swimming around in there. So up to ground floor again. The building is five stories with a half story on the first floor. Going up to the second floor was possible, but only by climbing around the second flight of stairs that seems to have succumbed to moisture and gravity. After looking at the floor though, we decided not to continue on. After an hour in the basements, our batteries were a third gone and we still had sixteen or so floors in the linc-am building to go. There is no way to move into the linc-am building without exiting the first building the same way we came in.
Not a soul in sight at three in the morning on the street. It's one of the nice things about Memphis. North downtown is completely dead other than the occasional homeless person. And even they don't wander much when there's no pedestrians to get money from. The nearest night-life is about five block south, around Beale st. Nonetheless, main street is lit up like a roman candle, so it's best to sneak around dumpsters and avoid the cams located on top of the hotels on the west side of main st.
Most of the first floor windows of the linc-am are intact. Two or three have plywood braced from inside. Only the top is braced so the bottom can be pushed up with little effort. Almost too easy. Once inside though, we realize why there isn't a whole lot of effort to keep it locked down. Completely stripped. The floorplan is rather small so it only took about thirty seconds to locate the basement stairs which are right at the main street entrance. The basement is full of equipment from the construction, including a double spot lamp (each is 250 watt!) on a tripod. All the building maintainance records are piled up in a corner office, along with the asbestos removal records, manuals, and disposal bags. There was also an old safe which was wide open and filled with old records, etc.
The second floor had, what looks like, a ball room connected to a "ladies parlor," something unusual for buildings in the early half of the century here in the south. Most of the time, they just had men's clubs. Again, the once beautiful dance floor was gone nothing remained other than a forest of rusted nails. Boobytrap? Walk softly and wear some thick soles. Someone with a stencil and a can of blue paint has gone spastic all over the inside of the building. Apparently, he or she feels that "Life is Perverse." I tend to believe that you make of life what you will. Art imitates life.
The stairs are very clean all the way up to the sixteenth floor. Some of the fire escape doors have been kicked in or destroyed with what looks like a sawed-off twelve gauge. The lower sixteen floors are in the shape of a C, with fire escapes running down both sides. There is rooftop access on both sides by way of the fire escapes. The middle of the building goes up another three floors. At the top floor there is a small staircase with a metal gate that leads up to the pyramid shaped roof. Inside is the fire sprinkler reservoir. On top of the reservoir is a spiral staircase that leads up to the spire. There is a rusty hatch that swings open, though the hinges are long gone. After accidentally dropping a square hatch a couple months ago, I was careful to make sure this one didn't gravitate the wrong direction. Getting rust in the eyes is no good either.
The spire is about four feet square and only three people (four if you're skinny like me) can stand up there at once. The Lincoln American is maybe the seventh tallest building in Memphis and provides a nice view of downtown and main street. All told, we spent maybe two hours in the building before heading safely home.
Are you now, or have you ever been? |
|
|
|
All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site:
UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service |
View Privacy Policy |
Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 93 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 739070199 pages have been generated.
|
|
