In the Rearview Mirror
Despite publishing this on January 1st of 2024 it comes up as being posted on the 31st of December, It's not but whatever I guess.
New year new me? Nah still the same old idiot as before. Anyways now that it is 57 minutes into 2024 as of writing this I guess I can look back on the good old days of 2023. Yesterday me and a friend set out exploring the glass city hitting random locations on my map. While unsuccessfully attempting to find our way into an abandoned mattress warehouse we noticed the hulking skeleton of a collapsed warehouse down the road.
Of course seeing a building in this terrible of condition immediately peaked my interest so we walked over to see what was up. According to historical imagery the building used to have a wooden section that has either collapsed with time or burned down, it was honestly hard to tell.
This warehouse had been constructed in 1919 to service the Acme Specialty Manufacturing Company. It's not exactly clear when the warehouse was disused but in every photo that is available online it appears to have already been in disarray.
Acme Specialty Manufacturing Company specializes in the production of automobile mirrors, There doesn't seem to be much information on their early years but considering the time frame it can be assumed they likely had ties with the Willys-Overland Motor Company.
According to their website "40 years ago" which judging by the design of their site could range anywhere from 1950 to 1970 they began manufacturing mirrors for off-road vehicles. Strangely enough Jeep is not listed under their clients.
Today Acme Specialty Manufacturing Company continues to manufacture mirrors in the complex that the warehouse is located in. It seems despite the poor condition that the building was in, The owners had kept it fairly well sealed as inside there wasn't much graffiti, or maybe others just aren't as stupid as me.
We originally didn't plan on going inside but we found that the padlock on the front door wasn't locked for some reason. So we had ourselves a little look.
Upon entering we found ourselves in what appeared to be an office area, the interior was a surreal mess of angled walls and wooden debris, however some areas still appeared somewhat building like.
The offices were littered with remains of last occupants as well as a bunch of random trash that had been dumped inside likely by third parties. It seems homeless people stopped fancying this place after it fell on them.
The floor in the office area was wooden and floating about 3 inches off the bare concrete below leading to us punching a few holes in it on accident. Once inside the warehouse area I was surprised to see it still had some semblance of a building.
It seemed that for a long time the warehouse was just being used to store extra junk, most of it had probably become "antiques" considering how long it had been in there for.
In mid 2023 the building was forfeited to the Lucas County Land Bank which means it's likely on the chopping block for demolition. The Lucas County Land Bank is responsible for the demolition of Baron Steel and the infamous Premier Bedding Factory, I find it strange they didn't tear this place down before Baron Steel.
Usually I would be against tearing down a 100+ year old warehouse but unfortunately this structure is probably too far gone for economical repairs, plus the area it's in doesn't really scream developer friendly. It had some nice wooden beams though I hope those are reused.
Anyways I hope you enjoyed the first official post of 2024. I apologize for my inactivity the last few months, I haven't had much time to get out and explore and when I was able to I ended up not being able to get into anything worthwhile. Hopefully 2024 will be a better year for me I doubt it though.
Happy New Year! Mutagen Out.
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