Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Brantford demolition continues

Further to my previous post, on Sept.14, 2010, the demolition was focused at the west-side wall of the Right House. above: looking westward at the rear of the demolition site; the Right House's top floor has been knocked down.
above: a view of the Right House from the west, with the plaster and lath of a part of the top floor still standing, against the backdrop of the Laurier building in the distance.
above: a view of the Right House with its upper left (west-side) brick walls still standing above the level where the letters '4S' are.
above: the excavator arm stretches up to continue demolishing what had been the top floor of the structure. Note the sliding steel passage door at the bottom left.
above: the third-floor west wall, seen previously above, has been knocked down
above: the view after the brick rear-wall of the third-level collapsed. Note the steel beams were still standing after the wall fell.
above: note the steel beams running front-to-back at the top.
above: now, the remnants of the top floor have fallen onto the second floor, and both are now laying on what had been the Colborne-street-level main floor of the Right House. Now also, the second-level west-side rear window is gone.
above: closer view of the Right House, now sitting at a two-storey level.
above: the excavator hauls out one of many steel beams from the Right House interior; many had the words "Hamilton Bridge Works" stencilled on them.
above: one of the steel beams had "C1 - 2Y705" painted on it.
above: the beams also had the words "Jones & Laughlin" embossed right in the steel.
above: looking into level two (as seen from the rear, from Water St.) of the Right House. [This would be the floor below the main floor, as seen from Colborne St. Confused yet?! The way I saw it, when from the rear, the Right House had four levels, the third level in this case being the same level as the MAIN level if seen from the front]
above: luggage sale prices written on the Right House wall
above: the door which once led from #139-141 to the Right House is at the far left, yet on the Right House side, it faces a stairwell! When were these passageways used, and when were they sealed up? The bottom of this stair is on the second-level above Water St., the top of the stair would have been the main floor.
above: closer view of what is probably a wooden beam with some fancy tension rods, located on the second-level-as-seen-from-Water St. Note also the intricate decorative patterns on the old fluorescent tube lighting fixtures.
above: Sept.14, 2010, worker closes up the fence at the end of the day. The Right House building has been knocked down to two-storeys.
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below: Video by R.Bobak of the demolition of the rear west-side wall of the Right House, Sept.14, 2010. Note that when the rear portion of the third storey brick wall fell, some bricks flew past the fence line and onto the road, which was open to passing cars and pedestrians.

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