The original Barnett Bank building here downtown has been an ongoing construction site now for years it seems. The Orlando based developer is in ruins and legal trouble right now (I mean really...does anything good ever come out of Orlando!?) so the project has been on hold. Last weekend, one of my coworkers who lives in the Knight Building, a small residential loft project across Adams Street from the bank, was looking out his window and watching a group of men haul away some big polished brass gates from the building. He thought at the time it seemed strange, so he and a neighbor went downstairs and lit up a few cigarettes and watched the procession of brass out the door. Suddenly, all the guys ran toward their truck and jumped in and sped off, brass bouncing around in the back.
Turns out, after talking with our historic planner on staff, the gates were probably the original elevator cages, apparently one of the few remaining historic elements left from the original lobby of the bank. I'm sure they were headed for the recyclers for the brass scrap. Those idiots probably will get maybe 200 bucks for their trouble. Fools. Coworker feels bad, because like most of us, its only after the fact that we as a culture of mindless potato-heads realize what we could have and should have done. Sort of like blocking out a car alarm...it's really not our business because its not our car...
picture from www.metrojacksonville.com
3 comments:
Aaaargh!
That's like the story of the thieves in England who hauled away a million-dollar bronze sculpture to sell it for a couple hundred bucks worth of scrap.
Did the guys in the truck get all the gates? And why didn't the owner secure the site better?
My coworker says they had keys...might have actually been the developer or some disgruntled contractor!
I remmember being on top of a nearby parking garage with a tripod and a telephoto lense and teking pictures of the detail on the nearby Bisby building, and there were guys with pry bars running around in there. One of them pointed out the window at me a began to yell. Scavengers are creepy people!
Geez.
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