The Carpenter Machineworks is gone

The Carpenter Machineworks at the corner of 36th and Albion (the bottom of my block) has been torn down, and with it has gone some of the diversity -- and mystery -- of the neighborhood. I had noticed a couple of weeks ago that the windows and doors were open and that the building seemed empty. It was the first time in my 23 years living here I'd ever seen inside it, as far as I can recall. It was a nondescript light-industrial structure made of corrugated tin. Nothing much seemed to happen there, although occasionally I'd hear someone banging around inside. A rusty old heap of a flatbed truck with a little crane on the back was parked out front, off the street, for years. It was all a little mysterious, just like the blank-looking green building right next to it, which has a name and phone number painted on the door but little other sign of purpose or use. An old man drives up occasionally in a plain white van and goes inside, but what exactly does he do in there? It's gotta be a front for clandestine activity!

( Histories and mysteries of Fremingford ... )