On Friday the crew worked on bringing down the rest of the back wall. (They cleaned up some of the rubble and had it trucked away, too, but I didn’t take any pictures of that.)

Sometimes the excavator looked a bit precarious on its perch atop the rubble, but the operator kept it upright.

When the walls were down, they started moving debris around to prepare for its removal.

I wasn’t the only one watching the demolition. This spectator didn’t seem to appreciate the noise.

Not much of the building was left standing after Friday’s work.

The livery demolition continued. I arrived around midday, after some work had already been done, but I arrived during a lull in the action.

It wasn’t long before that lull came to an end.

Continue reading →

It’s been the season of notable demolitions here in Chelsea: a week and a half after the Wolverine was demolished, another crew started the work of razing the livery building. The notion of leveling that particular historic building to make way for a parking lot generated a bit of controversy that resulted in delays, but in the end, the project moved forward.

The initial word was simply that demolition would begin sometime during the week — there was no specific start date given. I didn’t want to miss the beginning, so I went on Facebook and asked locals to keep an eye on the site and let me know when the demolition seemed to be starting. How effective was that tactic? Well, when the crew arrived, not only did I get several Facebook messages, but I also got a message on Twitter and even an email! Because of the helpfulness of those wonderful people, I arrived a few minutes before the demolition began. My thanks to all those who kept me informed!

The crew started by knocking out the boarded-up windows.

The excavator patted the building on the head…

…and then punched it in the face.

Notice the year painted on the building:

It turns out that’s not the year that particular building was built. That livery building was constructed in the early 1900s, a few years after the Mack Building. (The Mack is visible on the other side of the livery in the first few pictures.) The livery is gone, but the Mack — a building with its own great history — is still standing.

When he’d cleared enough of the wall, it didn’t take much to bring down the top.

That let him take a few bites out of the roof.

The work drew a few spectators.

That was where work stopped on Wednesday. Do you know what that means? Yes, that’s right: this is the first in what will be a series of posts on the livery demolition.

(SPOILER ALERT: it ends with an empty lot.)

Back in August, The Wolverine ended a decades-long run in business. A month later, the demolition crew showed up to erase the building from Chelsea’s landscape. The demolition drew some loyal customers — and at least one longtime employee — who wanted to say one last goodbye as they watched the building come down.

These locals told me they’d been going to The Wolverine for decades.

The…wait, what are people in a demolition crew called? Demolishers? Yeah, let’s go with that. The demolishers started at the back of the building, but it wasn’t long before they were taking the first bites out of the brick wall.

When they broke through the brick wall, they revealed what appeared to be an old Wolverine sign.

As they worked their way across the front of the building, the old sign was slowly revealed…

…and destroyed.

The green front door didn’t get a dignified farewell.

It’s partly covered by my name, but in the bottom left corner of the above photo, there’s a pile of bricks. The demolition crew was saving some bricks for anyone who wanted a brick from The Wolverine. I don’t know how many bricks ended up in the hands of nostalgic locals, but it seemed like most of the spectators grabbed a brick or two.