# US demolished buildings



## zlax (Dec 31, 2020)

In St. Petersburg about 15 years ago Gazprom wanted to build the tallest skyscraper in Europe, the Okhta Center, but not somewhere, but exactly on the ruins of Nyenschantz, the fortress of the ancient city of Nyen, the former capital of Ingermanland. The public criticized the project and Gazprom had to move the project to another place, the ruins were preserved. But this case is a rare exception. Much more often than not, cultural reformatting takes place in such a way that new generations are unaware that on places of today's buildings and parks were objects of other cultures.
Below are examples of buildings destroyed in the United States whose appearance would correspond to the notion of "cultural heritage" in Europe.






> Post office in New York, was demolished in the early 20s, twentieth century.
















> Demolished at early last century, Penn Station, New York.
> The main hurricane of demolition came in the early '50s. Apparently, the world has become calmer, it was possible to take care of home evidences. Or maybe some law was passed, and the owners could no longer defend their rights to almost new homes.







> The building of the Cable Company, grew in 1897, died in 1954. I hope everyone understands that this is not even half of the calculated life span. It's New York.







> Carnegie Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania external spiral staircase during demolition in 1952







> The Gillender Building was commissioned in 1897 and demolished in 1910.













> Public Library of Cincinnati, 1874-1955







> Broad Street Station (Philadelphia). Demolished in 1953.













> The Chicago Federal Building (demolished in 1965). Such buildings are welcome and cherished in Europe, proudly taking tourists, blowing dust off the walls, and in Chicago under the knife.










> Minneapolis. The Metropolitan Building (demolished in 1961)







> The old Minneapolis Post Office (demolished in 1961)







> The Pierce-Morse block, San Diego. Demolished in the '50s. Very similar to Singer's house in St. Petersburg.







> The Jayne Building in Philadelphia. Completed in 1850 and demolished in 1957 to create the Independence National Historical Park. It was 39 m tall and have been called a "proto-skyscraper".







> There was a library nearby, too. The former magnate's house, when it turned out that the deceased was not willing to leave the heirs, the building became a branch of the public library of Philadelphia. In the 1980s, the library moved out and the house was destroyed by fire.










> It's about to be an interesting case. The systematic destruction of the entire city, which carelessly all consisted of such houses.
> And it would have been just one of many small towns where all the residents left. No, there was something about this place. Just look at the names that came out of this tiny town...
> The entire city of Hartford is less than 19 square miles. A remarkable city that produced Frederick Law Olmsted, JP Morgan, Samuel Colt, Katherine Hepburn, Mark Twain, Harriett Beecher Stowe; the insurance industry...Aetna, Travelers, The Hartford, etc.; Colt and Browning Firearms; Pratt and Whitney aircraft; Underwood and Royal typewriters; Columbia bikes and Pope automobiles... Most of Hartford was destroyed between 1945 and 2000. The story isn't unfamiliar to any American city, but the impact to Hartford was particularly grotesque giving the compactness and size of the city. Today, the struggle to repair the damage continues but the potential -- the Connecticut River, Victorian neighborhoods, Olmsted public parks, and commuter rail to New York City coming soon, bodes well for Hartford's future.
> On the left, Hartford in 1945 - on the right, Hartford in the early 1980s.



















> Stanford Memorial Church. Here, the entire Church complex, including the triumphal arch, was demolished by an earthquake. Well, why? When else will there be such an occasion?







> Women’s Temple in Chicago (demolished in 1926)







> Capital Building, Santa Fe







> LA County Courthouse



















> Old San Francisco City Hall







> Ursuline Academy Galveston, Tx
> Built: 1894 - Demolished 1968







> The Singer Building of NY/Manhattan - 1902-1967.













> Madison Square Garden, New York










> Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, NYC










> New York World Building





> One of the reasons why I believe that many of these buildings have been purposefully destroyed is that in most cases, nothing more spacious or technologically advanced has come to replace them. In some cases, and even then, for many years, there was a wasteland on this site. This means that the economic reasons for the demolition, such as unprofitability or spatial necessity, are in great doubt.
> When you see that identical buildings in Europe are treated as rare pearls and rushed to the intensive care unit with each fallen brick, but on the other side, across the ocean, with a sledgehammer and carried to pieces, the same cathedrals and palaces, the conclusion is, I think, simple.
> Follow the official chronology, it says that European, it is ancient and it must be stored, but in America, all, just yesterday built, what to admire there? Give them the money and they'll build you anything.
> Judging by what I see in the photos both European and American palaces, this is one set of construction and finishing works. So they were built at the same time using identical technology.
> ...



Source of text:  США , которые мы потеряли. Фоторепортаж с мест гибели наследия.
More photos of US demolished buildings:  Lost Buildings of the United States


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## trismegistus (Dec 31, 2020)

I created a thread on the old site regarding just how difficult it was to take these structures down in the modern day.


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## zlax (Dec 31, 2020)

trismegistus said:


> I created a thread on the old site regarding just how difficult it was to take these structures down in the modern day.


Incidentally, the author of this text was a russian-speaking radio disc jockey, Alexander Alexeev, who suddenly became interested in the revisionism few years ago, he made many interesting publications, and suddenly died under strange circumstances last year.
In my opinion, the Hartford part is the most meaningful in this piece:


> It's about to be an interesting case. The systematic destruction of the entire city, which carelessly all consisted of such houses.
> And it would have been just one of many small towns where all the residents left. No, there was something about this place. Just look at the names that came out of this tiny town...
> The entire city of Hartford is less than 19 square miles. A remarkable city that produced Frederick Law Olmsted, JP Morgan, Samuel Colt, Katherine Hepburn, Mark Twain, Harriett Beecher Stowe; the insurance industry...Aetna, Travelers, The Hartford, etc.; Colt and Browning Firearms; Pratt and Whitney aircraft; Underwood and Royal typewriters; Columbia bikes and Pope automobiles... Most of Hartford was destroyed between 1945 and 2000. The story isn't unfamiliar to any American city, but the impact to Hartford was particularly grotesque giving the compactness and size of the city. Today, the struggle to repair the damage continues but the potential -- the Connecticut River, Victorian neighborhoods, Olmsted public parks, and commuter rail to New York City coming soon, bodes well for Hartford's future.
> On the left, Hartford in 1945 - on the right, Hartford in the early 1980s.


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## zlax (Feb 3, 2021)

> 3CDC Reveals Historic Architecture Behind Brick Façade While Redeveloping Downtown Building
> The former Chong Inc. building was built in the late 1800s and renovated in the 1950s by removing two floors and adding a brick façade.



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