Old walls, new life

This is the old dance hall that used to be on Robinson Street.

More specifically, it was tucked in the back, speakeasy style, on Rope Alley, near the intersection of 2nd Street.
I took these pictures 6 years ago, when the Housing Resources people let Alan and I go in and rummage around before they rehabbed. They were about to gut it and turn it and the adjacent 2-story apartment building into new housing.

I grabbed the piano stool with glass ball feet, some loose ivory piano keys, and some beautiful wallpaper samples from the upstairs apartment (which I later used in a collage.)




Alan salvaged a heaping truckload of beadboard from the dance hall walls, and stored it away.

Not too long after, the whole building burned down.

Last week Alan  pulled out some of the beadboard and installed a 20+ foot span of wall in his workshop (partially shown here). He also devised some secret method of removing spraypaint graffiti without ruining the original finish.