there is a little town called New Bremen, founded in the mid 1800's and built along the Black River Canal system to serve as a depot for farmers shipping goods by barge. When the railroad was build some years later, the canal fell into disuse, but the town continued to serve as a depot for the railroad and grew to what at present seems to consist of 7 or 8 non-residential buildings, one of which is the Crystal View, which was once a hotel and later, between 1955 and 1966, a boarding house. In this small canal town there are also 2 or 3 churches, a depot building and this nice old general store...
But the purpose of this entry is not really about the town, but rather about a small wooden structure built many years ago along the side of the tracks, that looks too small to be a station, but probably sold passenger tickets, and/or served as a shelter for workers or people waiting for the train...
This photo was taken years ago during my B&W days on one of my many trips through the area. Over the years I had developed a great fondness for this little structure that sat quietly beside the tracks, bothering no one. For years it was just there, somewhat neglected, but looking more or less the same, until about two years ago, when I noticed that the sign announcing New Bremen was gone, and the building was starting to fall into disrepair. As well, someone had erected a white plastic fence behind it. The siding was falling down, there were holes in the roof, a window was broken, and it seemed to be imploding...
Last time I drove through New Bremen, in December of 2012, the building was gone. Stripped of its identity, its dignity, and soon after, its existence!!! Considering that there are only a few buildings in New Bremen to begin with, didn't the locals even care about this important little piece of American history that was under their care!!! Obviously not. It was late when I passed through, so I didn't take a picture of the empty lot where the building stood for 100 years or so. But I'm sure it will be there next time I pass through. So I'll report back.
I live in Albany, NY, an upstate city with a deplorable history of caring for its architectural heritage, allowing buildings to deteriorate implode and/or burn down at an alarming rate that is too painful to enumerate here. But I was truly shocked that the people of New Bremen could allow this to happen and it leaves me feeling even more hopeless about our collective failure to protect our American past, making the place of photographer as urban archeologist even more important. Without us, nobody would have any idea about what was once there.
Pablo
Post Script 5/2/13
As promised, when I passed through New Bremen this week I took a picture of the no longer existent railroad building. Now it no longer obstructs our view of the lovely plastic fence they built behind it.
Pablo
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