Walmart is Truly Evil!

[Anonymous]

I'm always saddened and angered to hear about things like this! I'm not going to go on about whether or not Wal-Mart stores are good or bad, but the destruction of historic buildings such as this is absolutely sickening! It really doesn't matter so much who is there in place of what once was, but rather the fact that it was allowed to happen. Old, historic buildings (of all kinds, not just railroad) are part of our heritage and need to be preserved! It seems that far to many people have a complete disregard for history and are concerned about money only.

Sadly, I have a couple of more examples to add.

A couple of years ago in Winnipeg, the old Eaton's building was torn down to make way for some sort of big ugly glass building of some kind. There was a public outcry over this and many people tried in vain to stop its destruction. For those of you who don't know, Eaton's was once the largest mail-order company in all of Canada. EVERYBODY bought from Eaton's. Most cities had an Eaton's department store and all of the people in rural and isolated areas of Canada bought practically everything from their catalog. I'm sure that a great many Canadian modelers got their start with a train set bought at Eaton's. This building had been the company's headquarters. Bottom line, Eaton's was a Canadian icon and major part of our country's history.

Some of you are probably familiar with the Skydome in Toronto, home of the Toronto Blue Jays. Did you also know that the site on which it stands was once the home of CN's Spadina roundhouse and yard. This was probably the most famous roundhouse in all of Canada. It was build in 1927. It remained busy, even after the end of steam when it serviced diesels. There was even a public observation platform so that people could watch the activity. It was torn down in 1985. Worst of all, though, it was not an old, delapitated building. It was being actively used by Via Rail for it's locomotives and Via also had a coach yard in the area. Via had to pack up and move somewhere else because the city decided that the new Skydome should be built there.

Also, the Montreal home of William Cornelius Van Horne, the great builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was torn down in I think the 80's (could have been the 70's). It was done overnight and no one was even told that there were plans to tear it down. It was all kept secret. Afterwards, people were outraged. A person from city council later tried to justify this by saying that the house "really didn't have anything to do with Quebec's history." I'm dead serious. If the CPR doesn't have anything to do with Quebec's history, then I don't what does!

As others have said, we've got protect the historic places that are still left before someone does come up with an idea of getting rid of them. If we save them now, we won't have to scramble to quickly do it when it's too late.

I'll end my post with one of my favorite quotes:

"A country that forgets it's past has no future."
-Winston Churchill

[wt259]

Yes it is a shame to see old buildings fall into disrepair and be lost. A C&NW roundhouse in MIlwaukee was razed many years ago, and there is now a small industrial park there (with a defunct KMart).

[davekelly]

CNWJay,

I agree SOMEONE should do something about the constant loss of our history. If I'm hearing you right you've just volunteered to spearhead the effort in your part of the country. It is very easy to complain about the loss of such locations, especially when it can be blamed on someone else's greed (they want to make more money, buy things more cheaply etc). Who is willing not to be greedy to save these places? Who is willing to spend their money to send letters to the population outlining what is happening and what the local government should do along with prestamped envelopes for letters to be sent to the local government ? Who is willing to contribute countless unpaid hours in order to run for local office? Who is willing to use their vacation time from work or take a unpaid day off to go to higher level of governments for action? Who is willing to do the research necessary to get a property placed on some historic register to preserve it? Who is willing to lead a preservation group to maintain the "saved" building? Who is willing to solicit people for money for the preservation efforts needed in a probably contaminated property?

If no one is willing to do that - then we'll lose the structure or whatever.

[jsoderq]

Please, once again if you don't know the facts stay out of it. The buildings in the yard were pretty much abandoned and in bad enough shape that preservation is just priced out of question. Why do you think more things aren't saved. It's the money! The old station/ office building was in good shape, just not very usable. Also the site was very contaminated( as all old railroad stuff is) and the tree hugger faction wanted it cleaned up to protect the water supply and the rest of the environment. Walmart could easily afford the cost, but who else? You can't save every old building and there has to be a viable use for it. There just isn't much use for an old roundhouse and a museum there could not survive on what limited tourism it could generate. Look at sites like the B&O museum and Steamtown and they are in the most heavily populated part of the US.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jwieczorek

You wanna cry about something? The entire MIlwaukee Road shops in Milwaukee are GONE. Where they once manufactured rolling stock and maintained and rebuilt locomotives is now a parking lot for MIller Park (home of the Brewers baseball club). The City has plans for the whole area (parks, casino, hotels, etc..). There is more preserved MIlwaukee Road buildings in Montana, Idaho,and Washington than in MIlwaukee and Chicago.

WalMart did not put Mom & Pop out of business. K Mart, Sears, Woolwoth, etc.. did that. WalMart is putting KMart,et. al. out of business. Let's just pass legislation to limit the size of any business to not more than 100 employees. This ensures that there will only be Ma & Pa shops, very short line railroads, no steel mills, no large mines, no large farms, etc..

Yes it is a shame to see old buildings fall into disrepair and be lost. A C&NW roundhouse in MIlwaukee was razed many years ago, and there is now a small industrial park there (with a defunct KMart).

This was one of the FEW roundhouses left in Michigan. Most of teh Survieing ones are in the Upper Penn. there is only a couple Roundhosue left in the lower Penn. One is in Green Feild village. I'm not really Crying about this. I AM STATING SOMEONE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CONSTANT LOSS OF OUR HISTORY! 50 YEARS FROM NOW PEOPLE WILL COME UP TO TAWAS AND NEVER HAVE ANY CLUE THAT THERE WAS A ROUNDHOUSE OR ANY PART OF THE YARD!!! ALL THAT IS LEFT OF THE YARD IS A TRACK THAT GOES AROUND WALMART EVERYTHING ELSE HAS BEEN REMOVED!

[Anonymous]

[qoute]chateauricher brings up a good point: Becoming involved in your commuity, city government, neigborhood association, or other local watchdog group can be a rewarding experience. You don't always win, but there are ways to thwart rotten development and protect historic buildings, at least up to a point.