Assignment 10: Rosemary

This abandoned building is located in Decatur across from the old railroad depot (now a restaurant). The building's last use was a tire store, although at times it seemed like this business must be a front for some other more lucrative, although less legal, endeavor. The building has been vacant for a few years and shows obvious signs of disrepair such as peeling paint, no current signage, broken windows, and high grass. I think that the building's vacancy is due to several reasons. First, as Jakle mentions, the building appears physically obsolete. Although it has a glass storefront, this looks like a newer addition at some point. The rest of the building has very little light and overall it is narrow, limiting what the building could be used for--it looks like it may have originally been a machine shop or something lightly industrial. It's hard to imagine the tire store did especially well as there are no bays or garage doors to use for installing the tires. Second, the building is the only storefront in that area, as the other buildings nearby have been recently turned into restaurants, although they also have gone through periods of vacancy. In general, the area is somewhat isolated and a place that one would plan to come to versus the Decatur Square where people would stroll and window shop. Several years ago, I was in the building (I cannot remember how or for what purpose) and the layout is extremely awkward. At the time, the interior literally looked like it was from the 1950s, although maybe from a horror movie--it was extremely creepy. Perhaps the weirdest aspect, though, was that in the 1980s the storefront was used by the Cabbage Patch Kids Doll Company. The whole premise of this doll is that it is "born," and the stores would therefore have fake nurseries that a kid would pick the doll out of. Some of these details were still visible and made it truly bizarre. It does look like the building may get a new life as there was a building permit in the window. I looked around for any sign of improvements and did not see much although there were some architectural plans inside. I don't know what might move in but it seems like a boutique or small restaurant might do well both because of the size and layout of the building and because that is what works in Decatur.