Crazy good

I don't know about where y'all live but here in Columbia, South Carolina, there is new construction everywhere.

I'm talking huge ambitious projects, be they retail developments or office space or multi-family residential or what have you.

This can only be good; right? At least that's what I figure.

Just yesterday these recent observations of mine led to an interesting coincidence.

TG, Audrey, and I were tooling around town, several stops to make, all of them fun.

One of our many plans was to lustily consume an early supper at the Senate Street Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

What did I tell you? F-U-N.

Audrey was home for the weekend.

Audrey! Double FF-UU-NN.

She's shopping for a few new items of furniture for her apartment and we were helping.

Shopping! Triple FFF-UUU-NNN.

But in addition to furniture places and eating places, we wanted to visit the Fresh Market, which is on the other side of downtown Columbia from where we live.

So we were obliged to drive through downtown Columbia in order to reach that particular destination.

What you do is, you take I-26 East toward Columbia. A couple miles later, you run out of interstate.

You reduce the speed of your auto and go up a little ramp, and the interstate becomes Elmwood Avenue.

Once you're on Elmwood, headed for Bull Street where you'll turn right in order to access all the downtown streets, the first thing you notice, about a mile ahead, is the rusted dome of an old brick white-columned building.

And if you live here, you know you're approaching the mostly-defunct campus of the South Carolina State Hospital.

As in, mental health facility.

Normally I would avoid such places -- and for the nine-plus years we've lived in Columbia, I have avoided this one -- but yesterday was special.

See, the gates to the property are always open and consequently I've been tempted dozens of times to drive on the acreage and take pictures of the old sad-looking structures.

But of course I'd never do that alone, and most of the time when I go downtown I'm alone because I'm headed for some law firm or other, to a deposition.

So yesterday as we queued up on Elmwood, waiting to turn right on Bull Street, I asked TG if instead of turning, he'd just go straight. Straight onto the old State Hospital grounds.

Of course he said yes, and that's what we did.

Y'all! It's scary!

And it's huge. Phenomenally huge.

In fact as I found out later, the one hundred sixty-five acre property is one of the largest in-town tracts of land available for sale on the East Coast.

How do I know that?

Because after spending half an hour roaming said grounds, stopping several times for me to take the pictures embedded in this blog post, we did in fact end up at the Fresh Market.

While Audrey and I cased the joint for delicacies and bargains, TG picked up Saturday's edition of The State newspaper.

He glanced at the headline and said, you won't believe this.

So I was like, what won't I believe, and he told me.

The campus of the old South Carolina State Hospital is slated for some serious urban renewal, to include a minor-league ballpark, a luxury hotel (in the aforementioned rusty-cupolaed Babcock Building no less, the one you see in my photos), offices, major retail space, restaurants, a new YMCA, and other goodies.

All the grand plans hinge on a pending sale of the property to a developer who has offered the South Carolina Department of Mental Health fifteen million dollars for it.

So finally I turn in at the gates of the state mental hospital, and on that very same day it makes headlines.

Mmmkay.

All I know is that, as we drove away from the Babcock Building which within the next few years may become a hotel, I said to TG that when they tore the place down -- it's half falling down already --  I wanted a piece or two of the wrought iron that covers the hundreds of windows.

And he said, keep your ear to the ground and when they announce the demolition, show up to claim your prize.

I didn't have long to wait -- about twenty minutes, to be exact -- before learning of plans for the place. But lo and behold, it's not slated for destruction.

I still hope when they do the reno, they'll give me a chance at owning some of that wrought iron.

Consider: when old Comiskey Park in Chicago (site of TG's and my first date, thirty-three years ago this coming Wednesday) was torn down in 1990, I wasn't paying attention and didn't get so much as a brick.

Even though we lived less than thirty miles from it.

I have no such fond memories of the South Carolina State Hospital, but I still would like some of that wrought iron.

In fact, knowing that so many human beings suffered in the presence of the deceptively delicate-looking filigreed window covers -- after all, the builder could have opted for plain utilitarian iron bars but instead chose the moonlight-and-magnolias route -- only makes it more valuable.

Here's to capitalism: the precious concept that creates not only jobs and a robust economy, but as a bonus, has the ability to transform something heartbreaking into something beautiful and useful.

Here's to American entrepreneurs and investors with wallets full of money and heads full of crazy ideas.

Long live the free markets.

And here's hoping there's some historically-significant salvaged wrought iron in my future.

I'll keep you posted.

Comments

[Donna]

Ah, capitalism! I love a great ending! Lovely pic too!

[irene]

I always find these places so sad, and am not at all surprised you didn't venture in alone. Good luck with the wrought iron.

[Donna (Texas)]

They'll probably end up reselling all that wrought iron...expensive stuff! Hope you can get a piece of it but wouldn't count on it...
An Anniversary this Wednesday??? Well that is a cause for celebration Girlie!!
hughugs

[Jewel]

All these black and whites are sublime, Jenny. I'm tempted to borrow my daughter's new canon elph 100 and go to downtown Lancaster and take pictures like this in the historic district. There are so many scenes to shoot, both in color and black and white. Another thing I love in addition to cemetaries, is windows and doors. Girl, you have me all fired up.

[Jennifer]

@Donna ... capitalism will save our bacon if we just let it!

@irene ... oddly enough, now that I've been there I know there's nothing to really be afraid of! It's deserted. But still ... keep your fingers crossed for my prize!

@Donna ... I know, they probably will resell it but maybe they'll make it available to us common folk! One can only hope.

@Jewel ... girl don't dither, just get out there and do it! It's very therapeutic. You'll have so much fun. I spent an hour in a beautiful cemetery in Lancaster this past May. Amish schoolchildren were playing ball in the next field! Thanks for your many kind remarks both here and on Tumblr.

[Jewel]

There's a lovely cemetery enclosed in an old church yard downtown, across from the courthouse. People walk by daily and miss its invitation to solitude and thought. I shall go down there today, if possible.