Abandonment Issues: New York Pork Slaughterhouse (Under Destruction)

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy went to New York Pork and got slaughtered.

I, on the other hoof, planned to survive my visit to New York Pork.

Fire ravaged the building on St. Clair Ave. in Toronto on November 6th, 2006 and it has since sat vacant. Many explorers have scoured and documented the building and it was finally time for me to see it for myself, to turn my lenses on it.

Much like our recent visit to the Land O' Lakes Motel, my jaw dropped, as that eager anticipation that precedes a fresh explore collapsed into a burst bubble, a shattered dream. For the second time in a month, I came upon a target location, a long abandoned building, and found an active demo site.

"Some people would throw up their hands in frustration..." Ninja said to me today... "but you aren't some people."





A sole individual worker made up the demo crew at 9:01 am. For the first ten minutes, he was oblivious to my presence, as I turned my Canon Rebel XS on him and his destruction, whilst creeping deeper and deeper onto the site. Then a loud horn honked repeatedly and he shut down the excavator, climbed out and walked over to the food truck that had just pulled in to sell him breakfast. I weighed my options in that moment and settled on my preferred approach. I scurried off the property and then made a fresh entry onto the site directly in his line of sight. Knowing it'd take him a few minutes to eat and down a coffee that large, I simply asked if he minds if I wander around and shoot, followed by small talk and half truths. "Just be careful..." he said, smirking and pointing at the remaining rear of the building. "But don't go in, it's too dangerous, very unstable." He told me about the buildings history, I played along as the student, as if I didn't know, cause that fit best with one of my half truths. He told me about the fire in 2006 that forced the closure of the slaughterhouse. He also informed me that New York Pork has plans to rebuild in the very near future. I already had most of the shots I wanted of the rubble, but I walked up and snapped shots anyway, making it look good.

As soon as he turned his back, I made my move over the pile of rubble, climbed a mound of cinder blocks and hustled along the brick wall that precariously leaned over my head. I jogged along the back of the building and sure enough, there it was. The little piggy P.O.E.

By the time I had followed in the way of the pigs, more workers had arrived and the site was again active. Both excavators were now in the pit and ripping apart the remnants of the front portion of the building. Loud snaps and crunches made me jittery and high strung as I traversed and climbed the piggy paths and elevated walkways.

Needless to say, it was an intense and exciting experience to explore a slaughterhouse while a demo crew was ripping apart the rest of the plant out front.













































click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES