184 Sweeney St., across from the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda, NY

Yeah, this is a bit outside my usual genre. But I am always fascinated by these bricked-over old windows in old buildings. There are a lot of old vacant buildings in Western NY State. This building is near the mouth of the Erie Canal, facing the canal.

I found two websites that are (I believe) about this building. Apparently it was originally built in 1895 to serve as a storage building for trolleys. Later it was sold and used as a carousel factory (that business moved to a different location and still has a museum). It was then used as a factory for the Rand Ledger Company. Now it appears to be rather empty. The websites are:
- http://www.nthistorymuseum.org/Collections/184sweeney.html
- http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/kostoff87.html

Anyway - tell me about the photographic value here. Does the spot of sky at the top bother you? I wanted to include the entire window, and thought that since the window touches the roof, I needed to go a bit beyond that. Does the square crop work? Is the composition aesthetically pleasing? Anything else?

Any comments or ratings are appreciated! :-)

Nice Shut ...

 

Good View And Nice Idea ...

 

Tnx for Posting ..

 

Good Luck

I like this a lot - kinda funky and sorta abstract. Good composition and excellent details. You know me, I'm a fan of square format, and this works well. Yeah, I might have shifted the comp down a touch to remove the touch of sky, but no biggie. That bricked up window is fascinating. Good eye to see this one. Happy New Year to you, Lou Ann; my best wishes to you in 2008! Cheers! Chris

I think I would have cropped lower at the top to remove the washed out sky. Overall, a very nice photo of a very old building. I'm trying to make something out of the pattern of the bricks, but so far nothing.

 

N.T. sure has a lot of very old buildings. Is the Riviera still standing? In 1968/69 my first wife and I lived on Oliver Street which, at one time was said to have the most bars per mile than anywhere else. It's definitely a working man's town.

OOoh! My Grandmother lived on Oliver Street around that time, too. I think that she was a cleaning lady for a wealthy couple who owned their own home. Definitely working man/blue collar area. When her children were at home and her husband was alive they all lived in a borrowed home in Riverside. During the Depression my grandfather lost his job and my father and his siblings sold my grandmother's kuchen's to people coming to work downtown.