Cool Historical Building

[Trent Tarter]

My morning inspection was pretty cool. A former "Knights of Phythias"  lodge. Place is abandoned, built in 1900's. Exterior walls are solid concrete. 

[Jim Katen]

Very interesting. 

I can't recall having ever seen diagonal wall blocking like that. Any ideas why they'd do that? 

What the heck is the big thing sitting in front of the furnace? I've never seen a burner like that. 

In my little town of Gaston, the old K of P building lay abandoned for years. A guy at the bank realized that their bank account had been dormant for many years so he did some investigating and discovered that every one of the Pythians had died. After some legal wrangling, he revived the lodge, drummed up some members, fixed up the building, and they're now a strong organization in the community. 

[Trent Tarter]

1 hour ago, Jim Katen said:

Very interesting. 

I can't recall having ever seen diagonal wall blocking like that. Any ideas why they'd do that? 

What the heck is the big thing sitting in front of the furnace? I've never seen a burner like that. 

In my little town of Gaston, the old K of P building lay abandoned for years. A guy at the bank realized that their bank account had been dormant for many years so he did some investigating and discovered that every one of the Pythians had died. After some legal wrangling, he revived the lodge, drummed up some members, fixed up the building, and they're now a strong organization in the community. 

I imagine the wall blocking was to help prevent old lath and plaster from cracking. The big red thing in front of furnace the "coal stoker".  

[Chad Fabry]

I was looking at the diagonal blocking too. My first thought was, "that's a good idea, it's easier to nail". It's also possible they had a bunch of cut-offs from some other aspect of construction and rather than cut two ends square they just cut the other end at an angle.

Very cool building. I'm a little jealous of the buyer.

 

[Marc]

That's an octopus central heater, yes?

Edited March 17, 2018 by Marc

[Jim Katen]

5 hours ago, Chad Fabry said:

I was looking at the diagonal blocking too. My first thought was, "that's a good idea, it's easier to nail". It's also possible they had a bunch of cut-offs from some other aspect of construction and rather than cut two ends square they just cut the other end at an angle.

 

It looks like it much harder to nail. Think about it. You nail off one side first. Then when you go to nail off the other side, the force of the hammer hitting the diagonal cut drives the stud outward and instead of 16" oc spacing, you've now got 16-1/4" spacing. What a pain. Square-cut blocking ensures even spacing. 

[Jim Katen]

19 minutes ago, Marc said:

That's an octopus central heater, yes?

Certainly. They used to be as common as fruit flies in my area but I've never seen one with a big red Coleman cooler in front. 

Found this cool illustration: 

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitDa.do?method=preview&lang=EN&id=19202

[Trent Tarter]

Yes it's a octopus type central coal furnace. Has asbestos lined ducts routed from basement to first and second stories. The heating system is abandoned. I will advise removing the asbestos duct materials. 

[Trent Tarter]

At least the electrical inspection was easy. Has two new 200 amp service panels with one 20 amp circuit , building has a single light and receptacle only. Had one of the largest fuse panels I've seen. 

[Jim Katen]

1 hour ago, Trent Tarter said:

Yes it's a octopus type central coal furnace. Has asbestos lined ducts routed from basement to first and second stories. The heating system is abandoned. I will advise removing the asbestos duct materials. 

Be aware that the asbestos is also going to be inside the furnace itself. If you want to get rid of the asbestos, you'll pretty much have to get rid of the furnace. 

Do these furnaces ever remind anyone else of the Master Cylinder from the old Felix the Cat show?

[John Kogel]

Needs a big firepit and some Vikings on benches. Skoal! 

[RK52]

What are they converting it into?