| Abandonment History Empire Industries closed in the early 80's along with many other area jewelry manufacturers. Located in a dense residential area of a quiet suburban town, it has been an eye-sore to locals for years. In the late 80's the town made some quick decisions and began developing it as the new police station. However as they began, the costs of complete renovation came to light and the project was abandoned. In 2004 the town attempted to clean up the building and the surrounding area by boarding up all windows and doors and clearing the land of glass and rubble. However they only got as far as replacing several first-floor boards and again the town abandoned their project at Empire Industries. |
| Mini-Chronicle I remember entering this building as a kid growing up in the neighborhood. At the time it was a pretty solid building. The doors were locked and we were too little to try to open them. Over a decade later I went back into this same factory with my friend Nadine more or less just to kill time, see how much it had changed. About a year later I went back to it again with Keith and Keti, in one of our less stealthy attempts, after being inside police were outside, we got out fast, and forgot about it for a while. We returned a little later in the week successfully. It became a frequent spot for us to go in and explore for weeks afterward basically stopping in every time we passed by. When we started traveling more for our exploring, we didn't stop by anymore until 2006 when we came back and revisited the building, now boarded up and vandalized from end to end.
~Matt
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