From Dave Brigham:
I recently realized that this site in Waltham that I wrote about back in November 2022 is being redeveloped. The 70,000-square-foot, three-story building will house an orthopedic center that will include a surgical area. Here are some photos of the building in progress, as well as photos of the backside of the site, taken from a relatively new rail trail that runs just to the south of the area.
OK, now back to the original post....
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Waltham, Mass., is the city that keeps on giving to the Backside of America (see January 15, 2022, "There's Always More Waltham," which features links to six additional posts).
This time around I'm here to talk about the former Polaroid complex along Main Street, near Route 128. Built in the 1960s, the camera company's complex comprised approximately 120 acres, four buildings and 1,200 employees at its height. Home to the company's Chemical Operations Division, the site "synthesize[d] chemical components used in Polaroid film; manufacture[d] chemical reagents; coat[ed] photographic materials; assemble[d] technical and industrial film products; and perform[ed] research, engineering, and wastewater treatment," according to this 1997 report from the Best Manufacturing Practices Center of Excellence of the U.S. Navy.
A pig farm in the days before Polaroid, the site closed down in 2008, and was demolished between 2010 and 2012 to make way for 1265 Main Street, a commercial/retail/office development whose tenants include a Market Basket grocery store; a Starbucks; restaurants including Not Your Average Joe's and Jake 'n' Joe's Sports Grille; and 3-D printing company Markforged, which took over the space that shoe company Clarks previously occupied in the sole surviving Polaroid building.
I assumed all remnants of the plant had been wiped away...until I went for a hike in the southern end of Prospect Hill Park towards the end of the summer and discovered a graffiti-filled wasteland tucked behind some low-slung, non-descript industrial buildings just off Main Street.
I'm not sure why the demolition crew left standing the pad, some walls and stairs. Maybe because this part of the old Polaroid site wasn't going to be incorporated into the new multi-use complex, the site owners decided to save the money it would have taken to finish the job?
(I am obligated by the laws of caption writing to label this one "No Exit.")
I am always impressed by the artistic quality in places like this. Did regular taggers seek this place out? Or were the works done by random teens and young adults while they partied and skateboarded and ran around and cranked their favorite tunes?
Amidst all the beautiful artwork, there is a bit of danger lurking: rebar.
In addition to the walls, emergency exit and stairs, I stumbled across a few other remnants of the old Polaroid place.
(I assume this was a tiled entryway to the building.)
(Loading docks.)
(Random piece of equipment that might've once been inside the Polaroid plant.)
(Husqvarna riding lawn mower jammed into a hole, perhaps for a chimney or vent?)
There is a long driveway from Border Road leading past the ruins, winding through the woods, ending in a lot that I assume was where employees parked. There are two sets of stairs leading from the lot to the old building.
As I headed back out, I noticed a few large slabs of concrete, old utility poles and other signs of what was once here. I noticed a rusty old box -- electrical, perhaps -- on one of those poles, and went in for a closer look.
"HursoB THE hermit 2022" it says. I just love this little work of art, the igloo providing shelter for said hermit, the sun indicating a bright and lovely day (or impending climate disaster, I suppose). What drives someone to take the time to create this, knowing that few people will ever see it? I'm fascinated.
To see photos of the Polaroid complex before demolition, check out this Flickr selection.
No comments:
Post a Comment