A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post about venturing to the dilapidated Olympia Brewery with a friend of mine. Today we went back, and explored the rest of it that we missed last time.
I walked down to meet Johnny at the parking lot where we parked last time we went here (the old Olympia Brewing Co. is only 15 minutes away from my place on foot), and snapped some shots of the least interesting but most depressing-looking buildings of this whole abandoned complex:
One of the doors that was locked with chains the last time we were here had been cut for easy access to one of the main buildings by the road. Behind it, ivy was doing what ivy does best here in this weird hallway (taking over):
After a short walk down some narrow hallways like we had traversed before, we went up some stairs into the big open building. I immediately knew this area would be much more intriguing than what we had seen before. Old, old machinery, desks, junk.
Lots of sick wall art everywhere, of course:
There are these huge metal cylinders which I believe were what are called "mash tuns", an early part of the brewing process in which water is combined with the malt (milled grain):
Lots of fun stuff in here. Some rooms with scrap metals, tools, workbenches, and the like... Also, a beaten up fuse box:
My favorite of these miscellaneous rooms was this one, full of storage shelves, a Fujifilm rack, and a Technicolor 1000 Super 8 film projector. It's funny to me that these oddities would be among the junk left in the brewery... Unfortunately, I didn't find any film around.
This tattered Miller beer ad was among the dusty junk in this room - Johnny said something about Miller occupying this space for some time.
After snooping around every floor of the building pretty extensively, we went out to see the roof. As you might imagine, more graffiti art and a beautiful view of fields, trees, and the neglected brewery warehouses:
We kicked around for a bit up there, smoked a bowl, and then headed back down. Johnny suggested we go check out the old office rooms that we had missed on the way up. I was pretty stoked because he had been talking about these offices that still had official papers and old shit in them since the first time we came here. Last time we heard workers (or someone), and got spooked and left instead of checking them out. I wasn't disappointed; telephones, office chairs, documents, this place is crazy:
I was really loving this area, it seriously feels like the fallout in there. Really awesome shit. There was also some not so awesome shit... Needles, and human shit, in a drawer on the floor... Human nature, what can I say.
We left this building the way we came after some dawdling around to go see the abandoned warehouses. This place was the last big piece of this old complex that I hadn't seen. It wasn't hugely interesting compared to what we had just ventured through, but still cool nonetheless:
More iconic wall art:
After seeing what there was to see at the warehouses, Johnny and I made our way back towards the car, and the older brewery building (which you have already seen some of if you have read my earlier post).
Compared to the other two sections of this place, the old Olympia Brewing, originally established in 1902, is a super chill, cleared area. There's way less junk, trash, and fear of crazy squatters.
Because we're skinny little kids, we managed to squeeze through the cracks in this gate to have a quick look around. Everything was mostly the same, maybe some new articles of clothing or trash strewn about.
The last thing we did before we headed out for the day was take a closer look at this old grain cooker that we had seen last time... This baby is over a hundred years old, and Johnny and I think that white box in the background looks a lot like a security camera. I took a couple of quick shots and we rolled out.
It was a big day, and we'll probably do it again soon. This place invigorates me and gives me the creeps at the same time, I fucking love it. I hope you have enjoyed seeing my pictures and sharing in my experiences! <3
If you haven't already heard, July has been deemed the month of the minnow uprising! Use the #minnowuprising and #upvoteplankton tags and be active / build community! For more info, click here!
