Thematic Photographic: Broken

At some point this year my house is going to be 100 years old.  I’ve made a lot of changes in the 19 years I’ve lived here, I can only imagine what it looked like when it was built in 1912.

What I do know is that it was way out on the outskirts of Salt Lake City.  So far out that it was just 2 blocks north of the Utah State Penitentiary.   My guess is that it, and several others in the neighborhood of the same age, were built for workers at the penitentiary.

When I bought the house it had an old detached garage behind it.  Again, I’m guessing that it was built in the 40’s.  No plywood, just 2x4s with wood slats on the side and wood shingles on the roof.

I knew I was going to have to replace it soon, about a third of the roof shingles were missing or rotted through, you could see sky while standing inside.

 

After a couple of years, I wouldn’t even park the cars inside of it, especially in the winter.   I was afraid it would collapse in on itself, right onto the cars.

Until the winter of 1995-1996, when it finally collapsed.  Forward.  Right on to the hood of my car.

Broken.  I know it kind of looks like there was a fire, but that wood was so old and dry that if it had burned there would have been nothing left.

Fortunately, my homeowner’s insurance paid me enough to fix the car and rebuild the garage.  They really didn’t cover the damage on the car, but, with the help of friends and family, we built it ourselves, saving me the money to fix the car.

See more “broken” pictures by clicking on the banner below.