Tonight, I took some time off and explored the old Lone Star Brewery building in the warehousing district of San Antonio, TX. I was joined by a friend from www.uer.ca, who was more familiar with the location than I and knew how to get to it. All images taken with my Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5 without benefit of a tripod and in almost complete darkness. The building has been gutted pretty bad by the owners, but there is still a lot of cool stuff intact. Perhaps the most interesting thing is the sheer size and complexity of the facility. It?s huge.
We obtained access by scaling a 10? fence with barbed wire while a part time security guard watched the complex. It was not an easy task. Walking inside the building is extremely hazardous, as there is no power, flashlights must be used sparingly to avoid being seen and they have removed large machines and massive tanks that used to be recessed into the floor. There are numerous open pits where an unfortunate urban explorer would meet his maker after a six-story fall to the basement. I almost met my maker getting out, as I caught my crotch on the barbed wire on the way out, and I am not a happy camper right now.
Some parts of the facility look like they had just been added yesterday, when clearly the place has been closed for some time. Strange how things age.
You can read more about the history of the facility here: http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=23869
This is a room off the main cooridor in the first building. It appears to be a pump room of sorts, as there is what appears to be a well shaft going into the ground. All I could see is the well head, of course.
Outside the pump room, we have this little control center that must have went to machines that sat on the bads here. Most but not all of the machines have long sense been removed.
This is some sort of pump or generator on the other side of the wall from the pic above this one.
One of the most interesting parts of the brewery is a place where they must have given tours and had little shops for the tourists. There is a huge mural that runs along the wall for hundreds of feet, its a timeline depicting events and the years they happened while the brewery was opened. This is outside on an open deck type thing that is like one of the decks seen on the front of stores in the old west. This thing is huge, it wasn?t possible to get it all into one pic and I needed to be careful with flash lest security see it.
Another pic of the mural. It is in near perfect condition, they really should save this.
And another. Notice the "Peace" newspaper headline -- WWII has just ended.
This is the deck of the little tourist town type area. An odd place to park the fan. Out in front are the windows to what appears to be a little TV room where they may have shown videos to the tourists.
The video room. The cases have long been looted of their collectables, all that?s left now is broken glass.
More pics in a few minutes, including shots of the skyline from the roof (most suck, really need a tripod) and the towering smokestack.
We obtained access by scaling a 10? fence with barbed wire while a part time security guard watched the complex. It was not an easy task. Walking inside the building is extremely hazardous, as there is no power, flashlights must be used sparingly to avoid being seen and they have removed large machines and massive tanks that used to be recessed into the floor. There are numerous open pits where an unfortunate urban explorer would meet his maker after a six-story fall to the basement. I almost met my maker getting out, as I caught my crotch on the barbed wire on the way out, and I am not a happy camper right now.
Some parts of the facility look like they had just been added yesterday, when clearly the place has been closed for some time. Strange how things age.
You can read more about the history of the facility here: http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=23869
This is a room off the main cooridor in the first building. It appears to be a pump room of sorts, as there is what appears to be a well shaft going into the ground. All I could see is the well head, of course.
Outside the pump room, we have this little control center that must have went to machines that sat on the bads here. Most but not all of the machines have long sense been removed.
This is some sort of pump or generator on the other side of the wall from the pic above this one.
One of the most interesting parts of the brewery is a place where they must have given tours and had little shops for the tourists. There is a huge mural that runs along the wall for hundreds of feet, its a timeline depicting events and the years they happened while the brewery was opened. This is outside on an open deck type thing that is like one of the decks seen on the front of stores in the old west. This thing is huge, it wasn?t possible to get it all into one pic and I needed to be careful with flash lest security see it.
Another pic of the mural. It is in near perfect condition, they really should save this.
And another. Notice the "Peace" newspaper headline -- WWII has just ended.
This is the deck of the little tourist town type area. An odd place to park the fan. Out in front are the windows to what appears to be a little TV room where they may have shown videos to the tourists.
The video room. The cases have long been looted of their collectables, all that?s left now is broken glass.
More pics in a few minutes, including shots of the skyline from the roof (most suck, really need a tripod) and the towering smokestack.
~Accepting design works~ 
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