Growers Warehouse Comes Down

Source from:  By Walt Reichert/Sentinel-News Associate Editor 03/03/2006

The giant, metal maw snatched, grabbed and pulled at the old warehouse, shaking out oak and pine timbers like toothpicks and flinging sheets of metal as if they were aluminum foil. By this afternoon, the 80-year-old Growers Warehouse, more than 2 acres of wood, steel, concrete and tobacco farmers' hopes and dreams, will lie flat on the ground. Its metal and wood will be reused and recycled. Some of the wooden posts are from Southern longleaf pines, a tree now very rare. Some of the beams were likely made from old growth trees that were standing when the first Europeans set foot in the Americas. The warehouse owner, Western District, is tearing the building down to make the land it sits on saleable. The company got a good deal on the tear-down because of the high value of recycled material, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, Western District manager Don Farabee said. "We can't sell it with it standing there," Farabee said. "There's nothing you can do with the building. We'll sow it in grass and see what happens." The warehouse and its surrounding land cover just more than 3 acres on Equity Street. Just around the corner, the old Farmers Tobacco Warehouse and land was converted into buildings that house the Shelby County Health Department and the North Central Health District. Growers warehouse will come down within days; it will take another six to eight weeks to haul off the debris and recycled materials, Farabee said. Western District has no immediate plans to tear down Growers' sister warehouse, the Star, just across the street from Growers. The Growers warehouse was built in 1931. At one time, Growers was one of as many as eight warehouses in Shelby County. Selling tobacco on contract directly to companies, which started about five years ago, doomed the tobacco warehouses. About a dozen are still operating around the state. Growers was the site of the last tobacco auction held in Shelby County, in February of last year. The last bale of tobacco, owned by longtime warehouseman Fred Taylor, brought a premium, $3.10 per pound. Western District and Citizens Union Bank bought the last bale. The Star had closed the previous December. On Wednesday afternoon, the giant, orange construction machinery had already torn its way into about a third of the Growers lower building, exposing a sign that read "Keep Tobacco Clean." Farabee brought out of the office a piece of longleaf pine wood he rescued from the rubble. The slow-growing pine showed tight, concentric rings around its edges. Holding fingers apart about an inch, Farabee measured off a set of rings. "That little bit represents about 15 years of your life," Farabee said. Enditem