Cold Storage sign, at least half of it, survives demo
Photos by Tom Rivers – The back wall of Orleans Pallet on Friday, soon before it was knocked down by a demolition crew.
ALBION – When the demolition crews arrived Friday afternoon to knock down the back wall of the Orleans Pallet building on Hamilton Street, I wondered if the sign way up at the top of the warehouse could be spared.
The site was originally called the Albion Cold Storage Company and the Medina sandstone sign faced the railroad tracks. This was a popular site for shipping products in the early 1900s.
The demo crews had a shovel and pushed in the wall. If the sign survived, it would be by chance.
I stopped at the site yesterday, and there was the sign, face up in a pile of rubble. It was snapped in half.
It would be great for the community if the sign could be displayed somewhere in public. I think it would be a nice heritage piece for the Albion Fire Department, which fought the blaze at the warehouse on Thursday, and prevented the fire from destroying more property.
Maybe the sign, and the other half, could be at the fire hall and displayed as part of an exhibit of notable fires in the community.
