Charleston Smokestacks May Be Removed

 

I was downtown yesterday afternoon and found myself near the old smokestacks on East Bay near the Cigar Factory.

Recent Charleston Post and Courier articles have covered how the 135-foot stacks may be razed or reduced to half size due to interior cracks that could someday cause crumbling onto nearby homes (and there are many homes just across the street).

I stopped to take some photos just as I did days before the John C. Calhoun statue came down in Marion Square (let’s don’t go there...).

The towering smokestacks were built in the 1930s as part of a trash incinerator complex. OK, so they didn’t have anything to do with the cotton or cigar/tobacco industries, as I previously thought.

Safety comes first but what a shame to lose this interesting city skyline feature, seems to me.

I am glad I took a few minutes to take these photographs. I wish I had captured a few showing the close proximity of these huge brick structures to nearby homes.

I'll stop by again when I have a chance. 

Meantime, Charleston City Council should decide in a couple weeks what to do with these iconic structures: keep them, cut them in half, or incinerate the old incinerator. 

Today (Sept. 17) I was in the area so stopped by to take some photos (below) showing how close the smokestacks are to the neighborhood at Drake and Cooper streets. 

This is the concern with the aged brick structures showing their age with long interior cracks. 

I’ll update this post when the verdict comes down from city council.