Rebuild Update: demo completed

Dear Friends,

We’re excited about our progress and happy to report the demolition portion of the process is complete. But before the demolition could even begin the two brick walls we are keeping had to be shored and braced. This step took an amazing amount of concrete and wood. As you can see from the view below, the south wall and the west wall are held up securely while the demo of the remaining bits of the old building were coming down.

The video below shows portions of the interior walls coming down:

I have to say - this was a dramatic moment for all of us. And as I watched what had supported the building for over 100 years come dramatically crashing to the ground, exposing the rabbit warren of tunneling that had lain in dank darkness under the floor all those years, I couldn’t help wondering about the long history of 2900. I’d heard plenty of tales about the Rome Inn over the years - probably fewer regarding Shipwash’s, the original grocery store tenant, and whatever led to their closure.

I think it was Jim Parish - owner of the Split Rail - who told me that on the night of May 12, 1976 after the Rolling Thunder Review finished up their show at Municipal (now Palmer) Auditorium on the final leg of that tour, he’d gone looking for the after-party. Austin just wasn’t that big in 1976, but nonetheless, he finally gave up and stopped by the Rome Inn for a beer around 1:30a in the morning where he found Bob Dylan camped out telling stories at the bar while Joni Mitchell was tearing up the dance floor.

If memory serves, it was also Jim who told me about a very high stakes pool game that the owners used to run on a table they kept in the downstairs room on the SW corner of the old building. According to lore, big time players used to fly in from all over the country for that action and the local office of the FBI even ran security for the game.

Can’t tell you for sure if any of that is actually true. But I’m at least a little more confident about the tales of Stevie Ray’s regular Tuesday gig at the club in the late 1970s and how sometimes during the hot summers when so many students were away, the space would be almost empty. The band would order from Conan’s across the street - sit on the stage and eat pizza, sip beers and talk to a small handful of regulars while they waited to see if a crowd might gather later in the evening.

Anyway, with all the old walls down now and the foundation dug up and smoothed over, I find myself wondering. What about all those old ghosts that I always sensed hovering in the nooks and crannies? Are they drifting away, free at last? Or will some lingering part of their collective spirit choose to stay on - wed to this specific piece of dirt and the long history of the place we are now noisily rebuilding - unclear…

Anyway, below are a few more pictures of our progress. Demolishing the floor and filling in all the caverns required an enormous amount of new “fill” in order to create what will now be a solid foundation under the floor. Shown here, Sean O’Brien, our GC, is pointing to the line where the fill will be added.

After that new fill is added, it gets packed down, tested. Then more fill is added, packed down, tested - you get the idea.

Next, they run this heavy steam roller over it repeatedly. You could feel it reverberating down the block.

In the coming weeks we will begin drilling piers down to the limestone bedrock and pouring a concrete slab over the finished fill.

Onward!

-murph

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Next week’s shares are particularly enticing - sesame burger buns, hot dog buns, a delightful lemon blueberry mini bundt cake and other sweet treats like these patriotically decorated iced shortbread cookies - to name just a few.

Choose the Small or Family size, pickup or delivery, and we’ll handle the rest. Each week you’ll receive TFB favorites and exclusive items we make just for the memberships.

Your subscription directly supports our ongoing rebuild efforts — and comes with perks like a 10% discount and recognition as a Founding Member.

Join by midnight this Sunday June 29th to get in on July’s weekly membership and be part of what comes next.

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