If there is a fascination in watching building construction, there is an equal fascination in watching demolition, especially of a building you have come to see as a permanent part of your village sky line.
On January 27th, Southside Avenue resident James Dean recorded the final demise of Anaconda Wire & Cable Company’s Extra High Voltage Laboratory, constructed in 1958-59. The link below is to Jim’s video on YouTube.
In its day, this building housed a state of the art research & development laboratory as well as a facility for manufacturing the newest power cables designed to supply the growing power needs of huge cities like New York. When it was built, it was the only such plant in the nation. But during the 1960s Anaconda constructed new specialty plants in the south and west and the Hastings laboratory became obsolete.
Now all trace of it is gone, and we look forward eagerly — or is that anxiously — to the future of the Hastings waterfront. Thanks for sharing the video, Jim!
