Fire struck the abandoned Cotton Belt Freight Depot on November 20, and since it is built out of reinforced concrete, there was probably not that much structural damage. But I don’t know, because I sure as heck wasn’t going to get close enough to look. Sadly, the whole area of the Near North Riverfront around the depot has just gotten too dangerous, which is sad, as it was once the location for all sorts of cool events, such as Artica, which moved down to Chouteau’s Landing this year. The massive warehouses that made it a potential neighborhood have been burning down, one by one. Norvell Shapleigh burned back in February of this year; Beck and Corbitt was destroyed in 2022.

The Cotton Belt isn’t looking the best, if you look closely, either. I wonder what its future is going to be. I suspect it will eventually be demolished.

And to the north, the Federal Cold Storage Warehouse’s demolition seems to have slowed down; I do not know what is going on with it.