Cracked foundation find at an old mill outside Asheville last spring

I was poking around this abandoned textile mill near Asheville back in May with a buddy of mine. We spotted this huge crack running through the concrete floor, probably 15 feet long and a couple inches wide in places. I got down and shined a light in there and you could see roots from a tree that had grown right up underneath over maybe 20 years. Has anyone else found something weird in an abandoned building that told you exactly why it got left behind?

2 comments

2 Comments

david82119d ago

20 years of roots under a concrete slab without anyone noticing?

lisa83920d ago

That crack was probably from the tree roots, but the old railroad bed underneath didn't help either. Most mills from that era were built on fill dirt to level out the foundation, and over time the ground shifts. Water from the French Broad River floodplain seeps in and softens everything up. I've seen it happen in a few other mills around Gaston County where the floors just gave way after a couple of decades. The crack was likely just the last straw before they walked away.