342 S TRYON

A small deserted building on Tryon doesn’t seem like much, until you stop for a moment. Tryon Street runs through the heart of Charlotte. Once known as the “Indian Trading Path” linking the Catawba Indian Nation to the Iroquois 800 miles to the north. Later it became a key artery of commerce known as the “Great Wagon Road.” It was named after Col. William Tryon, the Royal Governor of North Carolina in the 1700’s.

Little has changed regarding the importance of the road to Charlotte, except how quickly you come upon the city core from the south. Giant buildings rapidly stepping ever south with legs of steel and glass, crushing the old along the way, or simply leaping over areas still fighting for their existence like the belt of low income housing.

It is rare to find a building left behind in all this, but once in a while you come upon one such as 342 South Tryon. A small garage long closed. The owners name faded away. Still the building causes you to pause, it wears the beauty marks of time, ones that attract a camera.

The giant buildings leave scant space to pause your drive, but you find space here. You pull your car over, walk around the building, camera in hand. You sense the past life in the empty building and patina you see. The city seems to quiet for a moment, the giants of the buildings not looking as important. You want to take a piece of it away, but instead log it in your memory letting the beauty be, for the time it borrows…