THE RICHMAN BROTHERS COMPANY

Shot in the summer of 2020, after waiting twenty years to find some way to get in. During covid someone had cut a hole in the fence, and a door that was welded shut was torn out.

Go to the internet and you can just follow the links below to check out the history of the Richmond Brothers plant on E. 55th St.

I’ve been trying to get into this plant for over 20 years with no success. When Covid first there was a nice hole in the fence leading to the back parking lot, but the real cat was that somebody at pride this extremely heavy steel door and it was wide open and you could close it behind you. So I spent the spring in the summer of 2020 shooting the plant which was secured by September and there was a crew that came in and even went to the top floor and sealed off any kind of access to the roof from there, even though you couldn’t get into the damn place anymore.

You’ll see in the links that the Chinese company bought the property when it was abandoned in 2002 for 350,000 and in 2021 put it up for sale for 3.5 million in the hopes that somebody with money could boost what’s obvious, that the structure was the best example on the east side of a building that could be turned into, most likely, luxury rentals or condominiums.

My basic experiences of Richmond brothers was that a friend owned a home on Luther Avenue which was directly across the street from the plant. The home, like the plant and like almost the entire street, became dilapidated, and, eventually abandoned. My friend dies in 2018 and his home was torn down in 2019.

Sometimes, myself, and some friends of mine would hit a place called Tramend’s, after its owner, Johnnie Tramends, which was on Broadway Avenue where Union Avenue deadends it into it. As far as strip joints are concerned, that is, old school strip joints, this was the best including the location. A girl that I used to talk with there, would tell me stories about growing up with the Richmond Brothers plant in her backyard. She always talked how the plant would light up her yard in the back of her home. Her fondest memories were when she was very young, she would get out of her crowded home and go into the backyard and sing, looking up at the plant, she loved to sing, Johnny Angel.

And there were many neighborhoods just like this, most of the city, where giant factories and plants, that operated around the clock dominated the landscape, emitted sights and sounds, when the sun went down, with the noise of machinery and the interior lighting illuminating the neighborhood all night long, with those big windows.