Scene of the (fictional) Crime… Perhaps

So yesterday I did a little location checking and ended up moving an event in the WIP from an anonymous parking lot in Lake City to a much creepier location: the old Seattle Malting and Brewing Company buildings on Airport Way. This site eventually became the original Rainier Brewery before the newer building (which is now the Tully’s roastery) was built a few miles up the road. Does not this seem like a much lonelier place to leave a fictional body….?
The old Brewery buildings stand partially demolished on Airport Way. These are the remains of the old Stock Building, where I have left the fictional body to be discovered by the cops… and Harper: Did the poor fellow die here, or somewhere else…? Did this wall of the Brew House around the corner from the Stock Building, stand silent witness to a murder…?

The old brewery buildings and cold storage north of the wrecked Stock and Brewing Building are now used as studios, creative workspace, offices, and temporary galleries. Ironically, this complex is where some of the early footage for The Glove–the short horror spoof I worked on as a wannabe screenwriter–was shot, just out of sight in the cold storage buildings farther north. Here’s the Mechanical Building and Boiler Room:
There’s even some evidence of the current tenants at work in this iron window installed in the old Boiler Room wall:
Such lonely buildings…. I think it’s a much better place for a body, don’t you?

More photos and information about the site can be found at Scholars and Rogues. An excellent photo of the outside of the Brew House and Stock Building can be seen at Octopup.org and a shot of the southern Cold Storage buildings before demolition began can be found on the City of Seattle’s Neighborhood Preservation site. More photos and info are available at Vintage Seattle’s Rainier Brewery page 1 and page 2.