I’m glad I took some pictures about a year ago (March 30 2014) of this magnificent old factory building in Ossining, NY as it’s now mostly gone. It’s the old Brandreth Pill Factory and it had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. I just now read that the entire west facade of the building (as seen in the photograph above) has now been demolished. Apparently this was done illegally, without the permits required by the town and without the town’s knowledge. The owner of the building maintains that they had a permit, but the town considered that permit to have expired. The town has stopped further demolition and parts of the building still stand, but it’s hard to see how anything can be recovered.

For the full story see: Historic Ossining pill factory illegally razed

Although I hate to see buildings like this demolished, I believe in this case the situation has been complicated because of the buildings physical location. There had apparently been prior agreements to renovate the existing structure, but after three tropical storms (most notably Sandy) changes in flood plain regulations would have required raising the building by several feet, which may not have been an economically viable proposition.