THUNDER BAY — A woman who's worked for years to promote and preserve Thunder Bay's grain elevator heritage is disappointed with the graffiti that was recently painted on the former Manitoba Pool 2.
Sometime around the Victoria Day weekend, people climbed to the top of the obsolete elevator, just north of Marina Park, and painted ZONEK PACES WASE above the grain bins.
Nancy Perozzo of the local group Friends of Grain Elevators says "I didn't like to see it...it's not an attractive or an intriguing addition."
Perozzo noted that that climbing an abandoned elevator is a very dangerous thing for anyone to do.
Pool 2, however, also has particular historical value.
According to Perozzo, it was designated a provincial historic site because it's on the location of the Lakehead's earliest grain terminal.
It was built by the CPR before the railway got into a dispute with Port Arthur and took its business to Fort William, she said.
"It also has historic bins. If you take a close look at the silos, the first three are a different colour. They were the first successfully-built slip-form concrete silos, I believe, in the world," Perozzo said.
The construction method allowed for a continuous structure with no joints or seams.
Perozzo said the elevator is unique "as a structural remnant for history, and of course it's special because it's in such a prominent location."
Photographer Nancy Reilly of Bullheaded Studios, who has taken pictures of various abandoned waterfront sites including Pool 2, believes whoever painted the graffiti was trying to emulate the work of some well-known artists.
"They're famous. Their graffiti goes through town on the CN trains all the time. They have graffiti throughout Canada and elsewhere," Reilly said.
"Whenever they tag anything, it's either just their names, or they have a very specific message. They wouldn't just tag something that makes no sense," Reilly said. "Whoever did it, copied their style. It's an easy letter to copy."
The now-defunct Thunder Bay Waterfront Development Committee set its sights on Pool 2 as a potential tourist attraction in 2012.
It discussed approaching the property owner, the Buchanan Group, about painting or lighting up the elevator.
Councillor Mark Bentz, who served on the committee at the time, told Tbnewswatch he recalls that ideas included recreating a display of the Northern Lights on the silo walls.
However, Bentz said he's unsure whether any discussions with Buchanan actually took place.
NOTE: The original version of this story incorrectly suggested the individuals who painted Zonek Paces Wase on the elevator had intended to paint Zonek Paces Was Here, but made an inadvertent error. As Nancy Reilly pointed out in the article, these are the names of artists who are well-known for their work.
