Manitoba Cold Storage

The facility is made up of two large buildings joined together, occupying a large lot. The buildings are a grayish mix of concrete and brick, with a faded name painted prominently on one side. Both large warehouse structures, one is eight stories tall, while the other is a fat four. Due to a couple recent arsons, the location is boarded up solidly and well fenced.
That didn't stop the Lone Ranger and I from finding an entrance and exploring it, though. After a couple tricky bits, we made our way inside in the pitch-black buildings. Inside, the air was cool, slightly humid, and my nose was hit with the powerful reek of charred cork. Lone Ranger led me around to the first floor of the modern (1950s) building. The entire thing was divided into large cold storage rooms, with a loading dock area near the back. The storage rooms were huge- large pillars spaced evenly through dark, empty spaces. Every surface, except the floor, was insulated by several inches of dark cork, covered with plaster? painted silver. The door to each storage room was a huge, insulated and thick rectangle, with large hinges.
The facility is a huge, multi-storey warehouse; divided into large insulated rooms, connected by wide hallways and big freight elevators. Inside, the building is cold and dark; water leaks and drips in many places, with a constant musty smell of cork. The water leakage has frequently caused the cork insulation in the walls and ceilings to swell, crack, then finally burst out from underneath its silver plaster covering. Piles and piles of black, stinking cork cover the floor all over the building, sometimes in huge mounds where entire walls have been knocked down.
We took a stairwell into the basement, where we found a little bathroom that had a wood-panelled toilet tank and a radiator on the ceiling. We walked about, through more of the huge rooms and partly-flooded areas in the basement. Lone Ranger told me that we'd entered the older building's basement now, but it was nearly impossible for me to tell the difference- all the rooms looked the same. We went over to the main mechanical room, where he insisted I go in first.
Stepping through the doors, I went down a few spongy wooden stairs, noting the floor was flooded with a few inches of water. Then, shining the beam of my flashlight up and around, I saw the variety of huge, ancient machinery sitting quietly in the dark. Panning my light from right to left, I stopped in amazement after spotting the mech room's centrepiece. A huge metal wheel, about 3m in diameter, covered by flaking red paint, sat attached to a large machine. Totally shocked, it didn't take me long to go over and get a closer look. The Lone Ranger wasn't sure of the wheel's purpose, and I had no clue at the time- I was still amazed there was a giant metal wheel here at all. The wheel, wrapped at one time by a large belt connecting it to a motor, would have driven a piston. (Maybe it was a giant compressor?)
Aside from the mysterious giant wheel, the mech room also contained two large generators, and some huge tanks and piping. At the back, a massive brick boiler made its own room, with an adjacent coal chute. I also remember seeing the bottom of the freight elevator shafts, and Lone Ranger pointed out where the main power switches had been located. It was definitely one of the most interesting mechanical rooms I'd ever seen. Most of the machines were covered by a lyer of flaking paint, and there were still some tools on a board attached to the wall. Water dripped from the ceiling, and there were many dark corners. But the giant wheel is what I'll always remember about this room.
Then we went back upstairs, and explored the taller, older building. On the main floor, there was an old bar/lounge, and we spent some time going through the scattered papers and artifacts. We also walked through a section at the front of the building which had suffered arson; stepping over a carpet of black ashes to examine a burnt staircase.
Locating another staircase, we climbed up the tower, checking out the floors as we ascended. Many of the storage rooms had rows of large, rusty metal hooks hanging from racks on the ceiling. All the rooms had piles of black cork, lying in piles where a wall or ceiling had burst. Floors three to eight were all pretty similar, containing lots of big, dark and damp cold storage rooms; and we decided to head onto the roof for some fresh air.
High above the cars passing on the street below, we had a good view of the night-time Winnipeg skyline. Someone had managed to get a couch onto the roof, and it was a great place to sit and enjoy the view. After taking some photos, the wind started getting a bit cold, so we headed back down inside.
We spent some more time wandering up and down the building, nearly getting lost as we wandered through one identical room into the next. I took a few more photos here and there before we finally left the building and headed home.