West Docks

Loading docks are all around us, whether or not we directly encounter them in our workaday lives. Take for instance any retail node of notable scale, such as the one at the southeast corner of Cole Road and Fairview Avenue in West Boise. Patrons of either the Albertsons grocery store or Burlington Coat Factory may only utilize the front entrances, but the less-frequented dorsal sides of the complex comprise a universe all their own:

Albertsons' lone dock, south side of building. Note the graceful decline to the below-grade dock.

Burlington Coat Factory's twin docks, east side of building. Note the north dock encumbered by a garbage dumpster. Why keep this lamp under a basket?

Downtown Docks

The Loading Area's inaugural post is a melancholy one, as it presents a loading dock that exists no longer in linear time but in the hearts and minds of those who loved it. I'm speaking of the venerable old Compton Transfer & Storage building that stood on Ninth Street south of Front from around 1948 until this past spring. Luckily, I managed to snap a few shots of the warehouse's wide, elegant docking area before the structure was razed to make room for the forthcoming JUMP project. Though not as ostentatious as its successor, the Compton Warehouse was a mainstay of the urban fabric in Downtown Boise's periphery for over six decades. It will be sorely missed, but change is inevitable and even the most robust loading dock's corporeal existence is ephemeral in the grand scheme.