Downtown Docks

Today we draw our attention to a motley assortment of loading docks in and around the southern extremity of Boise's 8th Street Cultural District. This is a gritty pocket of the city's central core that has in recent memory teetered on the edge of the redevelopment ravine. Will this area and the diverse docks who call it home plunge irrevocably into the cookie-cutter chasm of loft housing and brunch spots? Sadly, the shared sensory experiences and spatial interactions of the many are at the mercy of a select few. Until such time as these landed elites cavalierly alter our collective landscape, let us celebrate and find meaning in our existing surroundings:

600 Block, S. 8th Street: An improvised-looking dock graces a corrugated ziggurat of a warehouse. A truly singular specimen.

River Street at 9th: The old Associated Distributing warehouse boasts both a large open dock (left) and a more conventional flush dock (right center). Variety is the spice of life.

500 Block, S. 10th Street: This massive structure was previously fed by railroad tracks, prior to their unceremonious removal from downtown. The creative addition of a platform, dock leveler and bumpers, however, give the former rail car loading door above a new life as a worthy truck-to-warehouse interface.

Riverside Docks

I regret that I cannot deliver gladder tidings with today's post, but, then again, I have always associated this season more with coldness, withering and death. Today we look at what once was: a pair of freight transshipment terminals operated by Estes Express Lines and Saia Motor Freight Line, respectively. These now erstwhile freight yards where located near the Boise River and Ann Morrison Park on the opposite side of Capitol Blvd. from Boise State University. Undoubtedly, this was an ideal location to move freight and dispatch trucks in the mid 1950s. Since that time, however, freeway construction and institutional creep have changed the character of this neighborhood, compelling Estes and Saia to relocate to more appropriate facilities near the Boise Airport. Sometime during the past nine months, these no-longer-relevant structures were leveled to the ground, likely to make room for student-oriented housing or low-rise commercial office buildings. Certainly, times change and this dense riverfront neighborhood is perhaps better off without the congestion associated with freight liner traffic. What is tragic, however, is how brusquely and unceremoniously we wipe loading docks off the face of the planet without so much as an acknowledgement of their years of dutiful service. May the memory of these and other docks be preserved in at least some modest way in the following video: