Source: Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers
Foothills Community Workshop is a small makerspace in the old manufacturing community of Granite Falls, North Carolina, about an hour drive north of Charlotte. Things were going well for the first six years. Membership was steady, the workshop space had grown from its initial 2000 square feet to 5000 square feet, with an active woodworking shop, machine shop, science lab, model train layout, and the usual amenities of a community work space.
The shop was in a small part of a textile mill with over 180,000 square feet of floor space.
On the afternoon of Friday, July 21st 2017, a fire started somewhere in another part of the mill, and the rest of the building was quickly consumed. There were no injuries, but the space was completely destroyed, leaving behind only one of the ham radio antennas originally attached to the porch. Upon knowing that everyone was safe, the scope of the tangible damage began to sink in. Gene’s model railroad project of 40 years was gone. The expensive tools like the laser cutter and machine shop were gone. Some members also had belongings in the storage units on the other side of the mill that were also lost. The collection of antique computers, as well as the classroom full of modern computers were all gone.
The board met right after the fire and decided that the organization would carry on, rising from the ashes to create a bigger and better space.
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