Although not entirely untouched, Capitol struck me as not having been inundated by visitors since it was closed down. The first big room had slimy mud on the floor and pieces of rusty machinery lying everywhere. It also had a huge hole in the ceiling, which you can see above. This main room struck me as a good place to hold a rave, if you could figure out a way not to go to prison for it.
We explored the back section, which contained a large freezer/safe-type thing and a huge loading dock which had the door welded shut. You could climb a flight of stairs up to the top of the freezer thing, where there was a ton of junk, and look out a window directly across Marconi at the police substation back there.
Next we climbed the metal stairs to a catwalk at the top of the main room and went through a door into the rest of the building. The view from the catwalk was dizzying, but of course in the dark my photos of the main room didn't develop.
The rest of the building was apparently administrative offices. No tools or huge workrooms here; just hallways and offices.
On one floor we came across the window where employees picked up their paychecks. That floor still had some of the old ceiling tiles left hanging overhead. I think they might have been white at some time.
On a higher floor we walked down a hallway heavily damaged by fire at some point. I'd imagine it happened after the place was closed, because no effort had been made to clean up.
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The top floor was the most interesting. We found really old beer bottles and graffiti from 1975, which gives you an idea when this building was last occupied. One of the window boards had been removed, and there was a pretty good view of downtown across I-70. Other sights included a huge freight elevator and a weird sliding metal door. Overall, a very interesting exploration--if a difficult one. Visit Rookie's Illicit Ohio for more details.
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