Frances McCue, co-founder of Hugo House, said the demolition feels like a collaboration. Shes filming the buildings destruction for a documentary about her time in the house called Where the House Was.
Frances McCue, co-founder of Hugo House, said the demolition feels like a collaboration. She's filming the building's tear-down for a documentary about her time in the house called Where the House Was. Tracey Cataldo

As Christopher Frizzelle pointed out earlier on Slog, giant Tonka monsters are scraping, head-butting, gnawing, and chomping at the old Hugo House building right now. But for some reason—maybe he was running late for something, maybe he was distracted, or maybe he's just soooooo busy now that he's the magazine editor—Frizzelle only posted a photo and a link back to my article explaining why it's so cool that the House is getting a new building. That's not journalism, Frizzelle, that's disaster pornography. Publishing pornography of any kind on this site really is a new low for The Stranger, not to mention an insult to the legacy of the Hugo House. Harumph! 😤

Now check out this sweet vid of a drone filming the total destruction of the old house:

In Frizzelle's haste he must have missed Frances McCue, co-founder of Hugo House, standing right beside the destruction in her hardhat and reflective vest.

"It makes me hungry," she said when I asked how it feels to watch the building she lived in, worked in, and buried her husband in being torn down. "And you kinda root for it after a while. It activates your need for plot. But when they get to my apartment I'm going to cry."

The demolition crew plans to eat through the middle of the building and then pull the front half back, so that it dominos into the back half.

The cherry trees out front will not be saved, but the crew will gather the materials they destroyed and will recycle or reuse what they can.

Oh, and do you see that drone in the video? That drone is equipped with a camera that's shooting the last bit of film McCue will need to complete Where the House Was, her documentary about the Hugo House and her time spent in it. The team just secured 2015 Stranger Genius Steve Fisk to do the sound design, which should work out pretty well for them.

A long poem McCue wrote for the project will weave in and out of the video, music, readings, and interviews that will comprise the film. She told me she threw a copy of that poem beneath the crawlspace next to the bar as a parting gesture to the place.