I work regularly out of an old warehouse building in the Seaport district of Boston. My company is storing some hardware in an adjacent building and I got into an interesting conversation with the longshoreman who was helping us out. It turns out he was very proud of the building and, of course, new of all the nooks, crannies, and minutiae that make a place interesting.

Apparently, the warehouse was built by the Army in 1919 and used as a transit hub during the war for both goods and soldiers. New recruits would walk across this floor and directly board ships heading for Europe with emotions that I can hardly imagine. There’s only one artifact still remaining that would make you suspect this. At the top of an elevator shaft someone, I like to think an enthusiastic young soldier with a penchant for rabble-rousing, graffitied into the concrete, “TO HELL WITH HITLER.” For me, that one mark converted this featureless building into one full of stories and legends instantly.