If you were to...

An old plumbing and heating supply business, where the guy works mostly out of his truck. I picture a lot of old dusty copper pipes and valves etc.

Al's Laundry (dry cleaner as a mob front)

If you suppose those are empty wooden barrels in the fenced in area, then Pickleheimer Pickle Werks. One of my father's childhood friends was a Pickleheimer.

Those look like milk cans in the fenced-in area. Here in Wisconsin there were hundreds of small cheese making buildings throughout the state. Frank's Cheese Co. should be on the facade.

As it is, to me it looks like a former electrical sub station building, now being "re-purposed" as they say.  Can't see all sides but perhaps it could be an auto repair shop if there's an overhead or garage type door.  Otherwise used for storage of chemicals, oils, used parts, etc.  What's it near?  Perhaps a neighboring business might use it to expand his available floor space.  If it's near a RR track, perhaps it could be a tool storage shed.

Or when all else fails, make it into the neighborhood saloon:  Call it "Moonson's Last Chance Tavern".

Paul Fischer

Really, looks like an aged EAST TENN,  electric or telephone building, or

take the barrels over to your , Warehouse,  and you have the look of

some old grocery stores, in NORTH Car.

It really looks good!!!! 

Danny's Demolition.

You have an old secure brick building with a caged area outside storing wood casks. I'd make an old wood style sign and mount it on the front of the building in the large open area to the left.

Gandy

Hmmmm -  have to think about this one.

Frank,

Name it "Echo Spirits Company"

You would only keep barrels of liquor behind a barbed wire fence.

Alan Graziano

To me, the high fence surrounding empty barrels suggests toxic materials in them that are secured. Maybe a tanning company, a recycling facility or a chemical company are some of the uses that come to mind.

Why?

I looks like the type of building that would NOT want to advertise it's purpose.

I like Pauls Cheese company but I would name it

Moonman Cheese Cutting

Rusty Pipes's Plumbing Supply.

Nason's Chemical Laboratory for the following reasons:

1. no windows

2. man opening fence is in a lab coat

3. barrels in fenced yard are for chemicals

Place sign extended from from of building. You will have a winner.

Monty's Monkey Farm - slogan: "At Least A Dozen in Every Barrel" 

Stink Fingers Cheese Company

Since there are barrels in the storage / fenced in area, why not something like..."Bob's Barrels".  This could be a company that makes barrels used in shipping various kinds of product for the industry on the layout.  You could have a shipping and receiving sign on the fence and of course an appropriate sign on the front of the building. 

Alan

Use worn, weathered lettering for these:

Frank's Pharmacy

Soylent Greene Dist.

Dropemoff Disposal [let NJ minds supply details]

Gorre & Daphetid Eastern Division

Whatcha Lookinat

Vibrotor Barrel Co.

Crash Test Dum. Inc.

Selective Compression

Brinebeer Barrels

Industrial Light & Magic

Tesla Testers

Use some UV paint to make that box and a barrel or two glow in the dark.

A spooky green / UV glow through that transom would look SCARY! Some green / UV under the door or through a crack in the doorway would heighten the effect. Put it where visitors can see it. Maybe at the boarded-up side door, too - where visitors will think they are seeing something they shouldn't.

Wait a minute, there's no HVAC equipment... of any kind; I know what this place is... it's some kind of secret portal... a covert gatehouse to -

and Murph's trying to lure us in... run!

Rick

Your replies have certainly made for an interesting and imaginative read, for me. Thank you, all! Your suggestions, explanations, and names have stimulated my imagination for numerous future projects, in addition to helping me purose this one. Even the couple of quirky ideas, like barrels of monkeys and cheesey fingers, became part of the fun. In fact, I may be inviting your input on another thread like this one, sometime soon, if you like, and would welcome such.

Though I liked this kit enough to buy it, its lack of windows stumped me, once the finished structure stood in front of me. Yet, I figured ideas would come. They did not, beyond adding the enclosure and its symbolic contents. Eventually, I decided upon the name, "2nd Amendment, Guns and Amunition" but somehow didn't quite get motivated enough to make the sign. And I wasn't sure how the barrels and couple of crates fit that scenario.

I don't always start w/an idea and craft a building or scene to express those thoughts, as many modelers and layout owners likely do. Sometimes, I do the reverse. That is, I maintain and develop an ever-changing inventory ("Throw nothing away" is my motto) of ingredients; then, certain of those elements become associated in my mind as ways to express scenes I have seen in real life, esp.when touring throughout NY and Pennsylvania, as well as during a recent drive to Kansas to help craft a new client's layout.

The suggestions I am leaning the most toward are those by Alan Graziano, for making the vignette as a subterminal part of a larger complex, and Fisch's expanded storage facility, using it as part of an existing larger business; Alan (leavingtracks) barrel-making business; PassengerTrainCollector's chem lab; Scott's plumbing supply; electroliner's tanning co. (I made one of those, once and enjoyed it); QuickCasey's pickles idea has me thinking of further possibilities; NYCFan's idea inspires an expansion of the site; ReadingFan's "Brine Beer..." gives me ideas, too.  

They're all such good ideas! You've given me a head filling with creative possibilites. Your collective kindness is making ideas leak out of my ears! However, I'd better shut-up, now; this response is getting to be a book! Thanks again, all of you. This was fun and is going to continue to be so for quite some time as I sketch out new projects, thanks to you. FrankM

Many businesses were (still are) started by the inventor working alone in a small, non-descript shop. The barrels somewhat define the product.

Here's an old auto polish\cleaner company: Excelda The package has an old logo font style.

Nice idea and a good point, Moonman. Thank you. At least, he had windows, though (!)

Moonson

P.S. I remember cleaning my father's '54 Merc, and '56 and '58 Cadillac Coupes de ville, and my Schwinn Black Phantom bike (big, wide,chrome fenders), during the 50's when I was a boy, and I used a cleaner for chrome that came in a can like that product, except that the colors were different, I think. It had a very fine "grit" in the liquid that scraped the cloudy stuff right off and did not scratch the chrome.

You got me chuckling, Frank; still am. You kill me.

The point about the wooden barrels is a good one; maybe, that's what has been bothering me all along. I am going to change them out, if I don't make the place a cooperage or have the vignette attend to a larger facility like a brewery.

Thanks.

FrankM

I would take out the barrels and put in some rusting car engine parts (if available) and call it Buck's Unique Machine Shop. In the late '70s and '80s there was a Buck's Unique Machine Shop located in East Brunswick, NJ. I knew the owner because I worked next door. His son was an HO model railroader. I know of several other automotive machine shops that look like your building because they have very few windows. Buck has since passed on but he was a great guy with an incredible sense of humor. I remember he had 55 gallon drum of waste oil in the causeway between his shop and the building where I worked. That would be easy to model. Anyway, just my two cents.

With the lack of windows and the barbed wire, it looks like a secret detention facility in Rumania. 

"Fits Right" Barrel Stave Company (as in whisky barrels)

Faded painted on sign (on the front above the door but all the way across).

Rick.

Waaaaaay more than just two cents worth! I like it. Do you mean something like this?

I agree with TGP, the building looks like a small telephone or electrical building.  I would use the barrels elsewhere and replace them with either cable (wire) spools or small electrical transformers.  Another option would be 1 or 2 large electrical transformers with "High Voltage" signs on the fence. 

Nice job.

Moonie's Taxidermy & Bible College

Good suggestion (I know,you know that,) and I'll take it seriously.

FrankM

Thanks.

That makes excellent sense, on both counts, Dvbull. Thank you.

RickBivins, Thank you, also, for the "Fits Right" idea. If I decide to leave the barrels as-is, I may go in that direction.

FrankM

 MINE!!!!

along with anything you build...

someday I hope to gain this much talent or even close.

 Somehow I see it as a nameless building

adds to the mystery of what's going on.... Maybe like a meat pkg plant?? or other cover up name.....if U get my drift.