This November 2016 photo shows the ceiling of the Concord gasholder, with scaffolding built as part of repairs when a tree fell on the roof. GEOFF FORESTER/Monitor staff

In 2016 I got to tour inside the iconic gasholder building in Concord, a handsome circular brick structure that once held gas made from coal that was used for lighting and heat in the city, in the days before natural gas pipelines showed up here. (Here’s that story, with some awesome photos)

There are a lot of gasholder buildings standing around the world, as wikipedia will tell you, but Concord’s is extremely unusual – probably unique in the U.S. – because it still contains the massive mechanism inside that floated on top of the gas, holding it in place.

Unfortunately, the building is slowly falling apart and the owners, Liberty Utilities, say it would cost at least $2 million to make it safe and potentially usable – money they don’t plan to spend because the property is of no use to them. (The Monitor has a story about this development.) City taxpayers are unlikely to want to spend that much, which means that unless some right tech-history fan steps up, this building recently placed on the national Historical Registry may well be torn down.