Abandoned Places

DDR - Rothenstein

2009-12-11T14:59:48Z

Go with a BBC correspondent for a look at a weapon storage bunker built by the East German military. It's for sale. Maybe we could all pitch in and ...nevermind.
LINK ~VIDEO

Brandywine Mill

2009-12-11T02:45:02Z

Posted a set from here a while ago. These are a month old, just got around to finishing them.

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41. Mazda RX-7, 1993 Car of the Year...

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44. And to think I voted for that prick 5 times...

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/theneighborhoodwatch

abandonedplaces @ 2009-12-11T07:55:00

2009-12-10T21:01:28Z

I was in the newspaper! My contacting the local news may have had something to do with the developer jumping into action as the work suddenly started on the mansion the day after the newspaper article appeared.

It is a shame they have to jump into action every day now at 7 am! Early morning silence is now shattered by a giant cherry picker, drills, buzz saws and men shouting. But it is good to know the building is being fully restored and turned into apartments.

Would people be interested to see progress pics of the house as it's returned to it's former glory if I post them here?

A Catskills Tradition

2009-12-09T08:49:35Z

The history of the Grandview (Alias) is much broader than just a tale of a single resort.
This plot of land represents the times of an entire region...
Within these walls you witness the rise, and fall, of the Borscht Belt.

The Borscht Belt is (was) a band of hotels, resorts, spas, and places of that nature,
that spread across the Catskills Mountain area of New York state.
At one time vacationing in the Catskills was a very popular thing to do.
It was at it's most popular from the late 1940's, up until the 70's.
A number of factors contributed to the eventual demise of the Borscht Belt,
not the least of which was affordable air-travel.
A family could now go to Florida for little more than the trip to up-state NY...
The entire Borscht Belt region now lays in ruin.
Hundreds of miles of mountain land, dotted with abandoned resorts.

Though the Grandview may stand for an era of American popular culture,
this is not to say that it was just a number in the list of Catskill resorts.
Of all the resorts that stretched the Borscht belt, the Grandview was the crown-jewel.
It was so popular during it's time that an airstrip was constructed on the grounds
so that vacationers could fly directly to the resort.
An airstrip that now has 20+ years of growth covering it...
Interestingly, the "Kellerman's Mountain Resort" from the 1980's film "Dirty Dancing"
was modeled after the Grandview.

The resort had very humble beginnings,
as a single house in the rural mountains of New York state.
A family of three decided to rent out the extra rooms of their home to vacationers from New York City.
The husband ran the facility, the wife cooked and cleaned, and the daughter was hostess.
In 1919 they sold the original house to purchase a larger one on 100 acres.
From that point on the resort steadily grew in size and popularity.
In 1952 it made history as the first ski slope in the world to use artificial snow.
By 1972 the resort had grown to 35 building on some 1,200 acres of land,
and was serving 150,000 guests annually.

Nothing lasts forever though...
By the late 1970's the younger market was no longer interested in vacationing in the Catskills.
Especially when they could take a jet anywhere in the country for nearly the same cost.
To regain Catskill popularity, a bill was put into motion to legalize gambling in the region.
In preparation for this influx of vacationers looking for an alternative to Atlantic City,
the Grandview went under a massive re-construction.
(I have included some of the re-design illustrations at the end of this entry,
along with more historical images of the place)
However, the bill was never passed and gambling remains illegal in the Catskills.
That was the last hit the resort could take.
Construction halted, and in 1986 the resort shut it's doors for good.

Present day is a strange way to perceive the Grandview.
It lies trapped, between what it once was, and what it was on it's way to becoming.

Filmed by Christina,
Edited by me...

- Historical Images -

- Blueprints for never-completed remodeling -

As usual, thanks for reading.
~Rusty

abandonedplaces @ 2009-12-08T20:03:00

2009-12-09T04:03:09Z

About 5 miles north of Kramer Junction on the 395 outside of Boron, CA is an abandoned prison. FPC Boron ("Federal Prison Camp") shut down in around 2001 judging by the dates on most of the forms found around the facility. The facility itself does not appear to be a typical prison.. driving up to it, it looks mostly like an industrial complex. There are about 28 houses in a circle slightly south of the main facility--housing for the correctional staff. The inmate's quarters are two-story dorms with central air and heating and carpeted floors, huge windows. Each inmate gets a locker and there are bathrooms at the end of each hall. Not a bad place at all to serve out a sentence. The facility was minimum security and housed "white-collar" criminals.. sort of a slap-on-the-wrist detention center for tax fraud, stuff like that.

I've been to this site several times but decided to take a couple friends who'd never been. I took tons of pictures so I'll just post in parts.

Visiting center

Lovely mural of the beach.. to remind the staff that there are better places in California than Boron.. :)

Apparently this urinal is broken

Just a hunch.. the toilet might be broken as well..

Children's visiting area

An elevator..? Nope.. an oven!! We found the chow hall :)

More to come later

Abandoned military complex, Norway

2009-12-08T12:19:05Z

I don't know what this used to be...

2009-12-08T10:23:04Z

...but it's pretty cool!

Random

2009-12-08T03:09:30Z

Enchanted Forest and Thistle Mill

2009-12-08T02:59:50Z

I took a trip up to Elicott City early on Saturday morning. The weather and the hour made it a perfect time for exploring. We hardly saw a soul! Unfortunately, the rain also got the camera lens wet and messed up the quality of the photos. I hope you'll enjoy them anyway!

Our first stop was to Enchanted Forest, an abandoned nursery-rhyme themed amusement park. My dad actually visited this park as a kid, so he got a kick out of seeing it in its current state. These photos are all courtesy of a talented friend who wishes to remain anonymous.

We had to enter by climbing up a wooden fence. We did not realize thee was an unlocked gate until we left.

This was a storage room right by an entrance to the park. I'm not entirely sure of its purpose.

This is the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel. It comes complete with a cage and oven for restraining and cooking small children!

What a beautiful family . . .

Inside the castle. I'm disappointed I don't have any more photos of the castle.

The main desk.

Our next stop was to the Seminary above the Patapsco River.
You think these steps are bad? That was only the beginning of the hill. And when we got to the top, we found that the site has been entirely demolished.

While on the road to the Seminary, we stumbled across Thistle Mill by complete accident. I wasn't even aware that it was the same mill Thehoodwatch had explored a few months ago until I searched extensively online for it. According to my dad, a local who grew up a few miles away, this used to be a paper mill. Beyond that, I know hardly anything about it.

We headed across the tracks to the mill . . .

When I got into this room, my jaw literally dropped. It was really one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. This was my first visit to a true abandoned factory, and it was stunning. The symettry and the lighted made it absolutely awe-inspiring.

The collapsing roof had a hard time keeping the rain out.

I've got to wonder how this got here.

There were a ton of tires around the mill. Maybe the river washed them up here?

You can't tell, but when we stepped outside again, snow had begun to fall.

Abandoned Church

2009-12-07T19:29:19Z

St. Mary the Virgin Church

Abandoned Church on my website Photo Exploration

Abandoned train station in Abkhazia

2009-12-07T08:13:05Z

Abandoned train station in Abkhazia

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Question...

2009-12-07T07:15:38Z

Hello group.
I have a question to ask all of you...

There are some places I wish to post here, however I do not wish to disclose their names.
All the historical information will be included and factual, but I would like to use an alias.
Additionally, if I make a post in which I am using an alias, I will state it up-front.

My reasoning for this is that I recently made an entry about a location
(not on here, on my myspace page)
which was taken and posted to an "Urban Explorers" website.
The location was then ransacked...
The entry has since been removed from the site, but the damage is done.

I now feel guilty to have brought such damage to this place I wrote about.
A place, which until I photographed it, sat safely and quietly in the woods.
My feeling are that if I'm doing a dis-service to the location, then what I am doing is counter-productive.
I wish to share these places out of respect to them, and the history they represent.
Most, if not all, of you here treat these places with a high regard.
This is made obvious by the passion in which you all write, be it as a post or comment.
I greatly enjoy the feeling of "community" here, and hope my inquiry does not offend anyone...

Just wanted input. If it is a problem I will simply not post the locations.

Also, I forgot to post this image with my Bennett School entry.
Which is a shame, because it's my favourite exterior shot...

abandonedplaces @ 2009-12-06T21:41:00

2009-12-07T05:40:48Z

These pictures were taken just outside of Trona, CA. Trona is a tiny desert town 30 miles northeast of Ridgecrest.. pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The road to Trona is narrow and riddled with potholes and deserted, which definitely sets a certain mood for the trip. Trona itself is mostly abandoned. This trip was actually a split-second decision made as the sun was setting so we (myself, inneedofescape, and her boyfriend who also took pictures) didn't get a lot of exploration time but we did take some pictures of a "neighborhood" right on the outskirts.. basically two houses that were inhabited (but barely looked it..) surrounded by abandoned houses. I joked that the natives would run out and chase us off with rifles but all they did was wave to us from their houses while a huge dog watched us from a makeshift chickenwire-fenced yard.

Prior to us coming here, we had made a day of exploring a nearby abandoned prison in Boron.. pictures of that trip will be posted tomorrow maybe.

The neighborhood

Floor tile.. I thought it was too charming!

Searles dry lake bed in the background. This picture does not do the area justice.. it's quite beautiful in a strange, desolate way.

An old Jeep radio! I have two Jeeps (one old..one new) so this made me happy!

An old, rusted.....something

Moving on to the next house...but then my batteries died!

After reloading new batteries.. we wandered to check out a nearby shed

One of the factories in Trona.

The Death of Transfiguration

2009-12-07T03:21:29Z

We stopped by Philadelphia's "Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord" to photograph the progress of the demolition. Some loyal viewers may remember this place from a couple sets I posted up last summer.

4. Debris dangles overhead...

8. Rubble...

9. The floor above was giving way...

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16. That used to be the entrance...

17. People used to say this place was too risky because it had motion sensors, not anymore...

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/theneighborhoodwatch

Abandoned House in South Carolina

2009-12-06T04:54:35Z

I drove by this house every day for a week while pet-sitting for a co-worker, I finally had to stop and take pictures of it. It was right next to a fire station, which on one hand made me nervous about getting caught, but on the other hand made me feel safer about being in this abandoned place... Anyway nothing happened. The place is actually for sale, has a sign and everything. Talk about a fixer-upper.

Check out the bricks falling off the chimney:

The whole porch and front walk were covered in these brambles. I was wearing sandals and got a whole crop of tiny thorns in my toes.

Another shot of the brambles. See that blue thing on the doorknob? The house had a security system. Which is why I didn't even step onto the porch, much less try to get inside.

I couldn't stop staring at this fan. The whole house seemed so depressed.

What first caught my eye from the road: This astonishingly sad flag-banner thing. If they were hoping to attract buyers with this, they should have given up three or four years ago.

The back porch. Looks like maybe they kept some kind of pet there?

The side door. Someone needs to tell the bramble vines about the security system.

I got pics of another place right down the road from this, a house that apparently burned. I'll post that later, along with the Tale of the Red Bugs. Peace and happy house hunting!

instant film from the victory building

2009-12-05T20:39:38Z

It's been so long since i've posted here. There have been a lot of new explorers in my area and it's made it really dangerous to do it. (not to mention cleveland has been pretty rough lately)

I finally scanned in some of the instants I took last time I was at the victory building.

These supplement my last post on this place: here.

Also, I finally got around to making my mini-web housing all my explorations, over at ruined-nation, so if you've missed some of the locations i've been to previously, you can check them all out there in the galleries section- there were also some places i never posted here. :)

abandonedplaces @ 2009-12-05T03:23:00

2009-12-05T09:23:32Z

While on StumbleUpon, I found this site, serving a portion of the site called "100 Abandoned Houses." The fifteen below the cut are only a few in Detroit, Michigan. According to the site, Detroit, once a city of almost 2 million, has since lost over half its population over the last 60 years.

Caged in Culver City

2009-12-05T05:00:50Z

Culver City is your typical quaint suburban neighborhood perched on the far-flung edge of Los Angeles. The homes are anywhere from 60-100 years old, and the smallest family domicile can cost half a million dollars. This is California, after all. I like to bike through the area, it's aged and quaint and full of big trees. Sometimes I go play on the playground next to the elementary school. Wandering further west through the neighborhood, I found these two neglected homes gated off and left to rot. They stick out very badly. I checked them for safety, found a buddy, and went to explore. Without a "no trespassing sign", this was fair game!

There are two houses. This is the one on the left under all that shrubbery:

It was truly this dark without flash:

With flash:

Left side of the house/entry point:

Kitchen:

Shots from the two girls' rooms:

Shots from the extension:

This doll was SUPER creepy. My friend opened one of her eyes with a pen and it stuck that way. We nearly screamed.

This is the frame from the oil painting above the creepy doll:

Back of the house:

Back of the shed:

Back inside the house, exploring the bathroom. Now with 100% more random yarn:

Sink is fine:

Tile is falling off the wall here though:

The family left their bath products...and what appears to be a photo of a mother and child:

Released in January 2001:

Living room debris:

There was a desk with a Santa hat in one drawer:

Back outside:

Front of the shed:

House on the right:

Back of the house; it was tagged with graffiti and utterly destroyed:

This was how the first house looked from here:

A junk bomb had gone off here, apparently:

Then..through the overgrowth..what is this?? That would be a hidden guest house out back!:

The floor was COVERED in junk:

"Ooo look at me! I'm a Christian! I'm reading the bi-ble!"

Back to the second house; as I said, it was a disaster. It had the worse layout:

I couldn't actually get into the house from the back because it looked too dangerous, so I went in through this window:

I did some research; both houses built around the early 1920s and have been abandoned since about 2007. Both houses are foreclosed and owned by the bank. The one on the left is about $560,000 and the other is $700,000 or so. There's about $3,000 in taxes due on the left one alone. There is no way in this economy that these homes will sell in their current states. There is a ton of clean up, repair, and inspections to consider.
I have some ideas though... I have been wanting to start a non profit small bird rescue for a long while. Although they need a ton of work, the land and houses are usable (I'm not sure about the right house though, it may be too far gone). I am considering seeing if I can talk the bank into some steeply discounted prices to purchase both houses and land. I think I would lease the rooms at discount to whoever can fix them. You fix it, you can stay there. Any feedback on this? I would really appreciate it.

Popash School, Hardee County, Florida

2009-12-04T03:10:17Z

Featured in Weird Florida, the Popash School was something of an old friend to me. My family used to drive past it on the way to Boca Grande down south all the time when I was a child, and it was always fascinating. I watched it deteriorate throughout the years but never thought to take a picture until about four years ago when I made the trip back to Boca Grande with a friend during summer. I'm very glad I did because it's gone now, it was torn down in January of this year. I'm sorry I couldn't have taken more shots of it, or taken any inside shots but the whole place was fenced off and it was along a very busy highway. I had another shot - a closeup of the doorway - but I can't seem to find it on my hard drive.

As for the school itself it was part of a now deserted town called Popash here in Florida in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it sort of faded away after a railway was built but bypassed it in favor of Zolfo Springs. There's not much left of the town, save for an abandoned church, its graveyard and some houses. That's sort of the brief rundown of it, I'm sure you can find better info on it elsewhere.

I'd love to go back and get photos but I live in Orlando and I haven't been down that way for oh, about 4 years. But if any of you others here are in Florida, I'd really recommend going and checking out what's left of Popash.

Letchworth Village

2009-12-03T23:33:29Z

Letchworth Village

In 1909 the state of New York built
a facility for the aid and housing of the "feeble minded and epileptics"
Named after William Pryor Letchworth,
a key player in the creation of the facility and noted humanitarian of the time.

The grounds were set up in a college campus style.
Building were kept relatively small, and typically did not exceed two-stories tall.
They were all located within a relatively short walk of each other.
They all shared the hand-cut stone, arched-window, and stone column "Greek" aesthetic as well.

A large stream ran through the campus,
it served as a divider between male and female patients.
Letchworth Village also housed it's own power plant, farmland, waste disposal, and water supply.
Making it the first all-inclusive facility of it's kind.

Of the research performed there, one of the most note-worthy was the
development of the polio vaccines used in the Congo by Dr. Hilary Koprowski.
It was revealed that he had been the first physician to preform a polio vaccine on humans.
Those humans were twenty "mentally deficient" patients of Letchworth Village...

In the 1960's and into the 1970's Letchworth
Village began to badly suffer from overcrowding.
The then local reporter Geraldo Rivera created a documentary about the sad condition
in which many United States psychiatric hospitals found themselves.
Touching on issues such as over-crowding, neglect, and abuse...
It was titled: "The Last Great Disgrace"
Segments of the documentary were even filmed at Letchworth Village.
It was later turned into a nationally-aired documentary by ABC.

As expected, the public outcry from this was sizable.
This, coupled with the nations shift toward mental care on a smaller scale
(Such as group-homes, which is what ended a lot of these facilities lives)
resulted in the slow re-distribution of the patients of Letchworth Village.

In 1997 the last of the residents was relocated,
and the power was forever cut to the campus.

Video filmed by Christina,
edited by me...

Sorry about the image quality on some of the pics, I did not have my tripod with me.
Also, my apologies to anyone who thinks I used LJ-cut too late,
I tried to make the pre-cut entry as short as possible
and still include the history and one pic...

~Rusty

Abandoned Places - The Lyric Theater

2009-12-03T13:41:39Z

Abandoned and empty for over 25 years, the Lyric (built in 1908 as a Vaudeville House) and it's adjacent office building are now in a state of arrested decay. The theater was purchased for preservation by a non-profit which owns the nearby and restored Alabama Theater. This summer, two assistants and I recieved permission to extensively photograph both theaters and the office tower adjacent to the Lyric. Using studio lights to illuminate the gloom, these are some samples.

Yes, the curtain does say "Asbestos"

This is color enhanced detail of the art above the stage

Many more photos will follow soon.

Secret Bowling Alley in Queens, N.Y.

2009-12-03T13:06:41Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-carr/the-secret-bowling-alley_b_376623.html

From the Huffington Post:

"I received a very unexpected email last week:

"'We recently purchased a building in Queens, and while clearing out the basement we discovered a two lane manual bowling alley in very good condition. We did some research and this basement was most probably a club during the Prohibition era. Would you or someone you know be interested [in the space]?'

"A hidden Prohibition-era bowling alley? Yes, definitely interested. I took a trip to see it today - Just incredible:"

Black Friday

2009-12-03T04:25:52Z

Went back up to Coal Country on Black Friday. Revisited all 3 of these spots that I had been to last summer. I didn't really think about how people would be around since it was a Friday. We had to dodge dump trucks carrying coal from newer facilities across the old unused sections of the strip mine where the Dragline was. That was fun.

---Marion 7400 Dragline: Strip-mining machine---

---Coal Breaker: Crushed coal boulders into smaller specific sizes---

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---Centralia, Pa: "Town" with an underground mine fire---

37. There are more dead than living in Centralia...

38. Walking the barren landscape...

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41. It was about 40*F out. In the summer when it was hot less smoke would show. A decent amount of smoke is showing now. I imagine if you can out when it was like 20*F it would be really smokey...

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47. Highway 61 Revisited...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theneighborhoodwatch

Quincy & Torch Lake Railroad yard plus 1

2009-12-02T00:05:13Z

There was a copper mining industry Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula from 1846 to well into the past century The Quincy & Torch Lake served the Quincy Mining Company. The Quincy Mining Company was founded in 1846 to mine native copper deposits on property near Hancock, Michigan. During the course of the next one hundred and fifty years, the company produced 1.5 billion pounds of refined copper and issued $30 million in shareholder dividends. In 1976, I shot the following photos at the yard of the Q & TL. Only three structures remained. The engine house and a rectangular water tank. I understand there are restorations ongoing of mining era facilities and trains. One of the Q & TL engines was running at the museum at Greenfield Village.

Overview of yard with engine house.

steam engine drving wheels with "S" on them to be saved

Caboose also marked to be saved

Enclosed water tank with heater to prevent freezing in the winter

Remains of passenger car (Copper Range RR?) south of Houghton

Beautiful banisters of the ruined house in the city of Kashira, Moscow region, Russia

2009-12-01T07:05:43Z

I always stop to gaze at these amazing banisters on my way from the Assumption cathedral to the open swimming pool. These banisters is the only part of the house on a high bank of the Oka river which has survived. It's the perfect setting for taking "atmospheric" pictures. The pictures were taken in mid-November and early October this year.