Abandoned Places

As I’d noted before, I’m metering my abandoned site posts to give everyone (myself included) a bit of a break. Back around Yule / Christmas, I took the kids up into the hills above the Antelope Valley (north of Los Angeles) and found an old mercantile store from the late 1800’s.



( Stone memories (9 behind the cut) )

As mentioned before, on this trip, my partner and I visited 4 locations on and close to US Highway 395 in the western Mojave Desert.

1. The Hawes Communications Bunker (Visit #4 because she wanted to see it);
2. The Atolia Tungsten Mines (4 miles square – 100+ mine openings);
3. Randsburg, CA (A Class C “living” ghost town – 300 houses, 78 residents);
4. Boron Minimum Security Federal Prison Camp (This required two visits)

Without a doubt, one of the most amazing places I’ve ever gotten to photograph and explore was this next site. Boron Air Force Station was a remote but in military terms autonomous ‘radar” base in the Mojave Desert near Edwards AFB. The site was constructed in the 1950’s and housed several radar complexes, including the primary regional air defense radar for the Los Angeles/San Diego region. It is also included a backup radar control site according to some documents for the Los Angeles NIKE missile batteries that protected the area until the 1970’s. The configuration of the radar towers seems to support that a NIKE radar site was here at one time, though the nearest acknowledged launch battery was over 70 miles away. In the 1970’s (about the same time NIKE was deactivated), the Air Force declared the site surplus and turned it over to the Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons) and the FAA. After two years of modification, the Boron Minimum Security Federal Prison Camp opened for business.

Boron Minimum Security FPC (outdoor views)


Disconnected

( into the Great Wide Open.. [16 behind the cut] )

Much to my great regret, the certified letter that I sent to the company which owns the California Theatre in San Diego, CA was returned yesterday as "undeliverable" and unopened. This means that the US Postal Service attempted to deliver or contact the 'business' which is managing the building for 2 weeks without success. It means the mail is also not being forwarded to another entity or business either. It means that the legal "server of process" ("Pasquale Baono") isn't doing what he's supposed to be. Anyone in San Diego care to see if this guy is on the phone book there? According to the California Secretary of State's website:

"What is an agent for service of process?

An agent is an individual (manager, member or any other person, whether or not affiliated with the company) who resides in California or a corporation designated by the limited liability company to accept service of process if the company is sued. The agent must agree to accept service of process on behalf of the company prior to designation." ...

Curiouser and curiouser... While it could be considered that my letter wasn’t a legal notice or process being served, it means they never cared to look at what the letter was at all. I believe I will be making some calls to the city, county and state to run down further info. This further convinces me the developer just transferred the building to a shell company and is letting it rot. Something stinks here.

A quaint inviting little school along the California coast.

It wasn't a massive bleak looking warehouse, the standard blueprint for today's schools, so it had to be left behind.

Inviting, comfortable, on a human scale - all concepts that most modern architecture have discarded.

(Cross-posted to: abandonedplaces, desert_vision, & socal_abandoned)

Bill Potapov’s Service Station and Motor Court Oro Grande area

We continued northeast on National Trails Highway till we reached this amazing old gas station. References have been found to this place as Popotov’s, Potopov’s, and Potapov’s. According to old timers in the area, it was Bill’s place. AS mentioned before, Bill P was known for a soft heart. In the era before ATM’s, checks and wire transfers weren’t always available or readily accepted from business to business. Bill was well known for fixing traveler’s vehicles even they couldn’t pay. In cases like these, Popotov would merely ask for a ‘security deposit’ in the form of a non-critical part of the vehicle, which he’d hold onto until the owner would come back and pay him the difference for the repairs. Call it a vehicular pawn shop.



( Down memory lane..[+19] )