June 30, 2020
Parts of an old New York City sky scraper are sitting in a field in Holliday Park in Indianapolis. Seems a random enough allure. So I stopped by to see the pained expressions of the men who use to hold up the St. Paul Building in Manhattan, demolished in 1958. Read more…
The tale of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, later the Central State Hospital, is much like Farm Colony hospitals all across the country. Opening in the mid-1800’s, the sprawling and self sufficient colony covered 160 acres outside of downtown Indianapolis and included male and female wards, a farm worked Read more…
June 29, 2020
The Knightridge Space Observatory in Bloomington, Indiana is a simple observatory built in simpler times. But since that time the city of Bloomington and telescopic technology have grown. And the two-room structure with a rotating dome ceiling has been left alone in the woods since. Functioning only for 30 years, Read more…
June 28, 2020
In 1919, when East Cleveland was not a source of distracting ambient light, the Warner And Swasey Company gifted an observatory to the Astronomy department of the Case School of Applied Science. Though they manufactured a variety of machinery and tools, Warner and Swasey was best known for its giant Read more…
June 20, 2020
Sleighton Farm School in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania was once a reformatory school for delinquent girls. It was also other things since the 1826–including a House of Refuge and a co-ed reform school. But its life from 1931 to 1975, when it was an all-girls school for unruly 12-18 year olds… Read more…
A destination for lovebirds since the sixties, the heart-shaped jacuzzis, circular beds, mirrored ceilings and wedding bell-shaped pool at Penn Hills Resort in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania have been decaying since its closure in 2009. Though I have stalked from the fence in 2017, today’s photo mission in Pennsylvania Read more…
June 13, 2020
The longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its construction, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge’s anchorages dig into 115 feet of the Earth. That excavated soil and sand helped to create Brooklyn’s Calvert Vaux Park, the latest park in my exploration series. With a nice view of the bridge Read more…
June 10, 2020
This place has been a bit of mission for me. The old Red Hook Grain Terminal–a massive 12-story grain elevator with fifty-four silos 120-feet up in the air. Intrepid explorers have made it in… but trespassing arrests are rumored to be enforced. With the days of easier access seemingly gone, Read more…
June 1, 2020
Alongside Campbell’s Pond on the South Mountain Reservation is an old pumping station, which used to help move larger quantities of water with an increased pressure to area residents. But it has been long abandoned. It was a must as we explored some the treasures along the trails about the Read more…
May 31, 2020
With some itineraries including the exploration of Ghost Towns in Pennsylvania and Nevada, I am starting a new Urban Exploration category with this first post about an abandoned village in New Jersey: Feltville. The remains of the this village established in 1845 lies within the Watchung Reservation in Berkeley Heights, Read more…
May 30, 2020
With some errands on Long Island, I would of course make the most of my trip. A quick return to the grounds of the Nassau County Sanitorium in Plainview first. I explored the grounds 5 years ago and had many folks comment on the post–family of staff, family of patients. Read more…
May 28, 2020
This second haul of pictures wraps up a jam-packed day of exploring Connecticut’s abandoned places–a trip that took me four days to sort through the pictures. Since I wrote all about Norwich State Hospital’s history in my previous post, please enjoy these images without my chatter. Soon these structures will Read more…
And with this visit to the remains of Norwich State Hospital, I’ve visited all of Connecticut’s state psychiatric facilities, the other two being Fairfield State Hospital and Connecticut Valley State Hospital. Norwich’s story is much like other state-run psychiatric hospitals… bucolic location, sprawling rural campus, self sufficiency, eventual overcrowding, expansion Read more…
May 27, 2020
A small psychiatric hospital in Portland, Connecticut lay in ruins awaiting its new life, a mixed use retail and residential space called Brainerd Place (Ooh! Another Starbucks!) But before you can order your complicated coffee beverage using some multisyllabic nonsense words–a walk through the Elmcrest Hospital campus, which, like many Read more…
May 25, 2020
Holy Land USA has come a long way since my first visit 5 years ago. Heck, it’s come a long way since my visit last year! With an ongoing clean-up and, er, resurrection of the space, new concrete remnants are surfacing, new-to-me. It is a unique place to spend an Read more…
With a packed Connecticut itinerary, a stop at Middletown’s Connecticut Valley State Hospital, formerly the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane. Though the campus contains a still-functioning psychiatric hospital, many of the old buildings sit unused on the well-manicured property. But these derelict parts are sufficiently boarded up with no easy Read more…
May 20, 2020
With gorgeous weather bringing me out on my bike, I explored Brooklyn’s edges to uncover abandoned spaces in the heavily developed borough. I decided this would be a bit of an ongoing quest, so stay tuned for other after-work bike adventures. Today, some glorious rust and a peek into an Read more…
May 16, 2020
Though I found myself again at Staten Island’s most dynamic photo stop, The New York Farm Colony, first a visit to the barely accessible remains of the infamous Willowbrook State School. Since 1993, many of the former buildings of this disgraced state school for the physically and mentally disabled are Read more…
With such a hefty toll to cross into Staten Island, I like to make ‘er pay up–justify the antenna money grab with an enriching stop even if the Island is not my final destination. Such was the case when my friend and I embarked upon a road trip to several Read more…
May 3, 2020
Facing the active parking lot for the walking paths the runs through Letchworth Village is an administrative building with no roof. A victim of arson years ago, the building is barely fenced and, upon our arrival, explorers walk freely within the crumbled walls that remain. In fact, people wandered through the Read more…
I had to consult this map of Letchworth Village to figure out what this building was, a wide open space that my wide angle lens just loved to shoot. It is named Attendants Building, but appeared to be a kind of communal gathering space. There was the usual raunchy graffiti, Read more…
The Hospital of a Farm Colony is always the saddest structure. Particularly at Letchworth Village‘s grounds, the birthplace of the human trial. Except the human trials performed at Letchworth were without consent. Inhumane a tremendous understatement, doctors–who classified patients as either “idiot,” “imbecile,” or “moron”–were reported to collect brains from Read more…
Jewish patients were able to worship on the premises of Letchworth Village after 1977, when Congregation B’nai Israel was built. The temple has been abandoned since the hospital closed in 1996. This was a favorite location to photograph for many reasons although it is just a single room. For one, Read more…
After my first visit to Letchworth Village in February, I knew that I would soon return. The expansive cluster of accessible remnants to the asylum for the physically and mentally disabled that was established over 100 years ago seems destined for eventual demolition… like in your next step through its Read more…
May 2, 2020
Creepy places on a beautiful day? Yes please. Emboldened by company and the bright blue sky, I watched the peeling paint in Rockland State Hospital‘s staff quarters. Following the sun’s rays out and about, there was just so much to explore. I wanted to take that hutch. We found it Read more…
April 25, 2020
As the United States entered World War I, New York City needed several harbor defenses. Fort Tilden on the Rockaway Peninsula was established within the military installations used in the War of 1812. But like other New York City forts, the end of The Cold War meant the tremendous concrete Read more…