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…
April 19, 2020
Though it has become a source of disturbance and confusion, my want to uncover the abandoned lands that hold lost asylum patients has compelled me to trudge into thorny thickets now thrice. (Sorry, watching a Jane Austen movie). I was a bit uneasy this visit, having caught sight of several Read more…
April 15, 2020
Of course I had to throw in a couple of macabre stops while I was in New Jersey for its beautiful tulip fields. After a quick recon mission at the still partially functioning Trenton State Hospital, now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, I deemed it worthy for a return at a later Read more…
April 13, 2020
While in town to explore the cemeteries, I attempted to get back into the hospital grounds, now Olivet University. After finding maps of the property, I saw there was so much I had yet to explore. But there was an SUV at the gate that asked me to stop. The Read more…
The Eastern Gate of Heaven When I, upon returning home, realized I had missed seeing the Harlem Valley State Hospital’s cemetery, I knew I’d be back soon. The grounds of its Potters Field, called The Gate of Heaven, are very isolated… in the middle of the woods as you can Read more…
April 6, 2020
Gosh, if only I could spend my days driving and stopping at every place that tickles my fancy… Like this old farm. I just loved the contrast the open door created. Farming stuff Creeping closer… Time’s styling: shabby chic It felt nice to runaway… I’ll have to do it again. Read more…
April 5, 2020
This week’s photo excursion: the abandoned Harlem Valley State Hospital in Wingdale in New York’s Dutchess County. The hospital’s history, dating back to 1924, is much like the history of the State’s other rural farm colonies. Sprawling self-sufficient campus, catch-all for the “insane,” insulin shock therapy, eletro-shock therapy, ice-pick lobotomies Read more…
March 29, 2020
Some photos from my recon mission to check the status of the old Wrigley Gum Factory (for sale!) which still sits mostly purposeless on Staten Island’s north shore. At the time of my visit, park goers sat in nearby Buono Beach, part of Alice Austen Park, contemplating life in solitude. Read more…
It’s always the staff quarters that are so much more accessible than other abandoned hospital parts. Sure they don’t promise the kind of eerie details so attractive to an urban explorer, but I enjoy the homeyness, the underpainting of comfort and safety as time and neglect peel the paint from Read more…
Every time I return to Staten Island Farm Colony’s remains it’s more brightly colored than the last. Because everyone is quarantining and it’s raining, I hoped I could have it all to myself–and I did. Though there was a shiny new fence securing my usual entrance off the Greenbelt Recreation Read more…