Update: Nepera was demolished in 2015 The history of Nepera Chemical plant in Harriman, NY reads like a painfully predictable movie script about a Big Bad Chemical Company near a Quaint Little Town where residents suffer abnormally high cancer rates and birth defects. Situated too fucking close to the local well and a school, the plant began operations in 1942 and was widely despised until its closing in 2005. It manufactured “pharmaceutical chemicals and intermediate […read more…]
These buildings started out as Greycourt Farm Colony- a woman’s prison- in 1918. It covered 258 acres of farmland that were tended to by female prisoners. (If you’re wondering what a “farm colony” is, read this.) In 1934, the city turned it into Camp La Guardia, a homeless shelter for men. The shelter’s occupants continued to farm, with potatoes being the main staple, and sent food to other nearby shelters. In the 1980s, the crack epidemic and deinstitutionalization […read more…]
2016 update: Homowack Lodge is now a historic landmark. The unfortunately named Homowack Lodge was one of the many Borscht Belt resorts that were popular from the 1920s to the 1960s, but declined in the ‘70s and ’80s, when the popularity of resorts was replaced by cheap airfare to other places, seaside trips, and private vacation homes. Homowack was a family resort before being turned into a day camp for Hasidic girls. The city forced […read more…]
2017 update: the latest of many fires at Penn Hills destroyed the main building, and the others are stated for demolition. 2015 update: The World’s Fair lamp posts (seen later in this post) have been saved! Many thanks to David Turner who wrote to tell me he bought them and they’re safe in storage, awaiting restoration. I made a comic about the lampposts, which included a marriage proposal by David to his partner Aaron. The comic is […read more…]
Time for another addition of Found Things! As always, most of these images and captions are taken directly from my Instagram, so my apologies if you already follow me and some of these are repeats. Elaborate sketches of urology examinations and tumor removal from a medical book about all kinds of things that get shoved up dicks. Photographs of a transorbital lobotomy from a 1950’s issue of American Journal of Psychiatry. The lobotomy was pioneered […read more…]
When heading out to explore an abandoned hospital or house, I usually have an approximate idea of what to expect. If it’s a hospital, it’ll be secluded, probably surrounded by trees, or tucked into a hillside somewhere. If it’s a mansion, it’ll be off a country or mountain road, obscured in shrubbery, and accessible only after a hike through unruly brambles. But none of this proves true with the ruins of an old hospital in Calistoga. […read more…]
(go here to see all Vieques Island posts) Around Christmas 2012, I spent a week running around the island of Vieques by myself. I explored abandoned military bunkers, sugar mill ruins, a decaying lighthouse, and off-roading in the jungle. I’d passed up my traditional Christmases spent with my family, drinking hot chocolate, and listening to (but not necessarily enjoying) my siblings’ farting contest to go on vacation with my then-boyfriend. Unfortunately, it turned out he […read more…]
In 2013, I took a road trip through the south with some exploring pals, and since one of them is really into abandoned theaters, we hit up a bunch, mostly with permission from the owners. This is the Lyric Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama. Currently undergoing renovation, the Lyric Theater is on its way to reopening as a concert and rentable event venue. The Lyric opened in 1914 as a Vaudeville hall, featuring musical, theatrical, and […read more…]