Going to the mall in ye olden days was a completely different experience than going to the mall today. Around the turn of the 20th century, “shopping arcades” were starting to catch on in America. People would dress up in their Sunday best and stroll down ornately decorated isles while perusing selections of fine jewels and hand-crafted watches, and buy pocket-squares in haberdasheries. Nowadays, people mostly only go to the mall if they absolutely have […read more…]
Farm Colony is the Times Square of urban exploring. Everybody goes there, takes the same photo (see above) walks around the streets for a bit, and then complains about what an overexposed shithole it is. Although the surrounding forest is scenic, the buildings have been bombed out, burned down, and ransacked. It’s so well-traveled that neither neighbors nor cops care about trespassers, which is why during one of my visits, I ran into a […read more…]
If you’re at all familiar with famous music venues, you probably know about The Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. The Capitol opened in 1926 as a vaudeville and movie theater before becoming a concert venue that hosted the likes of The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin. After a brief period of abandonment, the Capitol was reopened in 2012 and currently operates as a music and entertainment […read more…]
Abandoned amusement parks tend to be the most popularly enjoyed urban exploring photos. My theory is that most people have been to some type of amusement park, anywhere from a county fair to Disneyland, so they have visceral memories of the experience. Whether recalling the befuddlement of Space Mountain or barfing up a plateful of piggy wiggly fries, the site of an abandoned amusement park is an existential punch in the heart. Right now you’re […read more…]
One of my favorite aspects of exploring, besides the actual act of it, is researching the histories of the places I visit. I can spend four hours exploring a place and four days researching it. Most of the abandoned places I explore have prodigious and often scandalous pasts, and I get all excited to match the stories with the photos. And as an added bonus, I have a few good/horrifying party stories. And then there […read more…]
One of my favorite anecdotal bombs to drop on people after they’ve known me awhile is that I am a preacher’s kid. For part of my childhood, my dad was a reverend and my mom was a Sunday school teacher. For many years, I was a Good Christian Kid. I attended morning worship and evening youth group and went to Jesus camp twice a year. I built houses in Mexico, played guitar in the church […read more…]
Please note that Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital, now known as Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, is still an active facility for the mentally ill. This post only addresses the abandoned hospital buildings on the property and is in no way meant to reflect on the current state of the institution. I do not wish to cause any harm, discomfort or unwanted attention to current patients and staff and I have made an effort to respect their privacy as […read more…]