Date of Visit: January 6, 2013 This factory was built in 1921 as a paper mill and packaging producer for a major American snack maker, who used the facilities until 1984. The factory is interesting because it’s built along a canal and utilized hydroelectric power. There are still remnants of the original canal works along …
Date of Visit: December 22, 2012 Okay, I confess – I’m a hopeless sentimentalist. After my parents died, I went through my childhood home and searched every nook and cranny, looking at old cancelled checks, receipts, insurance policies, manuals to long-lost television sets, blueprints for the house, etc. – gleaning every little tiny piece of …
Date of Visit: December 22, 2012 This is Mr. Toad. He was a towboat parked along the Illinois River near the town of Chillicothe, Illinois. He was built by the Alexander Shipyards of New Orleans in 1951. His original named was “Coal King” but he also went by “A.V. Criss,” “Ethel Marie” and “Eva Mae …
Date of Visit: December 22, 2012 There’s a reason why I don’t reveal much information about the places I photograph. It’s because, Bastards. I have genuine love for these old structures, and a fascination for the stories they can tell me. When I go to a new location, I research as much as I can …
Date of Visit: July 14, 2012 Sometimes when I walk into abandoned structures, the vast grandeur is almost overwhelming. It seems inconceivable that a structure built with such immense effort, and skill, and care, could be allowed to rot away. Church sanctuaries are among the most tragic because there is a special degree of difficulty …
Date of Visit: July 14, 2012 This is a Baptist Church built in 1924. The congregation ran into financial difficulties during its construction, so the reverend called upon everyone in the church to help build it. And they did, and they continued to reside here in this simple Greek Revival structure for nearly 80 years, …
Date of Visit: December 2, 2012 I didn’t think much of the idea of exploring an old cement factory. It doesn’t sound like the most photogenic place, does it? But I was pleasantly surprised by this location, an old factory in Indiana that closed around 1995. The climb to the top of the facility was …
Date of Visit: December 2, 2012 I don’t know a lot about this building. What I do know is that it was built in 1926, it housed a car dealership, a furniture shop, and a record store at various stages in its life, and it contained a number of apartments. Now it stands with no …
Date of Visit: December 2, 2012 There’s a theater that was built in 1924. It was originally a vaudeville theater but eventually became a movie house (like all the old vaudeville stages). The town declined as the post-war industrial boom died down, and the neighborhood it stood in turned rough. In 1968, a 15-year-old boy …
Date of Visit: 11/11/11 There’s a building that I love. It’s nice looking from the outside, but nothing exceptional. It was built in 1926 so it has that air of grandiosity that accompanies almost everything built in the roaring 20’s. The architect who designed it took his own life the year it was built, as …
Date of Visit: May 20, 2012 When I first saw the Wabash Alloys building in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, I wasn’t expecting much. It wasn’t particularly old – it was built in 1969 – and it was the very definition of ugly. Just a big old corrugated metal box. No charm, nothing to entice. However, as …
Date of Visit: January 14, 2012 Generally, when I explore abandoned places, I find the most interesting locations are the ones with the most “stuff” left behind. I like to try and decipher the story behind the people who once inhabited that space, whether it be the medical history of an elderly person who lived …