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Posts Tagged ‘Abandoned’

Shafted: 10 Eerie Unused & Abandoned Mine Winding Towers

02 Mar

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1
When coal mines get the shaft, only abandoned winding towers remain to mark the places where Earth’s underground bounty was winched to the surface.

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Coal and metal ores are finite resources, the extraction of which requires a huge investment in machinery and infrastructure. When a site’s prime resource runs out, however, it often isn’t economically viable to move the massive infrastructure to a new location.

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1a

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Such was the case at the Winterslag coal mine in northeastern Belgium, which opened in 1917 and closed in 1988. Flickr user Geoffrey Alfano (Geoffrey Vlassaks) visited the complex in June of 2011, subsequently posting a host of evocative HDR images.

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The mine’s quarry, slag dumps, factory buildings and matching pair of winding towers have all been “recultivated” and preserved in recent years, with additional construction resulting in a unique tourist attraction: the C-MINE cultural center.

Super Yooper

abandoned mine winding tower Michigan 2a

abandoned mine winding tower Michigan 2b

Old iron mines need love (and winding towers) too. The Cliffs Shaft Mine complex (now a museum) in Ishpeming on Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula operated from 1868 through 1967, and in 1992 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The abandoned mine’s oldest winding towers date from 1919 and were built in the Egyptian Revival style. Like many actual ancient Egyptian monuments, this 97-foot tall tower still looks impressive today.

Polish Precedent

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abandoned mine winding tower Poland 3b

abandoned mine winding tower Poland 3c

Flickr user Rafal Nalepa (Rafal N.) visited the Prezydent coal mine in Chorzów, Poland back in October of 2010 and came back with a wealth of striking images of this former Silesian coal mine and its surprisingly stylish winding tower.

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Shafted 10 Eerie Unused Abandoned Mine Winding Towers

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Checked Out: Ten Permanently Vacant Abandoned Motels

23 Feb

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned motel 1
Motels have been in decline for decades – even Norman Bates knew that – and these abandoned motels illustrate a fundamental shift in travel trends.

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People are still traveling by car, of course, but the roads they travel these days are often different then those used in the post-war era when the motel boom shifted into high gear. Travelers can easily make the shift from highways to freeways… motels (especially non-chain independent ones), not so much. Overlooked by vehicular travelers, once-thriving establishments like the old Hillcrest Motel along the Lincoln Highway outside Jefferson, Iowa, have no future other than fading into the underbrush.

Killed With Fire

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The West Pike Motor Lodge near Coudersport, PA, was likely long past its peak when a (possibly convenient) fire put it out of its misery in 2010. Accidents will happen… especially when the nearest fire station just isn’t near enough. Kudos to Flickr user Bill Van Ryn for capturing the desolate state of the abandoned motel in October of 2012.

M TEL

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Pocasset’s abandoned “Picture Lake M TEL” offers everything vacationers to Cape Cod could desire including air conditioned rooms and a swimming pool. What the sign doesn’t state is that the AC hasn’t conditioned any air since Reagan was in office and the pool is about as appealing as the one from Poltergeist. Flickr user D. Brigham visited the abandoned motel in July of 2010 – hopefully he wasn’t planning on spending the night.

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Checked Out Ten Permanently Vacant Abandoned Motels

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Commercial Break: 8 Abandoned TV Stations & Studios

16 Feb

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned TV station SR Gothenburg 1
The golden age of television has long since passed, especially for these 8 abandoned TV stations whose cameras have permanently put on their lens caps.

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The Sveriges Radio TV building in Gothenburg, Sweden opened in 1970 – the same year Swedish TV began broadcasting in color. We’re assuming the novelty wore off, as by the end of the decade the building had been abandoned to the depredations of squatters, salvagers and the unavoidable swing of the wrecking ball.

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How Swede is was, now not so much. Kudos to Flickr user Rolfen who visited the decrepit SR television studios (or “TV-house”, as he puts it) in May of 2009.

KVVV-vvv…

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Based in Friendswood, Texas and broadcasting to the metro Houston area, KVVV-TV was an independent television station that opened in February of 1968. A money-losing proposition from the get-go, the station fired most of its staff by the end of ’68 and finally shut down entirely on August 31st of 1969. The station may not have broadcasted for long but its studio building is still hanging in there, though after decades of vandalism hanging’s probably too good for it. Full props to urban explorers UER for recently posting some screencaps from their must-see video of the extremely decrepit ex-station.

Southern Discomfort

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WTVY is a CBS-affiliated television station from Dothan, Alabama, that began broadcasting on channel 4 in 1960. In 1978 the station moved to new digs in Bethlehem, Florida where its 2,035 ft tall transmission tower is still the tallest in the state. Meanwhile, WTVY’s old studio building and much-faded kitschy Sixties sign molder away, slowly succumbing to the relentless march of scrub brush and kudzu.

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Commercial Break 8 Abandoned Tv Stations Studios

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Abandoned Mine is Now World’s Largest Indoor BMX Bike Park

11 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

underground bmx bike park

Boasting 5 miles of trails, ramps and obstacles, this cavernous subterranean space sits 100 feet underground and totals 320,000 square feet. The wide-open footprint and copious mounds of dirt, able to be endlessly reformed into new types of terrain, lend themselves to this particularly fitting form of adaptive reuse.

underground converted limestone mine copy

Located in Louisville, Kentucky, and open as of yesterday, the Mega Underground Bike Park gains a number of advantages from being far below the surface, including a relatively consistent temperature and protection from wind, rain and other weather (without the typical costs of constructing a building to house these activities).

underground bike park ramps

Originally a limestone mine, there were plans to create a highs-security business park in the space – while there are a few businesses actually occupying other parts of the underground complex of caves, the big idea fell through, replaced by a plan to create zip lines, challenge courses and now the biggest interior bike park on the planet.

Currently the space offers 45 trails with differing degrees of of difficulty as well as clever additions like cargo containers turned into ramps and overpasses. Most of the materials needed, though, were already in place – it was mainly a matter of lighting, accessing and shaping the space.

underground dirt ramp caves

From their website: “Are you ready to experience a one of a kind Underground Bike Park? Over 320,000 square feet including over 45 trails, Jump Lines, Pump Tracks, Dual Slalom, BMX, Cross Country and Single Track all in a former limestone cavern 100 feet sub-surface. Enjoy the comfort of our 60 degree temperature year round. Come experience what the buzz is all about. You simply won’t believe what you see.”

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Scratched: Nine Nifty Closed & Abandoned Nail Salons

09 Feb

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned nail salon Upscale Nails 1
Once painted, polished and popular, these closed and abandoned nail salons won’t be doing any more filing unless it’s in bankruptcy court.

abandoned nail salon Upscale Nails 1a

abandoned nail salon Upscale Nails 1b

For a short time after its gala 1976 opening, the Randall Park Mall in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was hailed as the “world’s largest shopping center” boasting 2,000,000 square feet of retail space. Obviously it was all downhill from there. Competition, crime and changing lifestyles doomed the Randall Park Mall, which by April of 2009 was down to a mere two open stores – one of which was Upscale Nails. One might say they were hanging on by their fingernails. Kudos to Flickr user railynnelson for capturing the mall in its dying days, though it was destined to decay in abandoned silence for five more years before demolition put it out of its misery.

Best Nail Salon Bar None!

abandoned hair & nails

Flickr user m. (mirnanda) was out enjoying a June day in San Francisco’s Chinatown when what should appear but the world’s most passive/aggressive nail salon! “Hair & Nails” would appear to be on the menu yet the promise of personal cuticle care is cruelly dashed by a forbidding screen of rusty iron bars.

KP & Paste

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closed KP Nails 1a

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Flickr user and retail store documentarian extraordinaire Ryan (RetailByRyan95) might have had some inside info on KP Nails’ closure and re-opening at another strip mall in Grafton, VA. In the images above we see the store open and functioning on April 10th of 2008, followed by its abandoned status on March 16th of 2009, and lastly its rebirth at a new location. Just like cockroaches, you can’t keep a good nail salon down – they’re the Whack-a-Mole of the retail trade.

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Scratched Nine Nifty Closed Abandoned Nail Salons

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Chapter 11: Eleven Eerie Closed & Abandoned Libraries

02 Feb

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Better dead than read? Though the librarians’ shushing days are long past, you still won’t find many places quieter than these 11 abandoned libraries.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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When the Soviet Union finally fell, it fell hard… just like the uncountable number of books, pamphlets and manuals at this abandoned scientific and technical library somewhere in Russia. While a case may be made for tech manuals being out of date and thus superfluous, there’s still something to be said about the terrible waste of knowledge almost completely covering the former library’s floors. The above images were taken in March of 2008 by jst-ru.

Stitched Panorama

Our valiant photo-documentarian returned to the abandoned library in February of 2011 only to witness an unbelievable sight: every last trashed book had been removed and the floors swept so clean they could practically be eaten off of! Who could have done this and what happened to all of those books? Somehow one doubts the literature was salvaged and donated to other libraries; instead we’re guessing someone in the neighborhood enjoyed a warmer winter than usual.

Outta Cass

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Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan opened in 1917, and twenty-five years later the eight-story brick & limestone edifice was the largest high school in the state with 4,200 students attending. Among the school’s more noteworthy alumni are singer Diana Ross and musician Jack White, both of whom no doubt visited the school’s well-stocked library to research their projects.

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In 2005, however, Cass Tech moved to a new building leaving quite a lot behind in the old one. Are those metal detectors just inside the library’s doors? These incredible “Now and Then” images from Detroiturbex superimpose the Cass’s vibrant past onto its sorry present.

It’s Miller Time!

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“The Miller Avenue Library in Oakland has been abandoned for a few years, it seems”, according to Flickr user aaron.michels, who captured the above images on May 22nd of 2008. One clue alluding to the time of its abandonment is the discarded library card of a presumed twenty-something born in 1955. Pornstache FTW!

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Chapter 11 Eleven Eerie Closed Abandoned Libraries

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Art in Abandoned Places: 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

08 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

abandoned art time lapse

Translucent jellyfish put on a serene display in the window of a derelict shop, ghostly images of long-dead patients seem to haunt a disused hospital and surreal oversized spider webs appear in the basement of an old factory in these 15 eerie installations bringing art and design to abandoned places.

Glowing Jellyfish Aquarium in an Abandoned Building

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A glowing blue tank full of eerily floating jellyfish is probably one of the last things you’d ever expect to see in an abandoned shop window. Artists Walter Hugo and Zoniel built this striking aquarium as part of the Liverpool Biennial, inserting it behind the shutter of the derelict building. The installation, entitled “The Physical Possibility of Inspiring Imagination in the Mind of Someone Living” was not promoted in any way so people could come across it on their own and experience the wonder of such a discovery.

Ghostly Portraits in Ellis Island’s Abandoned Immigrant Hospital

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The ghostly images of the very same nurses, doctors and patients who once roamed the halls of Ellis Island’s immigrant hospital remain in the building like a psychic imprint thanks to an installation by French street artist JR, who installed paste-ups of archival photographs. The hospital treated 1.2 million immigrant patients between 1901 and 1954, when it was abandoned, and has since been re-opened to the public. The exhibit is entitled ‘Unframed – Ellis Island’ and will remain in the building as it continues to decay (photographs by Allison Meier of Hyperallergic.)

Eerie Installations in Abandoned Churches by Herbert Baglione

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Painted shadows floating around in an abandoned mental hospital in Italy aren’t the only evocative and subtle works that Herbert Baglione has completed in derelict places. The Brazilian artist also brought his signature figures to a 16th century church in Celles-sur-Belle, France. Says Baglione, “The ‘reading’ of these places allows me to take the shadow to a unique path, which usually feeds and broadens the discussion because it brings light to the abandoned environment, and so I put the name of this series as ‘The path that the soul takes.’ The idea for the name came from a conversation I had with my brother ‘William Baglione’ about the places to do these installations. It is as if the soul is leaving an invisible trail on these places.”

Trampolines Suspended in an Abandoned Mine

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An abandoned Welsh slate quarry twice the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral is now home to a rainbow-hued installation of nets as part of Bounce Below, the world’s largest underground trampoline. The new tourist attraction features three gigantic trampolines ascending to 180 feet above the floor of the cavern, with ten-foot net walls keeping anyone from bouncing right out.

Stop-Motion Time Lapse in an Abandoned House

abandoned art time lapse

Abandoned houses served as some of the unsettling locations that make up the backdrop for ‘Circle of an Abstract Ritual,‘ a stop-motion time-lapse by artist Jeff Frost. The film was created using time-lapse photography – no special effects or graphics were added.

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Art In Abandoned Places 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

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Trashed Resort: Japan’s Abandoned New Muroto Sky Rest

05 Jan

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned Sky Rest New Muroto
Vacation not “vacant” enough? Abandoned in 1978, Japan‘s New Muroto Sky Rest resort is apparently patronized only by zombies or those hiding from them.

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Little is known of the New Muroto Sky Rest resort before its closure and abandonment in 1978… perhaps that’s why the place closed and was abandoned. Certainly its location at the tip of Cape Muroto – a rocky, windswept peninsula jutting southeastward into the Pacific Ocean – was both scenic and accessible by major highways. Then there’s the “prehistoric robot” facade gazing menacingly out to sea. Credit Flickr user Craig Hunter (pictor ignotus) with the above images captured in June of 2009.

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Cape Muroto is the largest cape in Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. While considered by many to be Japan’s version of the boondocks, Shikoku is popular with tourists performing the traditional pilgrimage to 88 select temples and a number of hot spring inns and resorts cater to weary wanderers in search of rejuvenation. Kudos to Abandoned Kansai for the above images dating from April of 2011.

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The New Muroto Sky Rest did not have an on-site “onsen” – in fact, it had little to recommend itself as a resort besides its stunning seaside setting. According to urbex vet Jordy Meow, the complex featured a restaurant, a video-game parlor (de rigueur in the Seventies) and a pair of cantilevered side wings which offered unparalleled views of Cape Muroto and the ocean beyond.

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The wings are still extant, as are the aforementioned views but as for the rest… put it this way, if it wasn’t nailed down or too heavy to carry away, it’s gone for good. We should mention that those scenic views are towards the ocean: over the past couple of decades Cape Muroto has become infested with more than a few ugly telecommunications towers, radio antennae, and even a wind farm.

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Trashed Resort Japans Abandoned New Muroto Sky Rest

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Meltdown: 12 Dripped, Dropped & Abandoned Ice Cream Trucks

29 Dec

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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If ice cream trucks are rolling symbols of childhood happiness, abandoned ice cream trucks are sadder than a dropped double-scoop cone on a hot summer day.

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This forlorn former ice cream truck has found an odd sort of peace, marooned amongst fellow relics of good times (not to mention Good Humor) past at the Pearsonville Junkyard in California’s High Desert. Kudos to Flickr users cins_city (top) and codywbratt (above) for capturing this one-eyed metal monster basking in the eerie twilight glow. Curiously, the decrepit van appears to have moved to a different location on the lot during the year between the two photographers’ visits.

Colorado Low

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“Is there anything sadder than a junked ice cream truck?,” asks The Truth About Cars’ Murilee Martin, to which the answer is none… none more sad. This unusual minivan-style ice cream truck is destined to count down the days before it’s fed to the crusher in a Denver-area pull-your-own-parts salvage yard.

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The clapped-out 1998 Ford Windstar van’s dayglo paint job and copious stickers haven’t faded much and from all indications it sold Blue Bunny brand ice cream, frozen treats and cold drinks – you’re a long way from Iowa, old friend. Sadly, it seems they’re sold out of Rice Pudding Bars… make that “gladly”.

Desert Desserts

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You can get your kicks on Route 66 but don’t expect to enjoy a cool, refreshing frozen treat afterwards… at least not from these abandoned ice cream trucks beached amidst the tumblin’ tumbleweeds somewhere in the Great Southwest. Doubtless these old blue Dodge ice cream trucks were once a welcome sight for tourists, travelers, cowboys and ind, er, Native Americans. Now they’ve been relegated to the modern equivalent of a bleached buffalo skull.

Forest Dumped

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From baking deserts to baked Alaska, abandoned ice cream trucks are everywhere it seems. “This is what happens to ice cream trucks in Alaska when they play the same annoying tune too much!,” notes Flickr user Van Vickle Photography after posting the above image taken in early August of 2013. One wonders, though, if an abandoned ice cream truck plays an annoying tune in an Alaskan forest, does anybody hear?

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Meltdown 12 Dripped Dropped Abandoned Ice Cream Trucks

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Classy: Abandoned Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School

22 Dec

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School 1

In search of an earthly savior, Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School in Powhatan, VA served from 1899 to 1970 as a school for young African-American women.

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Known as “The Castle on the James”, Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School opened in 1899 and 115 years later, straddles a precarious limbo between demolition and restoration. These photos by Joel Handwerk of Lithium Photo aren’t the only such images of the approximately 50 buildings at the 75-acre site but they are among the most breathtaking thanks to Handwerk’s keen eye for the beauty and sadness commonly evoked by such abandonments.

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Credit the establishment of Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious community founded in 1891 by St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955), who was canonized a saint on October 1, 2000 by Pope John Paul II. Born into the fabulously wealthy Drexel family, Katherine made it her life’s mission to aid and assist downtrodden Native Americans and Afro-Americans.

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Taking the name Mother Katherine, Drexel would spend the better part of six decades (and about $ 20 million of her inherited and invested fortune) building schools and churches, of which Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School in Powhatan, VA is a prime example.

Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School 5

After Mother Katharine passed away on March 3, 1955 at the age of 96, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament could no longer depend on the Drexel fortune to fund their many facilities. Though the order continues to work with African-Americans and Native Americans in 21 states and Haiti, the abandonment and deterioration of massive complexes like Saint Frances de Sales Catholic School and its environs reflect the Sisters’ paucity of resources.

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Classy Abandoned Saint Frances De Sales Catholic School

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