Posts

Empty Drum and Barrel

Image
When the exploration party is over.





On my first arrival to the site, it was becoming dark and vehicular traffic was heavy up and down. On my second visit, construction crews were digging into the roadway just meters away from the open entrance. On the third and lucky visit, I found the site had been cleaned up and a partial demo of the interior and exterior had occurred. Feeling defeated I headed straight in past the many waiting TLC Uber/Lyft/et al drivers waiting for riders to summon them. Inside was leveled front to back. Nothing remained inside with the exception of dirt and loose piping. At the back of the property, a small back room had been leveled and piled in a heap of rusted metal and building debris.





One room inside had a lone busted boiler forlornly waiting to be crushed and carted away for metal scrapping.  No machinery or any existence of industrial usage was present no more. I had come too late to explore this last holdout in an awkward space surrounded by so much long…
Post a Comment
Read more

Brooklyn Graffiti Skull Mural

Image
No pirate treasure here but I did find some rope to hang myself.

This remnant of a much larger complex that burned in 2006 was once home to American Manufacturing Company. It was built in 1890 and manufactured 10 million pounds of oakum used in caulking wooden ship seams. Employing over 2,000 workers who lived nearby in Greenpoint Brooklyn. Mainly female Polish and Lithuanian immigrant workers. American Manufacturing Company started off as a two-story jute mill quickly expanding from one block to six. In 1920, it became the largest hemp and jute factory in the manufacture of 400,000 pounds of cotton bagging and ties daily.



Later known as the forgotten Greenpoint Terminal Market. The historic warehouses burned in 2006 as it was revealed they were being referred to by The Municipal Art Society as historical landmarks to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Greenpoint fire was responded by a large force of 350 firefighters on the day it burned. Now, a few remaining buildings that …
Post a Comment
Read more

Concrete City

Image
When the concrete doesn't set in.

I never thought this local city whenever I drove to a nearby state ever had any abandoned places for me to visit as I headed north. To my surprise, I came across a well-documented property within the city with real photos of the vacant property in all its glory. On a leisurely Sunday morning, I headed up to my usual haunts and stopped over on my way. Getting onto the property was at first tricky. A and I were about to risk it entering from another part of the property but we decided not to and boy did it turn in our favor. We found our way in by a well-worn path down the road and walked onto the site with abandon.






Inside, documented information on the property was correct. The concrete equipment was hauled away during an auction and all that was left was two smaller buildings, one rusted machinery on top of a concrete block and a graffiti-tagged commercial long-haul trailer. The saleable equipment had already left the building. What was left of t…
Post a Comment
Read more

Hidden Gems #3: The Broken Four Stories

Image
This 6,684 sf building sits mired in abandonment along a historical street named after a civil rights leader. The current property is owned by a church where to my disgust actually held meetings here before holding meetings elsewhere at other members home. The property has had numerous complaints dating back to 2007 of people freely entering and leaving the building. Perhaps by chance, the caller mistook the church members themselves as squatters or squatters truly were coming and going.

In 2014, the building and the adjacent lot were contracted for sale before last year being quiet titled by the owners of the church (other family members) against a family member of the deceased pastor who had no authorization to sell the parcel to a third party. Apparently, she had a disagreement with other family members in the management of the church properties. The building does sit in an up and coming gentrifying area. Now, it sits still vacant with no tenants or reverent congregation.


P.S.

I go…
Post a Comment
Read more

Abandoned Additives and Coatings

Image
Where the early morning polyaromatic hydrocarbons give you a straight high.





This industrial property currently houses onsite environmental contamination relating to metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. This abandoned place was previously in use 86 years ago before being owned by the local city when the previous owners did not pay off its financial obligations. The site currently sits open to the elements with a tattered roof and several large holes in the brick-lined building. Surrounding the property, mounds of illegal dumping activities are significantly pronounced. Several barrels of containers housing hydrocarbons leak slowly into the soil. A strong aromatic smell wafting strongly in the air. Hardened and loose unknown white powder scattered around the building. Basement or upper floors nonexistent.




I found this abandoned place while in the area scouting a different place before coming upon the well-known signs of abandonment. At the time, darkness was setting in and I didn'…
Post a Comment
Read more

Abandoned Cotton Mill

Image
In before the wrecking balls.

This mill surely did not need an interior demolition of its own because inside the wooden floors had already sagged and caved in from years of decay and neglect. The solid stone walls staying true to the craftsmanship and mortar the bricklayers' hundreds of years ago laid down with expertise and solid workmanship.


Now the structure awaits the fateful day when the demolition crew rides in and delivers its final blow into forgotten history. The ground floor was mostly dark and decayed.  A plethora of rotting wood littering the ground. The stairs leading to the first floor revealed there won't be no venturing upstairs. The flooring was completely rotten and caved in. From the steps of the staircase, you could look straight up and see the clouds in the sky. There was no way up without falling right back down to the ground floor.




Venturing to an open driveway we located the mills two smokestacks. The boiler house has seen better days. Inside the open …
2 comments
Read more