Abandoned adventures, places and history from New York and other states.
Abandoned Church of Divine Flames
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The main attraction 😍😍😍
A surprise I would never forget.
One cold morning, S and I headed across town to check out a church many Instagrammers have trodden upon when this church became known for its abandonment in the sprawling green lawns of this residential neighborhood. It seemed every day when the first image appeared of this church's unique stained glass windows everyone all of a sudden appeared within its walls within the next two weeks. Mind boggling how one picture starts out online and all of sudden everyone knew about it.
S and I parked the car and took a spin in front of the church only to realize that from the street level you could see another feature of this church prominently displayed in full view (main photo above). It was the plastic/glass rods hanging from the ceiling. Finding no entrance from the front, we went around and made our way past the high chain link fence and entered the partitioned side of the walkway to the busted door lock. Making our way inside, I headed straight for the chandelier and clicked away happily until S shouted to come take a look inside the main church hall.
👀
Inside was just the way it was even months had passed since the last posting of this property. Everything was in unblemished condition with the exception of bad graffiti in the balcony seating some immature scoundrel(s) decided to mark up. The red seats, in particular, showing their age where many congregants sat for years and years of church service. Behind the pulpit stood the shimmering and brightly colored stained glass depicting the red hot yellow flames smoldering bush from a green base. It was all there and more from the very first moment I saw it appear in my Instagram feed.
Center Aisle
Balcony
The Biblical Bush
On the side stood the piano forlornly waiting to be hammered into religious harmony. Behind stood a standalone church kitchen and backroom where I assumed the congregation gathered for light lunches and church dinners. Chairs and tables piled high throughout. The only sound emanating from the room was water dripping down from somewhere. A tell-tale sign of an unmaintained roof. After clicking away with delight we headed upstairs to check out the rooms and find the way up to the balcony overflow seating. After finding it and shooting from above, we found more empty rooms, office storage and a standalone room which must have been a church classroom due to the blackboard. Nothing of note besides the balcony existed upstairs. So we made our way down the basement level.
No sweet melodies
Center View
Front of Pulpit
Down in the basement, we found a pitch black room large enough for a dancehall party of 100 people or more. If I remember correctly there was a disco ball or not. It has been awhile since I visited this church. My memory a bit fuzzy of what I explored down in the basement. Nothing of note and no tools to aid us in lighting the room, we made our way underneath the chandelier and clicked away at all angles until we decided our time was up and left.
Office Room
Bumping our fists heading to the car, another exploration completed in the books.
Rockaway Metals Products (RMP) began as a sheet metal fabrication factory beginning in 1961. RMP occupied the site from 1971 to 1987 leaving a plethora of hazardous waste materials onsite. From 1990 to 2004 the building housed various tenants which even included an auto repair shop. Rockaway Metals a manufacturer of filing cabinets and other metal products closed down in 1987. It was leased a few years ago to different owners who did not manage the 4.85-acre parcel. The 155, 000 square foot building has long been an eyesore and trouble in the neighborhood since its closure. A coastal storm in March 2018 blew debris materials to adjacent properties. Rockaway Metals was acquired by Nassau County in 1995 by tax deed. The county holding onto the property for 22 plus years. In February 2011, the site was damaged by fire and condemned soon thereafter. For more in-depth legal ownership of the property, you can read more below in the source list under U.S. v. 175 INWOOD ASSOCIATES LLP.
Today, I took a long ride cruising Ocean Parkway until I came to the end of one part of Brooklyn. Ocean Parkway extends over a distance of about five miles (8 km), running almost north to south from the vicinity of Prospect Park to Brighton Beach. On the boardwalk were a lot of couples, old people, families and beachgoers. It wasn't surprising to see so much people since Friday we had rain from morning until probably late into early Saturday morning. I took a few shots of my new Japanese glass I bought recently. I think I am having a problem buying all these old telephoto lens. Another 135mm added to the collection. If only if I would save my money for a vintage Carl Zeiss Planar T*.
Here I only took a few snaps because my previous location did not pan out to test out the Asanuma 135mm. I look forward in the coming days in using this nice lens on my Canon 600D.
A 135mm 1:2.8 lens.
I am here trying to find the appriopriate adapter for this 135mm Minetar lens. If anyone knows anything about this pre-cursor to the T-Mount hit me up in the comments or my Facebook page here. The seller states its a 49.2mm/1-15/16" Tokyo Koki mount. Used by Soligor, Sun, Tokyo Koko, Vemar, and other lens manufacturers. Adapters have been seen for Minolta MD, M42, and Nikon cameras. Preferably I am looking for an adapter in the M42 range since I have a M42-EOS adapter.
You can view more mount photos here in this folder on Mediafire.
One thing to be aware of when purchasing from flea bay (eBay) and other places is look for any instances of fungus matter inside the lens elements. It can be either in the front or the back. You can't clean fungus easily with these lens since the cost to have them cleaned is not proportionate to how much they cost. The expense is more than the purchase price. Nothing makes you feel worse than a huge spot of fungus or the beginning of fungus growth. So make sure you double check and look over more than twice over pictures by sellers online and in person.
There are remedies out there that say you can destroy it by placing the lens on a windowsill and let the sun take care of it. This can be met with some success but in actuality may cause the lubrication on the aperture blades to run or even leak causing the aperture mechanism to stick and lock up rendering it useless.
So take these words of wisdom and inspect lens merch with care.
A revisit on the anniversary of the arson that claimed this National Historic Place.
A few weeks ago I was in the area and headed up to the now destroyed Wildcliff mansion in New Rochelle, New York. This unoccupied mansion was torched on November 26, 2018, by four middle school minors. All four teens were caught and found guilty of criminal trespass and one charged with arson. The fire completely destroyed the 1852 mansion that overlooked the Long Island Sound.
Built as a wedding gift for the couple Sarah Marie Davenport and Cyrus Lawton, the cottage villa was designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis. The historic residence boasted 20 rooms and has the advantage of facing the spectacular scenery of the open water save the now public park structures (Hudson Park) down below the property. According to City Historian Barbara Davis, “Wildcliff, as the Gothic cottage was later renamed, was gifted to the City of New Rochelle by the Julius Prince family in 1940. After having been utili…
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