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Showing posts from May, 2017

Nearpara Rubber Company: From Tire Reclaiming to Toxic Brownfield

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The Last Days of Nearpara Rubber I smelled it before I saw anything worth photographing. That warm, faintly sweet bite of old rubber, the kind that hits you somewhere between a tire shop and a summer highway, drifted through the first building the moment I stepped inside. The structure was burned out, charred and broken, rubble underfoot. But the smell was alive. And then I saw the pile. In the corner of the room, faded brown and heaped maybe two feet high, was a mound of baby bottle nipples. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of the small rubber tips, just sitting on the floor of a collapsed industrial building in Trenton, New Jersey. I stood there for a moment, genuinely confused, and then kept moving. Nothing like the smell of warmed-over rubber. Twenty minutes later, I understood even less. Through another door passage, I found the main source of the smell: six open metal trailer containers, still loaded with bagged baby bottle nipples, sitting in open air. Bags of them, mountains of bagged n...
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Nutrix Quarters

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Entrance Foyer Where the holes keep on opening... I came upon Nutrix Quarters doing some backdating research inside the borough for other vacant structures. Finding the place so close to my home base I ventured out one cloudy day in hopes of seeing inside this structure. Arriving on site, I quickly scanned the fencing for an opening and to my surprise found the entrance by side glancing driving down the street. On a now-defunct blog, a previous explorer had gotten in using a supplied rope to enter the facility. On my trip, I needed no such extravagance. Administrative Room Waiting until traffic and the nearby pedestrians made their way down the block and away from sight. I snuck in and made my way inside. Upon entering, I came upon what looked like the welcoming entrance foyer. The black-detailed fireplace called to my symmetry fetish. After satisfying my lust, I made my way upstairs quietly. Downstairs was strewn with trash and clothes. Praying any bedbugs or oth...
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Location: 300 Skillman Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211, USA
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Orbit Glum: The Abandoned Flavors

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The watery welcome mat to Orbit Glum When you explore a local drug denizen. I was torn between the name I was going to bestow on this post but chose the appropriately named "Orbit Glum" since "Orbit Gum" didn't quite have the same feel when I explored this local gem months ago. My friend J and I walked the long city block toward the property from our parking spot inside a grocery store. A massive chunk of land was left barren after a past demolition. MC Complex had stood there as a massive space. A huge complex was wiped away. Orbit Glum once produced flavors, aromatics, and fragrances. Reflections of the past To the left of the entrance Making our way to the end we turned right and made our way to the property when we came upon a homeless man 'cleaning up' the place as he sifted through debris blocking one of the entrances to the property. We quickly said a few hellos and made our way further to the back to cross over to the other ...
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Beth Hamedrash Hagadol: The Abandoned Synagogue of the Lower East Side

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🏗️ Development Update — 64 Norfolk Street Senior Housing The site of the former Beth Hamedrash Hagadol synagogue, destroyed by a three-alarm fire on May 14, 2017, has been transformed into 64 Norfolk Street — a new affordable housing development on the Lower East Side. What was once a 167-year-old Gothic Revival sanctuary is now a modern residential building, part of the neighborhood's ongoing evolution. You can view exclusive interior photos of this former Lower East Side synagogue, see my post: Abandoned Pigeon Church: Forgive Us For Our Trespass . A haven for the angry birds no more. Outside the entrance of the historic synagogue Beth Hamedrash as seen from within a New York Housing Authority playground. The back parking lot of the church. The cut fence can be seen on the left. It is with great sadness upon learning that the Saint Pigeon of Urbana   is no longer a part of this world. In a t...
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Location: 60 Norfolk St, New York, NY 10002, USA
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Hidden Gems #1: Old American Flag Door

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Old New York vs New New York Where the hunt is all there is in this sport. I think I came across an image of this defunct store located in New York City either on Flickr, a stock image resource or a short film. I seem not to recall where I had first seen it. Finding it curious if this place still existed I did the knee deep research and found it right here in my own backyard. It was not until recently this week I was around the neighborhood I ventured to take a look. I found it just as I had seen it online. The old Venetian curtains were now updated and bottom skirt curtains removed from the front windows. It seemed nothing had changed regarding the facade and yearly maintenance on it. Surprisingly, no tenant had taken ahold of the storefront as of 2017. Google images pegs earlier images from 2012 and as of yet no new bottom tenants. In fact, during my research, the occupant of the building and owner was actually born here and has been fighting to keep the property away from ...
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Popular posts from this blog

Nearpara Rubber Company: From Tire Reclaiming to Toxic Brownfield

Image
The Last Days of Nearpara Rubber I smelled it before I saw anything worth photographing. That warm, faintly sweet bite of old rubber, the kind that hits you somewhere between a tire shop and a summer highway, drifted through the first building the moment I stepped inside. The structure was burned out, charred and broken, rubble underfoot. But the smell was alive. And then I saw the pile. In the corner of the room, faded brown and heaped maybe two feet high, was a mound of baby bottle nipples. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of the small rubber tips, just sitting on the floor of a collapsed industrial building in Trenton, New Jersey. I stood there for a moment, genuinely confused, and then kept moving. Nothing like the smell of warmed-over rubber. Twenty minutes later, I understood even less. Through another door passage, I found the main source of the smell: six open metal trailer containers, still loaded with bagged baby bottle nipples, sitting in open air. Bags of them, mountains of bagged n...
Read more

Abandoned Factory Z (Northeastern, USA)

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Update : A full research write-up of International Silver Company's former Factory H boiler house .  This abandoned northeastern factory sits in the back of a quiet residential street surrounded by nature. Next to this two-story building remains another abandoned medical complex boarded up to the gills. Stay tuned for upcoming flicks. Getting into this building was quite hard. We hopped a perimeter fence in the middle of the morning just before a police car was sitting taking a quiet break or making their due diligence check on the property. This property is down the road at a current asbestos abatement medical hospital by the local town/state agency. Once on the property, it offers a mix of old machinery and pipework from this little factory which was probably much larger before residential developers took over. In addition, the building was free of graffiti and its brick-walled facade still looked like the day it was constructed. The only giveaway is the wide-open away roof...
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Inside the Abandoned St. Michael and St. Edward Church in Brooklyn

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For weeks, I had been orbiting the perimeter of the impending demolition of the Church of St. Michael and St. Edward, a once revered church in the heart of Fort Greene, like a moth drawn to a flame. The neighborhood, a patchwork of tight project housing, seemed indifferent to the fate of this historic edifice. The intel I had received suggested that entry was as simple as scaling a wooden fence, yet the timing had never felt right. Until one day, it did. With a mission in New Jersey looming, I knew it was now or never. The demolition was advancing at a startling pace, the church's twin steeples already reduced to rubble. The skeletal remains of timber beams and rusted steel frames peeked out from the ruins, a testament to the relentless march of progress. Summoning a surge of courage, I seized a moment of quiet in the bustling housing project and vaulted over the fence. My heart pounded in my chest as I slipped unnoticed into the church grounds. The once grand entrance now stood as...
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Exploring the Abandoned Aerosol Techniques Factory in Milford, CT (Photos)

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When I arrived at the former Aerosol Techniques factory, I was filled with a mix of anticipation and curiosity. Meeting a group of new friends for a day of urban exploration in Connecticut, we had a lineup of intriguing abandoned sites on our agenda. Our itinerary included the hauntingly beautiful Seaside Sanatorium, a former hospital, along with a few other potential spots that we were less certain about. We chose the factory as our starting point, mainly because it offered easy access and was conveniently situated next to a Lowe's hardware store. Walking along a well-trodden path, our group made a seamless transition onto the property. The sense of camaraderie was palpable as we embarked on our adventure with eager enthusiasm. The factory grounds, long deserted, were a canvas for countless graffiti artists. Every inch of the building was adorned with vibrant and eclectic street art, each piece telling its own story. This rich color and creativity set the perfect stage for our imp...
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From Excelsior Needle Co. to Timken: The Rise and Fall of Torrington's Standard Plant

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The Standard Plant and a Century of Making Things It was a hot May week in 2023, and J and I were already sweating through our shirts before we even made it to the entrance. We turned into the driveway off North Elm Street and passed a large Caterpillar backhoe holding up the red, white, and blue at the top of the arm. Patriotic machinery. Only in Connecticut. We moved toward the back of the complex with our eyes open, scanning for any sign of people or activity. We found cameras instead. A few of them, well-positioned across one of the buildings and up on an electrical pole, covering angles that made our original entry plan useless. We backed off, found a Plan B, and stepped into a dark room washed in tinted green light, then took the stairs down to ground level. The former Standard Plant sits along North Elm Street at a sunken grade, one story, with another building rising over the roadway to the far right when you're standing in front of it from North Street. It's the kind o...
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