City Gardens: Trenton's Lost Punk Rock Mecca

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The building seemed to sag against the Trenton sky, its walls leaning in a way that looked both tired and dangerous. I was driving, searching for a lunch spot after a morning spent exploring the city's industrial skeletons, when I saw it. A questionable choice, maybe, but curiosity is a powerful guide. I pulled over. Getting inside was one of the sketchiest entrances I’ve ever attempted. But once my feet were on the dusty floor, the danger faded. An enormous space stretched before me. It was sparse, cleaned out. My footsteps echoed where a stage once stood, a fact I’d later confirm in a NNKH YouTube video about the building’s past life as an underground punk club. The video showed a vibrant scene, an electric place. But the ghosts of that life were mostly gone. The long, rounded bar, where thousands of hands must have slapped down crumpled bills, had vanished. The dust-coated wine and shot glasses that once lined its shelves were gone, too. The club’s glittering crown jewel, a l...
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Abandoned Additives and Coatings

Leaking barrels of unknown chemicals





Cocaína? I've been watching too much Narcos lately. Puta!




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




Potential hipster studio warehouse space. You just have to see past the small fauna. 




Brick by Brick Boy!





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 wafted strongly in the air. Hardened and loose unknown white powder scattered around the building. Basement or upper floors were nonexistent.








Homeless encampment.





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't want to enter such a place by myself. It may have been a good thing because I soon found inside a small bed made out of a large sofa that someone may be using to rest their head, breathing in by night deadly chemicals probably not suitable for human inhalation.



















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