Winsted's Union Pin Company: Highland Lake and Pins Still in the Soil

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Photo courtesy of the Winchester Tax Office Pins in the Brook: The Last Ruins of the Union Pin Company J and I came at it through the trees. No path, just tall standing trees and the kind of undergrowth that swats at your shins and grabs your laces, until the canopy thinned and we found what was left. A turbine, tall and rusted, rising out of the woods beside a brook in Winsted, Connecticut. A small generator sat on top of it, also rusted, also still. Beside that, set back from the tree line and facing the residential houses across Lake Street, a sealed and boarded building held its ground. It was August 2019, midday, the kind of heat that slows everything down. We photographed the turbine carefully, then picked our way downstream along the slippery rocks of the brook that fed toward the Mad River past Boyd Street. What J never mentioned, and what I never thought to look for, was the hydropower outlet tucked behind the thick trees just off the path we'd taken. And neither of us eve...
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Vine-Covered Mystery House




The memories of a vine-covered house in Newark left to decay while New Jersey's low-income residents grapple with an ever-worsening housing crisis, have stayed with me. Despite the urgent need for affordable housing, properties like this remain abandoned. This crisis is not unique to New Jersey; it is a pervasive issue across the United States, growing more severe with each passing day.


I remember the day I stumbled upon this house vividly. En route to another destination, I noticed the neglected property and felt an inexplicable pull to investigate. I parked my car and approached with a sense of purpose as if I owned the place. With my trusty Canon T3i camera in hand, I began documenting the scene, capturing the story of a once-lived-in home now surrendered to the elements.








I didn't venture inside. The house's dark interior and the possibility of encountering squatters made me cautious. Alone, and unwilling to risk my camera, I confined my exploration to the exterior. This was an impromptu detour, a side mission that added an unexpected twist to my day.


Urban exploration, or urbex, has a way of drawing us into stories of forgotten places. The scene is filled with grand mansions, modest homes, and everything in between, often tied to intriguing histories and notable former owners—mobsters, billionaires, athletes, and entertainers. The allure of these abandoned spaces is universal; people are fascinated by the tales these empty houses can tell.








But this particular Newark house, its address lost to my memory, remains an enigma. When I saw it in September 2017, I didn't document its location. It might still stand today, shrouded in vines, or perhaps it has been consumed by fire or demolition. Its fate, like so many others, is uncertain.












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