Along the southern harbors of Buffalo, New York are the ruins of several elevators. Some of those giants, such as the former Cargill Superior, and Canadian Pool, have been derelict for decades, but they can all point their decline to the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the unpreparedness of Buffalo’s industrial leaders as the reason for their closure.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. After driving for many miles in lake effect snow, I came upon Old Hickory in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Work has started to restore this long-neglected landmark into a bed-and-breakfast.
The end of 2016 is fast approaching with over 9,000 photographs snapped, 35,000 miles traveled, and 200 new locations explored and documented. Here are the top 35 images of 2016.
This stunning Gothic Revival residence in Ithaca, New York was constructed in 1880. For many years, the long-vacant property served as Turback’s Restaurant which closed in 1997. It was previously Chef Yeppi Presents and the Gables Inn restaurants.
Once considered outdated and redneck, dirt oval racetracks have made a resurgence across the rural swaths of America as unending regulations and expensive fares making it hard to justify trips to a NASCAR race track. Local dirt track racing has come back full throttle, although that resurgence has not spread to the abandoned West Virginia Motor Speedway near Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The Longaberger Company is a manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets based near Newark, Ohio. At its peak in 2000, Longaberger boasted of sales at over $1 billion annually with thousands on the payroll. Today, the company has $100 million in sales and just 35 employees.
East Liverpool, Ohio, once lovingly referred to as the “Crockery City” and the “Pottery Capital of the World,” is the classic definition of the Rust Belt. Much like Pittsburgh with its reliance on steel mills and Cleveland with its manufacturing plants, East Liverpool was dependent around the pottery industry because of ample natural resources, access to newly laid railroads, the Ohio River, and an untapped market.
I recently ventured to the remains of Universal Atlas Cement in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. The cement factory opened in 1906.
The factory that produced the first welded steel pipe is partially abandoned. Wheeling Steel’s Benwood Works dates to 1884 when Riverside Iron Works, its earliest predecessor, became the second mill in the area to produce steel.
The former St. Joseph Riverside Hospital in Warren, Ohio is nothing more than a scrapped, flooded, and fire-damaged carcass of a building.
Coming fresh from a visit to Vermont, I ventured on the back roads around upstate New York. The country was far too beautiful to pass up with rolling, overcast skies for as far as the eye can see. Autumn colors were plentiful. Rounding the corner, I look over and out of the corner of my eye, I sighted derelict locomotives. I did a quick turnabout in the car and hurried back. This was too photogenic to pass up.
There are times when I revisit an old friend and discover something new, such as the case of the long-abandoned Jefferson School in Wheeling, West Virginia. I had not discovered much about the historic structure other than coming upon its demolition in 2013.
Located along the Youghiogheny River in the mountains of western Maryland is the historic community of Sang Run.
When the Dennison Hotel on Main Street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio closed in 2011, it marked the end of a hoteling era. The single room occupancy extended stay facility once competed with the Browne Hotel, Fort Washington Hotel, Fountain Square Hotel, and others — all of which are long closed and demolished.
America is not unique in having desolate shopping malls, but the sheer number of underperforming, closed, and abandoned malls should give cause for alarm—including the mammoth Century III Mall near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Several years ago, I was able to visit the former printing operation for the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, once the world’s largest magazine publishing house, in Springfield, Ohio.
Before the completion of the Detroit Harbor Terminals complex along the Detroit River in Detroit, Michigan, most of the commodities and raw materials used in Detroit were shipped first by water to Cleveland, Chicago, or Toledo and sent to Detroit via the railroad.
The Fisher Body Company Plant No. 21, located in Detroit, Michigan, formerly produced automobile bodies for General Motors.
The Detroit House of Correction, also known as DeHoCo, is a former prison complex near Detroit, Michigan.
An outstanding residence in the center of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, Old Hickory, has been abandoned for nearly 30 years.