Déjà vu. Since relocating to upstate New York, I have come across numerous iterations of the Second Empire architectural style, including one that is a near-identical copy to the Wheeler-Knight House in Pennsylvania.
Tag: Abandoned
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.
Once considered outdated and redneck, dirt oval racetracks have made a resurgence across the rural swaths of America as unending regulations and expensive fares make it hard to justify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.
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’s reliance on steel mills and Cleveland’s manufacturing plants, East Liverpool depended on the pottery industry because of ample natural resources, access to newly laid railroads, the Ohio River, and an untapped market.
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.
Once a bustling healthcare facility, the St. Joseph Riverside Hospital in Warren, Ohio, has been reduced to a desolate shell, ravaged by scrap metal scavengers, water damage, and fire.
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.
The historic community of Sang Run is located along the Youghiogheny River in the mountains of western Maryland. The drive to this remote pocket of the state is not the easiest, with twisty blacktop roads alternating between forested hillsides and open valleys.
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.
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, produced automobile bodies for General Motors (GM). The Albert Kahn-designed facility was constructed in 1919 to provide wooden automobile bodies for a variety of companies, later manufacturing exclusively for GM. As early as 1930, GM downgraded the status of Fisher Body’s Plant 21 as being inefficient. GM began moving body manufacturing from Plant 21 to other, more efficient locations. However, the limousine body assembly was moved to Plant 21 from GM’s Fleetwood plant in 1955 because its output was only about 1,000 cars annually. On November 29, 1982, GM announced that Fisher Body’s Plant 21, 40, and 41, all part of Fisher Body’s Detroit Central complex, would close. Production would relocate to “Buick City” in Flint, leaving 900 hourly and 300 salaried employees furloughed. The last day of production for Plant 21 was on April 1, 1984. The Carter Color Coat Company purchased the shuttered Plant 21 in 1990, and the building was reused for industrial painting. In June 1992, Carter Color Coat declared bankruptcy, and the plant was abandoned. Ownership reverted to the city of Detroit in 2000.
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.
Growing up in Raceland, Kentucky, I knew some of the significance behind the town’s name. It was named for the “Million Dollar Oval,” a horse racing track.
Before diversifying into wholesale leather production in New Albany, Indiana, the Moser Leather Company primarily manufactured high-quality leather for harnesses and collar manufacturers.
Revisiting Cairo, Illinois, a former transportation hub whose fortunes faded after economic collapse, racial unrest, and decades of disinvestment.
National Acme, located in Cleveland, Ohio, was one of the largest manufacturers of machine tools in the United States. It began as the merger of two notable machine tool manufacturers, the Cleveland Twist Drill Company and the National Acme Company.