Church Archives - Abandoned

Road Less Traveled: A Tour of North-Central West Virginia

On a brisk, gray day, I set out to traverse the less-traveled paths of north-central West Virginia, a journey through time and history.

Exploring West Virginia’s North Central Region

West Virginia may be regarded as a state centered around the coal industry, but it was the oil and gas industry that provided the state’s first economic boom and drove the development of the north-central part of the state.

Exploring the Dusk Camp Methodist Church

In the isolated hills of West Virginia stands the forgotten and dilapidated Dusk Camp Methodist Church.

A Weekend of Rural Abandonments and Bridges

The bleakness of the winter landscape in south-central West Virginia was a constant reminder of the season’s harshness. It was a perfect time to visit some abandoned bridges and churches.

Roaming West Virginia’s Greenbrier Valley

A late autumn trip to West Virginia’s Greenbrier Valley isn’t complete without a visit to a few abandoned or forgotten…

Exploring the South Fork Region

Autumn arrived in a hurry along the South Fork South Branch Potomac River valley in the Potomac Highlands region of…

Tiny Roadside Churches

Sometimes I come across these roadside churches and wonder where people parked or if most of the congregation simply walked…

Exploring the Irish Corner of West Virginia

The Irish Corner district of Greenbrier County, West Virginia is dominated by large family farms, the remains of early mills…

Winding Gulf Churches

Mining in the Winding Gulf coalfield of West Virginia began in the early 1900s, producing low-volatile smokeless coal, including metallurgical coal suitable for use in steel making. Mining was centered on the thick Beckley seam until it was economically exhausted by the 1950s, and the Pocahontas seam until the late 1980s.

But after the coal seams were exhausted, these coal camps were all but abandoned and today, only a few reminders of this booming era remain.

I was pretty excited to come across two notable churches in the Winding Gulf that are still extant.

Church of the Transfiguration Collapse

Regretfully, the roof of the long-abandoned Church of the Transfiguration in Buffalo, New York collapsed during a storm yesterday.

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church Sanctuary Ceiling Detail

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish contains an abandoned church, school, and parish house in the Newburgh neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.

The Rise and Fall of St. Michael’s Catholic Church

The Rust Belt defines a vast declining industrial corridor of the United States roughly between Chicago and Albany, New York, and dominating many of those once-bustling communities are churches. Many were built as domestic steel mills were being constructed across the country in the early 20th century, and many were closed with the collapse of the steel industry.

Saint Joseph’s

Towering over the modest residences in its vicinity, the soaring blue limestone and Ohio sandstone faced Roman Catholic church is one of the most recognizable symbols of Albany, New York’s rich history. It’s also one of the most endangered.

St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church Demolished

St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church, located in the Union-Miles Park neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, was recently demolished.

Rust Belt Pennsylvania

The industrial heart of the Rust Belt is western Pennsylvania as once-mighty steel mills, coke plans, and machine shops, scattered alongside railroads, rivers, and highways, have downsized and closed. A globalized economy and increased automation led many jobs overseas; what remained was a shell, unable to be self-sustaining without government intervention.

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