Abandoned Buildings-and Other Places Where Time Stopped

[PiggyTx]

buildings sometime can be creepy, but what I really think when I see them..is....what is the history? Who used to be there? etc. Just interested in what happend to them.

[NewEnglander]

I love abandoned buildings, from the comfort of my home. I've recently found a few websites on urban exploration with some really great photos. I do find it facinating, especially abandoned houses. While I find it interesting to look at photos, I'm not sure that I'm up for (or young enough) to tromp through high grass, through thick bushes with thorns or other obstacles to explore abandoned buildings on my own. So I live vicariously through these websites.

[Pooh-Bear]

I'm with NewEnglander...I am fascinated with them, but at a distance. My fear is that they are unsound, and even if they are not haunted I have no desire to be the first resident ghost. The ones that really get me are the old abandoned mental asylums. Creepy. Gee, if you weren't crazy when you went in.......

[buddyhollylover]

i'm like that too. ya know what always creeped me out? when my dad owned a bar in the mid 90's, i worked all kinds of hours, mine, and filling in for the idiots not showing up for work. really, i was there day & night for a long time, till i had my first son. opening up in the morning, or closing at night, always creeped me out when i was alone, or just there w/ dad and stocking the bar watching the news of something ya know? always felt like i was being watched. and even if no one was at the bar, that creepy feeling always went away once the open sign was on. flippin weird huh? anyone else ever felt that way about a bar?

[jaylene]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRGyT...layer_embedded

This hospital is very creepy to me. Ghost Hunters did an epie on it and it scared the crap outta me.
The history is alot of Vietnam vets died there. They would ship the injured over to Clark Air Force
Base and many died there. I know the scoop is GH wasn't on the up and up at all times but there are
other accounts of things happening there. You can even see this hospital on Google earth and of course
there are a few good pics and many views of the place.

[radiojane]

I'm with NewEnglander...I am fascinated with them, but at a distance. My fear is that they are unsound, and even if they are not haunted I have no desire to be the first resident ghost. The ones that really get me are the old abandoned mental asylums. Creepy. Gee, if you weren't crazy when you went in.......

I know what you mean.

For some reason that STILL baffles me, when my great grandmother died, they never finished emptying out her house. It just sat there. With furniture, pictures on the wall, cupboards half empty. Of course it was on a farm that stayed in the family, and it wasn't a house worth moving, selling or renting... but still. My great grandmother died in 1974. In 2004, my mom, grandmother and I went in to the house. The ivy had crept in the windows, the kitchen floor was collapsing.... I don't know what the hell we were thinking. We rescued a few random knick knacks, including a vase full of those 1940's plastic roses that every one had. There was a huge old sideboard in there that my mother wanted to get out but it was eventually stolen. House is still there... half full.

[Pooh-Bear]

I know what you mean.

For some reason that STILL baffles me, when my great grandmother died, they never finished emptying out her house. It just sat there. With furniture, pictures on the wall, cupboards half empty. Of course it was on a farm that stayed in the family, and it wasn't a house worth moving, selling or renting... but still. My great grandmother died in 1974. In 2004, my mom, grandmother and I went in to the house. The ivy had crept in the windows, the kitchen floor was collapsing.... I don't know what the hell we were thinking. We rescued a few random knick knacks, including a vase full of those 1940's plastic roses that every one had. There was a huge old sideboard in there that my mother wanted to get out but it was eventually stolen. House is still there... half full.

Wow...Now I still stand on being afraid to enter a dangerous building but you really have something of interest here. I would kill to be you. What a nice slice of history you have at your finger tips. I see a book in this. I don't know if I have ever met anyone that has something like this still in the family. If you have old photos, journals and anyone who is still with you than can retell stories I see something like John Grisham's "A Painted House" in this. Even if you turned it in to a short story you might get a magazine to take it or just have it to pass down in your family. Just a thought....

[radiojane]

I suppose.... I guess I have some mental hangups about it. When my dad got sick, we all ended up staying in town because we couldn't afford the gasoline to drive back and forth and our water system quit, so our farm house ended up sittiing in much the same condition for 3 or 4 years, although it's since been cleaned out and will actually be burned down by the fire department for practice (the flooding last year did so much damage to the foundation that it's not worth saving), and my brother has purchased a ready to move home to put there. There's much less sentimental attachment to that place for me because we really weren't there that long and it was the center of so much stress. My brothers on the other hand... well they're the ones that are putting in the effort to save it and keep it. I just remember thinking "what is it about my family? Why is it we can't FINISH or EMPTY a house?"

I suppose I should go take a few photos of my great grandmother's place while it still stands. My mom's cousin is farming the land now, and I think the only reason that the house hasn't been torn down is because my grandmother and my great aunt are still alive, and it would be hard for them to see it go. Luckily there's a rich history on paper from the siblings that have passed, and my grandmother and great aunt still have their faculties. I really should do something like that. I wish my grandpa (this grandmother's husband) was still with us. He was much more open about the family skeletons than his wife. After all this house saw it's share of scandal and hardship, but also some phenomenal love stories.... That's a really good idea Pooh Bear!

ETA: I just got all excited because I remembered taking some shots on one of the last drives I took with my grandfather. I didn't upload them to Facebook though!!! I hope they're on my harddrive at home still.

[radiojane]

I posted a thread way back in the day about this, but it's not coming up in the search. This is kind of related in a spooky buildings sense. Not far down the road from the above mentioned house is the "Doll House". It was a farm house on highway 2 (that also belonged to relatives of mine). It was abandoned sometime in the mid sixties. A few years back an artist painted it and filled it with furniture from the time period, and plexiglassed the back for a display.


This is a photo I took of the house years before the project:
Attachment 41847


And some I took myself after it became the dollhouse:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...3&l=3125b0cf2b

(oh man... my old Dakota is in all these pictures! Man I miss that truck!)



Here's the cbc article on the artist

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/artdesig...dollhouse.html

[Mammy]

Radiojane, my maternal grandparent's house is like you described your great grandparents house. Walking in there is like time standing still. It looks exactly the same as it did when I was a small child on up to now. Grandma died in 1983 and Pap died in 1995 and the house is sitting there like they will be returning to it someday. The house belongs to my parents now and it is in rough shape. Nobody has lived in it since Pap went into a nursing home after having a stroke in 1989. Even to this day, I am always overwhelmed with emotion when I go there and bawl like a baby everytime. Some of my best childhood memories were made in that house. The furniture, pictures on the wall, household items, and much more are all still there.

[Ouattara]

In Mallorca (Spain), the soccer stadium "Lluis Sitjar" it´s abandoned. The soccer team of Mallorca, Real Mallorca, played here since 50´s to 1999. In 1999, Real Mallorca moved to another stadium, Son Moix.
Lluis Sitjar stadium it´s in a horrible state. Look a video about it of a spanish program:

This video was recorded in 2010. The stadium suffered a fire in that year, and some people lived there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RDl7FmN_Ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oakJkXoPmaE

[theotherlondon]

I used to clean an old movie theatre years ago
over nignt.(it was built in 1904.)
It seemed to be more scary when the lights were on
and I was cleaning it by myself.(used to hear voices)
or so I thought.

Didn't have a problem seeing a film when it was dark
in the theatre.

[choff]

Reading about the Dr. Harold Perelson murder case had me thinking..other than Six Flags New Orleans are there other places out there were time had "stopped" ??? I know about the downtown Winchester, Virginia ( yeah Patsy Cline's hometown ) Howard Johnson's Restaurant. Closed in 1974 but left more/less untouched for 30 plus years.

[homesgirl]

ewww - good and creepy in its own way. Great pics.

[Wendy A.]

Chernobyl comes to my mind.

[cindyt]

Ew is right.

[Mammy]

Wow, Choff, love the pictures! It would be awesome to go in there to look around. How has it managed to stay untouched for nearly four decades? I love abandoned buildings and dead malls. Somewhere in the forum is a thread about Heritage USA that was built by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and there are some amazing pictures on there. Thanks for the thread!

[NewEnglander]

Wow!! Awesome pics. I love how everything is the way it was when it closed. Wonder why there doesn't appear to be any damage from looters or vagrants?

[SomeChick]

Chernobyl comes to my mind.

We have a thread around here somewhere called Abandoned Russia and one on Chernobyl if anyone would like to see more. That hoax by that Elena chick who claimed to have ridden her motorcycle through Chernobyl and later was busted on the lie is in one of them too. But still, the pics are cool. And they are real. She just never made that ride nor took the pics herself.

[Bidmor]

The shuttered Howard Johnson's in Winchester VA...one would think the city would have forced the owner(s) to do something with the property...raze it, whatever...after some 30 years. But then again I'm familiar with an abandoned huge hotel in a small town that the city hasn't been able to force absentee owner(s) into action after some 40 years.

But, yeah, the pix of that HJ's in Winchester shows a well maintained (or well secured) facility.

[MiraculousMandarin]

The Michigan Theatre in Detroit repurposed as a parking garage.
Unfortunately there are plenty of beautiful abandoned buildings there.
Attachment 43857

[choff]

The shuttered Howard Johnson's in Winchester VA...one would think the city would have forced the owner(s) to do something with the property...raze it, whatever...after some 30 years. But then again I'm familiar with an abandoned huge hotel in a small town that the city hasn't been able to force absentee owner(s) into action after some 40 years.

But, yeah, the pix of that HJ's in Winchester shows a well maintained (or well secured) facility.

The Winchester downtown HoJos was in the basement of the George Washington Hotel. The restaurant died with the hotel in 1974. About a year later the building became the George Washington Home for Adults with the exception of the Howard Johnsons so as a result the basement was sealed off and just left pretty much as it was. Not sure why the HoJos never became something else other than the owners figured selling it would be a tough sell considering the building was a huge nursing home.

The whole building was sold in the mid 90's which led to the closing of the home for adults and the new owners wanted to bring the place back to a hotel. After a several years of fighting with the city of Winchester in trying to get the project done plus getting the money the fix the place up about ten years ago the owners made a deal with the Wyndham Hotel Chain and after several more years of fixing the place up in 2008 ( ? ) the building finally reopened as The George Washington.. A Wyndham Grand Hotel. Unfortunately for the old HoJos Wyndham remodeled that part of the building as well. Today I believe its called The Dancing Goat Restaurant.

http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/virgin..._date=&rooms=1

[Bidmor]

A familiar story, Choff.

In Mineral Wells, Texas, there are now two abandoned hotels...The Baker, which closed down back in the late 1970's...and now The Crazy Water Hotel, which had been functioning as "retirement facility" for many years until this past summer when the city ordered it locked up due to building code non-compliance. Both buildings have absentee owners, but not the same.

The Crazy is in good shape aside from some electrical work which needs to be done, and its owner won't so there are "for sale" signs stuck up inside several street level window.

The Baker has been vacant since it was shut down and has deteriorated quite a bit due to the elements and vandals, but has provided a location for many a ghost hunting group and is reputed to be fairly haunted.

https://www.facebook.com/TheBakerHotelGhostWalk

[LLC]

Love this thread! The Heritage USA pics are fascinating. I read TFB's bio & she spoke fondly of the place.

[Mammy]

Are you talking about the "Eyes of Tammy Faye" or a different one? I loved Tammy Faye and have a major soft spot for her and miss seeing interviews of her. My husband and I both fell in love with her on "Surreal Life." She was a sweetie pie. The Heritage USA pictures were sad, but fascinating, too.

[Mammy]

I was bored and looking around on the internet and found a site that has a bunch of pictures of Six Flags New Orleans after Katrina destroyed it in 2005. Most of the pictures were taken six years afterwards and the pictures are really big so you can really see the details. I thought the pictures were pretty interesting, minus the graffiti. What do people get out of spray painting everything?

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05...leans-75-pics/

[choff]

I was bored and looking around on the internet and found a site that has a bunch of pictures of Six Flags New Orleans after Katrina destroyed it in 2005. Most of the pictures were taken six years afterwards and the pictures are really big so you can really see the details. I thought the pictures were pretty interesting, minus the graffiti. What do people get out of spray painting everything?

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05...leans-75-pics/

The Six Flags New Orleans pics are very interesting..and spooky. Another defunct theme park that is still standing is the Freestyle Music Park ( Hard Rock Park ) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina but its not nearly interesting as SFNO though.

Here are some 1999 pics of the defunct Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio. Fire destroyed their main roller coaster in the Spring of 1984 ) the park itself died later that same year ). For decades a good bit of the park was still standing due to some legal issues with the owner. Unfortunately today nothing remains of Idora..only the memories of those who had went there.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks...52&linkid=1598

[cindyt]

I was bored and looking around on the internet and found a site that has a bunch of pictures of Six Flags New Orleans after Katrina destroyed it in 2005. Most of the pictures were taken six years afterwards and the pictures are really big so you can really see the details. I thought the pictures were pretty interesting, minus the graffiti. What do people get out of spray painting everything?

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05...leans-75-pics/

The same thing a tomcat gets out of spraying piss on everything. It's there.

Normally, I'm not scared of clowns...but OMG that one is creeeepeee.

Those pictures look like paintings.

[Mammy]

I don't know what my fascination is with abandoned places, but I can lose myself for hours on a website about them, especially if there are a lot of pictures. The abandoned theme parks are kinda sad because they are supposed to be happy places and it always amazes me that the abandoned theme parks just sit and rot for years and nobody does anything with the land. I found the Six Flags New Orleans because I was reading about Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom that closed in 2009 and there are people trying to buy the place, fix it up, and reopen it. I thought the SFNO pictures were interesting, but the clown pictures creeped me out big time, too. They were almost Pennywise creepy. Thanks for the Idora Park link, Choff. I'll definitely be checking it out. I've been on a Dixie Square Mall kick the past few days. It's finally gone after all of these years.

Cindy, I'm sure your tomcat analogy is spot on. It just irritates me to see people shit up everything and destroy things just for the hell of it. I don't understand that mindset at all.

[Wendy A.]

I was bored and looking around on the internet and found a site that has a bunch of pictures of Six Flags New Orleans after Katrina destroyed it in 2005. Most of the pictures were taken six years afterwards and the pictures are really big so you can really see the details. I thought the pictures were pretty interesting, minus the graffiti. What do people get out of spray painting everything?

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05...leans-75-pics/

Its amazing how quickly something like that can be reclaimed by Mother Nature..
SomeChick, I'd LOVE to see the Chernobyl thread! Gotta link?

[NewEnglander]

I don't know what my fascination is with abandoned places, but I can lose myself for hours on a website about them, especially if there are a lot of pictures. The abandoned theme parks are kinda sad because they are supposed to be happy places and it always amazes me that the abandoned theme parks just sit and rot for years and nobody does anything with the land. I found the Six Flags New Orleans because I was reading about Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom that closed in 2009 and there are people trying to buy the place, fix it up, and reopen it. I thought the SFNO pictures were interesting, but the clown pictures creeped me out big time, too. They were almost Pennywise creepy. Thanks for the Idora Park link, Choff. I'll definitely be checking it out. I've been on a Dixie Square Mall kick the past few days. It's finally gone after all of these years.

Cindy, I'm sure your tomcat analogy is spot on. It just irritates me to see people shit up everything and destroy things just for the hell of it. I don't understand that mindset at all.

I'm like you Mammy, I could spend hours on abandoned building websites. They are so neat. I really like the abandoned resorts in the Catskills, NY. Like amusment parks, these resorts were places where families spent so many happy vacations and now they are left to rot. Really sad. There is a guy (I can't recall the name of his website) who explores a lot of abandoned resorts and hotels. He takes photos and his wife or girlfriend will video the places. He really has some great pictures and he puts an entire history of the places on the site too so you know what you're looking at what happened that closed the places down.

YT has a lot of abandoned building videos. I like to watch those as well.

[Mammy]

I need to have a peek at YouTube for the videos you referred to. I have seen lots of footage on there for the Dixie Square Mall. There is a huge amount of things on the internet about abandoned places. How did we ever survive without the internet? It's my number one hobby.

My favorite theme park when I was a kid was Santa Claus Land in Indiana. We went there every summer. It wasn't a huge place, but it wasn't crowded and was so much fun. It is now Holiday World. Of course, it is now very popular and very crowded. It's still a nice place, but it lost a lot of it's charm as it got bigger and more well known. I also went to Opryland in Tennessee a few times when I was a kid, although I liked Santa Claus Land much better. Opryland closed in 1997 and was demolished and a huge mall built on the site named the Opry Mills mall. I have been to the mall once and it was nice enough, but it was sad knowing that it sat right where Opryland was. I noticed when I got out of the car in the mall parking lot, I could see something in a grove of trees. It was the remaining course of an old water ride called the Grizzly River Rampage. It's gone now, too. The Opry Mills mall was severely flooded in 2010 and it stood in limbo for a while due to an insurance dispute and it was uncertain whether it would reopen, but it finally did reopen in March of 2012. I have several collectables from Santa Claus Land and a couple of things from Opryland. They were both pretty cool places in their heyday.

[NewEnglander]

I need to have a peek at YouTube for the videos you referred to. I have seen lots of footage on there for the Dixie Square Mall. There is a huge amount of things on the internet about abandoned places. How did we ever survive without the internet? It's my number one hobby.

My favorite theme park when I was a kid was Santa Claus Land in Indiana. We went there every summer. It wasn't a huge place, but it wasn't crowded and was so much fun. It is now Holiday World. Of course, it is now very popular and very crowded. It's still a nice place, but it lost a lot of it's charm as it got bigger and more well known. I also went to Opryland in Tennessee a few times when I was a kid, although I liked Santa Claus Land much better. Opryland closed in 1997 and was demolished and a huge mall built on the site named the Opry Mills mall. I have been to the mall once and it was nice enough, but it was sad knowing that it sat right where Opryland was. I noticed when I got out of the car in the mall parking lot, I could see something in a grove of trees. It was the remaining course of an old water ride called the Grizzly River Rampage. It's gone now, too. The Opry Mills mall was severely flooded in 2010 and it stood in limbo for a while due to an insurance dispute and it was uncertain whether it would reopen, but it finally did reopen in March of 2012. I have several collectables from Santa Claus Land and a couple of things from Opryland. They were both pretty cool places in their heyday.

I'll PM you some links

[Mammy]

Thanks, I'd love that!

[choff]

Gone now but this was The Shenandoah Downs Race Track in Charles Town, West Virginia ( one hour west of DC and Baltimore ). Back in the day this was a popular hangout for the Kennedys. Arthur Godfrey. Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance as well as Liberace were known to play the horses here from time to time. "The Downs" closed in 1978 ( Wikipedia says 1975 but I can remember my parents taking me here for my 10th birthday..that would be 1978 ).

Classy place back in the day with 4 restaurants, a gift shop as well as a giant arcade for the kids.

The last event to be held at the complex was Lollapalooza96 but that was held on the field itself. The Grandstand by then was pretty much what you see here. Shenandoah Downs was imploded in 2006 which was aired live on WLTF-FM "Lite 97.5" out of nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia.

[choff]

More pics of Shenandoah Downs....

[Bidmor]

Abandoned facilities such as race tracks and amusement parks, to me, are not so much spooky but just downright sad.

[Mammy]

I have been going back and forth between FAD and sites about abandoned places for most of the day. It's amazing how many websites there are about abandoned places and the pictures are excellent. Here is a good site, it's just not updated very often.

http://www.illicitohio.com/

[LLC]

Are you talking about the "Eyes of Tammy Faye" or a different one? I loved Tammy Faye and have a major soft spot for her and miss seeing interviews of her. My husband and I both fell in love with her on "Surreal Life." She was a sweetie pie. The Heritage USA pictures were sad, but fascinating, too.

Sorry Mam, I missed this post. I loved her on the Surreal Life too. The book I read was "I Will Survive..." written by her near the end of her life. There's a really disturbing pic of her on Larry King right before her death. Good book though...I have it if ya want it. I'll toss it in the mail, I'd love to give it to you.

[Mammy]

I loved Tammy Faye and so does my husband. Other than the thick makeup, she and my husband's stepmom could have been identical twins. They were both tiny, bubbly, and had larger than life personalities. His stepmom passed away from cancer in 2004 and we never realized how much she and Tammy Faye were alike until his stepmom passed away and we saw Tammy on Surreal Life. It was definitely surreal looking at her from that point of view. Their voices were also nearly identical. We cried every time we saw her, but it was comforting in a way because she was so much like Patsy. We both watched the Larry King interview of her right before she died and we were both heartbroken to see her in such a pitiful condition. We hoped that Heaven had fries with lots of ketchup waiting for her. I would love to read the book and will be more than happy to buy it from you.

[choff]

Tammy Faye...aren't the old PTL shows now in public domain? Sometime ago I remember reading on radio-insight about the the master tapes of Jim & Tammy's Fayes old shows such as The Ptl Club and Tammy's House Party were up for sale on Ebay but I don't think they were ever actually sold though. Would you watch those old programs? I would !!!

[Mammy]

I was a teenager when the whole PTL scandal happened and like most self absorbed teenagers, I paid no attention to any of it. It was many years after that when I discovered Tammy Faye. I may be a completely hoodwinked fool, but I just don't see Tammy as being in on all of those shenanigans. She seemed as simple and naive as a young child and I'm sure she believed in letting the men take care of the business side of everything. I just see her as a woman who practiced what she preached. She was so kind and sweet to Ron Jeremy on Surreal Life and has always embraced and loved gay people instead of judging them like a lot of other so called "Christians." She seemed to love everyone. I have spent a ton of time looking at the photos of Heritage USA today. Those pictures and the pictures of Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion are the most interesting pictures to me.

[intothelight]

I love frequenting http://www.abandonedok.com. I learn lots from it. The other day I researched Chilocco Indian School and that website had pictures of the school today (I think they were taken last year). Anyway,I would love to visit a lot of the places.

[NewEnglander]

I love frequenting http://www.abandonedok.com. I learn lots from it. The other day I researched Chilocco Indian School and that website had pictures of the school today (I think they were taken last year). Anyway,I would love to visit a lot of the places.

I have looked at this site before. It is very interesting. That camp looks pretty neat!

[SheeBee]

My husband and I have done some abandoned building photography. We would submit them to a site called Abandoned but Not Forgotten. The site has disappeared and our photos with it. Maybe I can dig them up on one of the old computers.

I love these sites. We have a General Store here in town that was closed up years ago. Here are some pictures that people have taken. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/galle...0-fdd9a0a38007 You look in the window and it is like time stood still. Walls are filled with stuff, ready to be sold. News sites have contacted the family several times to take a peek inside but so far they have refused. It is an amazing time capsule.

It closed in 1961 because the owner refused to charge sales tax to his customers. Not sure if that is true but that is what they say here.

[Bidmor]

Wow, SheBee, those are cool pix. It's so fitting that this store where time stopped is in a small Texas town. The pic of all the "new" washers, dryers, fridges, and tv's inside are just too wild.

[Mammy]

Well, I guess ya learn something new everyday! I decided to do a google search of abandoned places in Kentucky, and found an article about an abandoned S&M club being found. I'm sure that was quite a surprise.

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/...row-buildings/

I know it's awful to laugh about, but one of the comments cracked me up. He said necrophilia means never having to say you're sorry. That gave me the giggles for some reason.

[Bidmor]

Time hasn't stopped here but since the NSA has been in the news, here's about the Agency's abandoned Cold War spy facilities which dot Germany:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...2.html#ref=rss

[Domino]

I don't know how I missed this thread before because it's my very favorite subject matter. I've always been facinated with abandoned buildings, especially hospitals. I have a bookmarks folder with tons of bookmarks to abandoned places. I was facinated with abandoned houses as a kid but then once I got the internet I found a ton of other people with the same facination as me and omg at the amount of sites out there. I don't just want to see the pictures, I want to hear the story behind the place. Flickr is a great place to find some good pics. There's a town in Alabama that's probably 4 hours from me that has abandoned plantations. OMG, I want to go! The only cool abandoned place I've gotten to go to is Waverly Hills. Someone mentioned earlier that they live vicariously through the internet because they are too chicken to actually go to the abandoned places. I'm not scared to go. I'm scared of getting arrested for tresspassing and that's what you have to worry about. I mean if you go then you don't go alone because it's dangerous for various reasons and you have to be careful of not getting hurt. I'm not afraid of all that. I don't want to go to jail.
I'm also facinated by abandoned towns like Bodie, California and Centralia, Pennsylvania.
A lot of these places, like the abandoned 6 Flags in New Orleans are used as movie sets and I think that's awesome. I believe it was the Mansfiled Reformatory that was used for The Shawshank Redemption. Linda Vista hospital was used for the pilot of ER and I've seen a website where they have contact info if you want to shoot your movie there. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head but I love that they use these abandoned places like this. It keeps money going to them and keeps them from being torn down.

So here's two of my favorite sites:

This one is by a girl I've gotten to become internet friends with. The most interesting/creep story is Demon's Alley. Go to the alphabetical index and find it. That's one of my favorite stories. If you love abandoned places like I do then you'll love her site. She went to all these places and took the pics herself. She hasn't updated the website in a long time but she has a Lost Destinations Facebook page that she posts to.
http://www.lostdestinations.com/

Then this site just has some beautiful pictures and great stories to go along with it.
http://www.opacity.us/

Both of these sites will keep you busy for a while. I've read each story on Lost Destinations over and over. It's so interesting. If you want more I've got plenty to link you to!


ETA: Here's a question that someone here might know. There's an entire section of Los Angeles that's abandoned and it's used in movies all the time. Linda Vista hospital is in this section I believe. It was used in Terminator 2 and then a couple of years ago for a reality show that I foget the name of but it was where groups of peoople had to learn how to survive if the world went to shit and society broke down. There were two seasons. Anyway, this section has been used in a lot of other movies I know. Does anyone know the story about this part of L.A and why it's abandoned? I want to say it's an old warehouse district or something like that. I've always wanted to know the story behind it.

[choff]

Found another abandoned place...the studios of the now defunct WXVA-AM & FM in Charles Town, West Virginia.

Attachment 47375

Attachment 47376

WXVA went on the air in the 60's ( AM was top 40..FM was country ). In the mid 80's they went big band/easy listening music. For the longest time the station was owned by David Schoumacher. At the time of his ownership of WXVA, David was a popular TV news anchor for WJLA-TV channel 7 in Washington. David also had a very small part in the 1979 Peter Sellers flick "Being There".

Long story short WXVA was sold around 2000 to Clear Channel Communications who in turned very quickly had fired all the employees and moved WXVA to nearby Winchester, Virginia. Today WXVA-FM is now WKSI "KISS 98.3". Winchester's top 40 station. When Clear Channel made that move to Virginia apparently all of the records, cds, equipment ( both office and broadcast ) were left as it was. Was told that on some of the desks there were still coffee mugs WITH coffee in them . I am sure 13 year old coffee would taste good. EWWWWWW

http://www.kiss983.com/main.html

The call letters WXVA came back to the area in 2010 but that station has no relation to the old WXVA. www.wxva.com