Friends

Not sure if this is a valid post here, please let me know if it is not, but I thought this might be of some interest, since it pertains to an abandoned neighborhood in detroit, and how artists are using that to transform it into art.

I have been a lurker for a while now, so this is my first time posting. These pictures were taken about two years ago in the mountains of Virginia at an abandoned coal mine. My best friend grew up there and knew all the cool places, though most of them are closed to the public for safety reasons. These were taken from where we were able to go.

The abandoned shower house where the miners would go to get cleaned up after being underground and digging.

( couple more behind the cut )

I haven't seen this posted here yet, but it is certainly of interest. When I visited Disney World for the first time this summer, I had no idea that, somewhere nearby in the midst of all the bright shininess, was an abandoned park.

From the site: "River Country was Walt Disney World’s first waterpark. It opened in 1976, and closed for the final time in 2001. Since 2001, the area has sat virtually undisturbed. The slides and pools remain in place."

http://disboards.com.nyud.net:8080/showthread.php?t=2344523

When I first learnt about this island a few years back, I was determined to check out the place since then. Although it was a guided tour with access restricted to only a small part of the island (hence the limited views), the fact that I could set foot on it was good enough for me. :)

( A few more under the cut )

The rest of the series here.

Two things!

1. L.A. utility shelves plans for solar farm near Salton Sea. I didn't even know they had planned for this, but it's interesting.

2. Culver City housing update and an update on her ..

...under the cut ( HERE )

PS: I'm going to make a real post soon about Japan, so please look forward to it^^.

x-posted to personal journal and creepgirlfrenzy

Since 1919, the KD Station has been a shining icon in the cattle processing town of Siouxicide City, Iowa. In 1949 an explosion inside the meat packing plant killed several people and thus the haunting stories began. When the plant shut down and the building later reopened with shops and restaurants, the stories got worse. Most of it stemmed from the place itself, not the spirits floating around the place.

Consider a dank building with only a handful of windows on the top floors and a labyrinth of cold, dirty corridors buzzing and scarcely lit with industrial lamps. The elevators were so decrepit they were always threatening to commit suicide and take the passengers with. The full suits of armor peering at you from a caged hallway never put one at ease, either. I never saw any of the rumored ghosts, though a couple people have told me about seeing White Tuxedo Man outside the costume shop. However, I nearly had a coronary when I rounded a corner and came face to face with my reflection in the enormous mirror I wasn't even aware of.

Over the years the building has hosted restaurants, night clubs, music shops, a beauty salon, a butcher, clothing stores, an archery shop, an arcade, and a dinosaur exhibit. In 2004 the building was condemned when a generator in the bowling alley burst into flames. Just before this, some friends and I got a chance to go on the closed off floors with a video camera. If the areas open to the public were considered dirty, the restricted was absolutely filthy. The beams on the third floor had completely caved in certain rooms and the minigolf course was riddled with mold. An army of dusty clowns had been stockpiled in a janitor's closet, though no one ever bothered to move the 6-foot grinding wheels even on the public floors. Most of the meathooks had been cleared out. Most of them. Sadly I have no way to upload clips from the video to the internet so as to illustrate the inside of the building. In 2006 little bastard children set another fire and the city made the decision to demolish it. It's finally happening.



( This is Iowa )

Yes, these are the abandoned monuments to Lenin and the ruins of some churches and noble estates, which were abandoned because of the destrucitive activities of Lenin and his followers. In the background of the first monument you can see the ruin of the Intercession church (1905) in the village Ust'-Karemsha.



( +8 photos )

Hello abandoned places fans!

I have been following this community for a while now and I am amazed by the awsome photographs one can find here!
This is my first post and I am sharing photos of an abandoned LORAN Station - located the Santa Maria island, Azores, Portugal. It was a Longe-Range Navigation Station operated by NATO, deactivated and in ruins since 1980.

( More Photos Here )

Go with a BBC correspondent for a look at a weapon storage bunker built by the East German military. It's for sale. Maybe we could all pitch in and ...nevermind.
LINK ~VIDEO

One of many Cooper Dragonette paintings that fit the mood of this community....

http://cooperdragonette.blogspot.com/2009/12/winter-barn.html

The history of the Grandview (Alias) is much broader than just a tale of a single resort.
This plot of land represents the times of an entire region...
Within these walls you witness the rise, and fall, of the Borscht Belt.



The Borscht Belt is (was) a band of hotels, resorts, spas, and places of that nature,
that spread across the Catskills Mountain area of New York state.
At one time vacationing in the Catskills was a very popular thing to do.
It was at it's most popular from the late 1940's, up until the 70's.
A number of factors contributed to the eventual demise of the Borscht Belt,
not the least of which was affordable air-travel.
A family could now go to Florida for little more than the trip to up-state NY...
The entire Borscht Belt region now lays in ruin.
Hundreds of miles of mountain land, dotted with abandoned resorts.

Though the Grandview may stand for an era of American popular culture,
this is not to say that it was just a number in the list of Catskill resorts.
Of all the resorts that stretched the Borscht belt, the Grandview was the crown-jewel.
It was so popular during it's time that an airstrip was constructed on the grounds
so that vacationers could fly directly to the resort.
An airstrip that now has 20+ years of growth covering it...
Interestingly, the "Kellerman's Mountain Resort" from the 1980's film "Dirty Dancing"
was modeled after the Grandview.

The resort had very humble beginnings,
as a single house in the rural mountains of New York state.
A family of three decided to rent out the extra rooms of their home to vacationers from New York City.
The husband ran the facility, the wife cooked and cleaned, and the daughter was hostess.
In 1919 they sold the original house to purchase a larger one on 100 acres.
From that point on the resort steadily grew in size and popularity.
In 1952 it made history as the first ski slope in the world to use artificial snow.
By 1972 the resort had grown to 35 building on some 1,200 acres of land,
and was serving 150,000 guests annually.



Nothing lasts forever though...
By the late 1970's the younger market was no longer interested in vacationing in the Catskills.
Especially when they could take a jet anywhere in the country for nearly the same cost.
To regain Catskill popularity, a bill was put into motion to legalize gambling in the region.
In preparation for this influx of vacationers looking for an alternative to Atlantic City,
the Grandview went under a massive re-construction.
(I have included some of the re-design illustrations at the end of this entry,
along with more historical images of the place)
However, the bill was never passed and gambling remains illegal in the Catskills.
That was the last hit the resort could take.
Construction halted, and in 1986 the resort shut it's doors for good.

Present day is a strange way to perceive the Grandview.
It lies trapped, between what it once was, and what it was on it's way to becoming.





( Once upon a time there was a tavern... )