Creepy, Bizarre, Isolated Places

[Doctor Bob]

Two links from the Irish architecture message board I frequent:

Abandoned Ireland.

A guy's Flickr account - Look at Dun Laoghaire Baths and Boland's Mills in particular.

The photos of the baths spook me a bit- I used to swim there as a kid, when they were known as Rainbow Rapids.

[Doctor Bob]

Flickr is a goldmine for this stuff, by the way.

[davy]

It really is. The photography link buried at the end of my 2nd (?) post also has plenty of gorgeous images of truly grim places.

But yeah, this thread rocks. I'll be so sad when I've finally exhausted all the links. It'll take me a while, though. I'm not even done with the French city at the beginning of that "20 Abandoned Cities" link that Andrew posted. If ghosts truly exist, I imagine they are spilling out of the windows in that place.

[theartlessmonster]

i always find hunters point naval shipyard bizarre

i took these last year, after poking around out there - i didn't finish photographing it

"As of the mid-1950s it employed 8,500 civilians. The Navy’s Radiation Defense Laboratory and Pacific Reserve Fleet units were also located there. Established as commercial shipyard in 1870, it was acquired by the Navy 11 days before Pearl Harbor."

it ceased operations in 1974





then i found this deserted place on my way out there...which i tried to imagine when it was in operation...

[theartlessmonster]

here's the whole set if you want to see the rest

http://www.flickr.com/photos/checkerberry/sets/72157600209197965

[Andrew_TSKS]

If those old 70s musclecars weren't covered in rust I'd go steal one in a heartbeat.

[Good Intentions]

Back in southern Africa Kolmanskop is quite well-known, with a few very famous pictures of it floating around. I've got a book with some in, I might scan a few pictures of it a little later. For now:

[davy]

Striking images, for sure. That one is in the list Andrew posted, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

[theartlessmonster]

If those old 70s musclecars weren't covered in rust I'd go steal one in a heartbeat.

sidenote on those cars, i found an old roll of film in one of them, i thought it might be interesting to get it developed, you have just reminded me i should do that. 

[FreddyKnuckles]

Bannack, MT. aka the new eldorado of the north.  Apparently it was a source of incredibly pure gold.  There was also a lot of violence which culminated in the hanging of the sheriff from his own gallows. 

[davy]

Nice! I deeply regret not taking the time during our two years in Colorado to check out some ghost towns. I was mere hours away from some beauties, just never got around to it.

[Doctor Bob]

I just remembered I had this link saved.  Tangential, but not irrelevant.

http://www.afiler.com/everydot

[Doctor Bob]

I know it's not exactly on topic, but this is one of the best things I've ever read on the subject of dereliction.  It's just a short article, but I think it gets at the essence of why these places appeal to us.

It has also become a sort of manifesto for my friend and me- when she comes to visit from NYC we go exploring the back lanes of the city on bikes.  (An open offer to anyone who might be passing, I should add.)

[Andrew_TSKS]

Robert, if I ever get a chance to go to Ireland, rest assured I will look you up for exactly that purpose. Hell, if I ever get a chance to visit Ireland, I want to spend at least a week there, and explore all the remote corners of the place. It's borderline-mythical in my mind.

[Andrew_TSKS]

For all y'all who are interested in this sort of thing, I figured it was my duty to link you to the new book coming out from the Industrial Decay Network.

(If you want to read the text on the pages in the preview, right-click and hit "Zoom In" and you will be able to.)

[davy]

For all y'all who are interested in this sort of thing, I figured it was my duty to link you to the new book coming out from the Industrial Decay Network.

(If you want to read the text on the pages in the preview, right-click and hit "Zoom In" and you will be able to.)

Yep, that looks totally awesome. Pretty similar idea to the Pripyat book I just finished.

I'd love to pick it up, but at $92, I'll have to see if I can get it through interlibrary loan. Is it already out?

[Stewart]

OMG this thread!  Thanks!

[Andrew_TSKS]

Davy--no, I don't think it's out yet. And yes, I was pretty daunted by the price tag as well. But hey, the pictures on the preview pages are cool!

[Andrew_TSKS]

Photographic tour of the closed-off south side of Ellis Island

today's coverage is of the off-limits sections of Ellis Island's south side. While the north side of the island has been converted into a museum with a great trove of historical documents portraying the hardships immigrants had when entering the port, the more gritty reality of history is found on the south side of the island- in the hospital, psychiatric buildings, quarantine wards and its power plant and autopsy theatre.

Plenty more info and photos at the link.

EDIT: Anyone with an interest in this sort of thing will find almost all of the posts on that blog interesting. There are several other entries featuring detailed photo explorations of abandoned hospitals and asylums on the American East Coast.

[davy]

Thank you once again!

[Andrew_TSKS]

No problem. I decided that since I'm always looking for links like this anyway, I'm going to start bumping this thread anytime I find one.

[davy]

Awesome.

Did you notice that the page for Mike Tyson's house got taken down?

[Andrew_TSKS]

No. That sucks. I hope everyone got to see it before it went away.

[Maaik]

Fuck!  I missed that.

[davy]

I went back to post some pics of Dude's pool room but found the site administrator's sad note about taking it all down.

Remarkably clean pool for having just sat there full of stagnant water for a few years.