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Report - - An Assortment of American Abandonments - April/May 2019 | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - An Assortment of American Abandonments - April/May 2019

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mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
To tie up some loose ends, here is a compilation style thread of the places I explored that don't necessarily warrant their own thread. The jumble sale if you will of things that weren't worthy enough for a proper showing, as it's not all wall-to-wall epics as I'm sure you're aware.

Detroit Car Graveyard

I love car graveyards and I've shot a ridiculous number over the last couple of years. This is one I spotted during one of my tireless Google Maps searching sessions and thought it was worth a look. It's comprised of a couple of yards right on the street full of cars, in a sketchy area of Detroit. There was only a small part I could actually get into so I shot most of these through the fence - how I'd have loved to run into the owner and be allowed unrestricted access but unless I get very lucky I don't think that will ever happen!

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R. Thornton Brodhead Naval Armory, Detroit

The Detroit Naval Armory was constructed in 1930 and was used as a training centre and barracks until it closed in 2004. Architecturally it's one of Detroits hidden gems, and it housed one of the largest collections of Depression-era artwork anywhere however over the years much of this has sadly been stolen along with pretty much everything else.

We didn't stay long here as we had other places to be on our final half-day in the city, so I definitely missed the nice accomodation parts.

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Kosher Cheese Factory, Upstate NY

A purely accidental find. Me and my friend had spent the morning shooting an old car junkyard in Canada and had crossed back over the border into the States to head home. We decided to stop in a town on the border for a spot of lunch and did what normally happens when we find ourselves in an unfamiliar town - start scanning Google Maps for any obvious abandonments. Within about three minutes I had spotted a likely looking factory building no more than a few blocks from the restaurant (which did a delicious Cheesesteak may I add), so of course we wandered over after lunch. Finding that it was indeed abandoned, we set about finding a way in which didn't prove too difficult after a bit of searching. We still had no idea what the place was so we were pleasantly surprised after entering to see all sorts of stainless steel vats and tanks left inside, and after finding some paperwork discovered it was a former cheese factory! Although our noses could have told us that, as the former storage vat room was the worst smelling room I have ever stepped foot in on an explore. There was another processing room past the vat room however the smell, and the burst water main that had flooded an adjacent room with what looked like sewage floating in it put me off venturing any further! I can only imagine how it must smell in the height of summer...

As far as totally random finds go though, it was pretty cool.

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Lighthouse, Western NY

Certainly one of the more unique places I have shot. This lighthouse has been abandoned for some time, although it is under the care of some sort of conservation society who have made steps to try and seal it up, and keep it from falling into the water. To get to it we had to walk through an area of land covered with thousands and thousands of nesting seagulls, taking great care not to step on any of their nests, and somehow we avoided being crapped on.

The lighthouse also housed a steam-powered fog horn in order to give an additional warning to ships, something I've never seen before.

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Broadway Theater, Buffalo NY

This one is a permission visit - the owner is a lovely guy and the donations he receives are ostensibly for the restoration of the theater but he spends most of it on patching up where idiots break in - recently a kid decided to break in and not realising there was a large drop on the other side of the hole he'd made, fell over five metres into the area next to the stage breaking a few bones in the process.

The theater was originally built for department store magnate John G. Sattler, and was opened in 1914 at a cost of $35,000. Originally built for showing movies, it initially didn't have a stage however in 1920 it changed hands and a stage was added for vaudeville shows. It became Basil's Broadway Theater at some point later, and closed in the 1960s. Post-closure as a theater, it became Mohammed's Mosque 23, which was visited by both Malcolm X and Mohammed Ali in it's time. It later became God's Holy Temple and spent it's last years as the Joy Temple Church until it closed it's doors for the last time in 1996.

There are plans in motion to save the theater and restore it's beautiful tiled facade, and with the regeneration of the city inching closer to it along the nearby blocks it won't be long until something happens to it.

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During my last stint of exploring on the trip I found a trio of abandoned houses - one a shell, one looked promising but the floor had collapsed cutting off half of it, and the third one was an absolute belter and one of the best houses I have found.

House The First (Holey House)

Obviously abandoned for a hell of a long time, it's little more than a battered wooden shell of a place. There was a water course running underneath it as well which made walking over the rotten floors quite a hairy experience.

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Continued below....​
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
House The Second (Half a House)

It promised so much from the outside. A large property with numerous barns and sheds, and a large house. However as soon as we got in we realised that what was left was a half-abandoned renovation project and the living room floor had collapsed into the basement cutting off access to most of the ground floor. The stairs thankfully were on the right side of it, however the bedrooms upstairs were just full of trash and not that interesting at all.

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House The Third (School Bus House)

It finally all came good with the third house. As soon as I spotted it on Google Maps I had a feeling it was going to be a good one, nice and isolated on the edge of a state forest and totally overgrown. Turns out my hunch was right, it had been abandoned since the early 1990s with everything left inside. The owner obviously loved music and musical instruments as there was an upright piano and a small organ in an upstairs room as well as hundreds of vinyl records and other instruments scattered about. Plus it had an amazingly cool 1950s Ford B750 Bluebird school bus parked outside.

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So that's all the loose ends tied up for another year, I'd be out there the whole time if I could, believe me.....​
 

Missymoo16

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
All these reports you posting are amazing mook as always keep up the fantastic work
 

HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Soon as I saw the title of this report knew I was going to love it! Really enjoyed those little vignettes. The light house was fab.
 

Cortinalights

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Wow looks like you had some excellent fun there, love the shots of the car graveyard, all those old Chevys and stuff just make such good photos, and that theatre in Buffalo is awesome
 

TranKmasT

"You BOY!
Regular User
Awesome.
You need to ditch these stuffy old forums though mate.
YouTube and insta's where the rel crowd is. Maybe change your name to Spooky Mooky and get the ghosties onboard too.
 

host

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
A very impressive collection. It’s a good job you go to the US so much without your reports we don’t get to see much stuff. You go every year then ? You do any southern states or Mexico?
 

chills

Queller of the uprising
Moderator
Fantastic reports and snaps as usual! Love them all especially the lighting from above in that theatre!
 
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