I don't usually set out to explore 'normal' houses when I'm in America, however sometimes they just kind of fall into my lap so I think what the hell. The first locations I ever explored over there were two houses with a non-explorer mate of mine, and like a lot of the stuff over there it's kind of the same but different at the same time.
The first ever location I explored out there was this house, situated on a crossroads on a busy road in a very wealthy area of Maryland. I went in with no tripod and no torch as we weren't expecting to do anything but you have to start somewhere right! It wasn't all that interesting but was my first experience of exploring over there, so I made sure I got a few photos.
The second location I ever explored over there was another house, the same day as the first and located not too far away from it in an even wealthier part of town. This small house sitting in an enormous plot of land had been empty a long time and was a lot more interesting than the first one thankfully. A couple of years back my friend told me that it had been burned down, and the strange thing was soon after that he reported that the house had been rebuilt to the exact same design as it was when it was derelict pre-fire. I have no idea why, or what would make someone do that!
...and then we come to Gary. Gary is like America's second Detroit, and was at one point considered the 'murder capital of America'. The city population today is 20% of what it was in the 1950s, so unlike Detroit which is a city still heavily populated, Gary is as near to a ghost town as I've ever seen. Stray two or three blocks off Broadway and you're standing in almost totally abandoned neighbourhoods.
That being said, you never explore houses in Gary. At least if you value your life and possessions you don't, they are havens for the desperate, the homeless and drug addicts and all manner of other nefarious things.
The Ambassador Apartments in Gary is a former high rise apartment block built at the turn of the 20th Century when the city was booming. At the time of my visit, a lot of it's once grand facade was littering the street as catastrophic water damage had torn through the building and subsidence and decay had made the exterior extremely unstable. It is up there in the most dangerous buildings I have ever found myself in, the very real fear that if I were to lean too hard on a wall it might all cave in was constantly there.
The building was torn down in 2015, thankfully before it simply collapsed of it's own accord.
The other apartment block in Gary that is often visited is a building called the Parry-Shaw Building, a five floor block of apartments with shops at ground level, all derelict. I gave this a quick look back in 2014 but went back in 2015 for a more in depth shoot and found it to hold some little gems.
Continued...
The first ever location I explored out there was this house, situated on a crossroads on a busy road in a very wealthy area of Maryland. I went in with no tripod and no torch as we weren't expecting to do anything but you have to start somewhere right! It wasn't all that interesting but was my first experience of exploring over there, so I made sure I got a few photos.
The second location I ever explored over there was another house, the same day as the first and located not too far away from it in an even wealthier part of town. This small house sitting in an enormous plot of land had been empty a long time and was a lot more interesting than the first one thankfully. A couple of years back my friend told me that it had been burned down, and the strange thing was soon after that he reported that the house had been rebuilt to the exact same design as it was when it was derelict pre-fire. I have no idea why, or what would make someone do that!
...and then we come to Gary. Gary is like America's second Detroit, and was at one point considered the 'murder capital of America'. The city population today is 20% of what it was in the 1950s, so unlike Detroit which is a city still heavily populated, Gary is as near to a ghost town as I've ever seen. Stray two or three blocks off Broadway and you're standing in almost totally abandoned neighbourhoods.
That being said, you never explore houses in Gary. At least if you value your life and possessions you don't, they are havens for the desperate, the homeless and drug addicts and all manner of other nefarious things.
The Ambassador Apartments in Gary is a former high rise apartment block built at the turn of the 20th Century when the city was booming. At the time of my visit, a lot of it's once grand facade was littering the street as catastrophic water damage had torn through the building and subsidence and decay had made the exterior extremely unstable. It is up there in the most dangerous buildings I have ever found myself in, the very real fear that if I were to lean too hard on a wall it might all cave in was constantly there.
The building was torn down in 2015, thankfully before it simply collapsed of it's own accord.
The other apartment block in Gary that is often visited is a building called the Parry-Shaw Building, a five floor block of apartments with shops at ground level, all derelict. I gave this a quick look back in 2014 but went back in 2015 for a more in depth shoot and found it to hold some little gems.
Continued...
