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Miller Theater
Owner: admin
Size: 34 Images
Created: 25-12-2007
We had the unique opportunity to photograph the Miller Theatre in Augusta, GA this past weekend thanks to JC coordinating this with the owners. We were fortunate enough to get a guided tour before we started as well which it's always awesome to know the history of a location before photographing it. A bit of history from the official Miller Theater website: The Miller Theater, opened in 1940, was at one time one of the grandest theaters in Augusta. Designed by architect Roy A. Benjamin, it reflects the typical Arte Moderne style, complete with glass blocks and curved neon marquee. It is currently the last remaining theater of this type in Georgia. In the decline of downtown Augusta in the early to mid '80s, the theater was forced to close and sat unused. Over the years, the theater had been damaged by the elements, and was on the verge of being condemned. Stars like Eddy Arnold and Katherine Hepburn have performed at or visited Augusta's Miller Theater. The world premiere of the film `The Three Faces of Eve' was held at the Miller Theater. Even in it's last days, the theater was the home for Augusta's own performing arts groups such as the Augusta Ballet and the Augusta Players. In the summer of 2005, after looking at the building for several years, Peter S. Knox IV, a local businessman and entrepreneur purchased the theater, with the vision that the Miller can be restored to serve the present and future generations. The first stage of the project will be to repair the weather-damaged roof, which has caused extensive damage to the entranceway, balcony, and to the ceiling above the lower seating area. It will commence in early to mid October, and once finished, will prevent further damage. To view pictures of the state of the roof before the repairs start, please visit the media page. The Future... What does the future hold for the Miller Theater? Only time will tell... If you wish to get involved in the project in some way, please visit the link at the top of the page labeled `Get Involved' for more information! |
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Glenwood Power Station
Owner: admin
Size: 21 Images
Created: 25-12-2007
Glenwood power station sits on the Hudson River in Yonkers, just north of The Bronx. Built in 1906, this power station once powered parts of the New York Central Railroad system. The site was shuttered in 1963 where it has stood abandoned ever since. This station was designed by the same architects who designed Grand Central Station, which is why the turbine hall has a very ornate feel to it. In 2006, the REMI company announced plans to redevelop the station into a mixed-use facility for residential and commercial use.
Glenwood is an extremely dangerous location, as almost all of the stairs are rotted out or are in the process of rotting out. On top of that, the Hudson River is flooding the basement, and part of the facade is minutes away from falling into the Hudson River. Needless to say, I had a very uneasy feeling about this place the whole time I was there.
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Riverside Power Plant
Owner: admin
Size: 38 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Bayside power plant began operating in 1927 and serving the Baltimore area’s growing demand for electricity. The plant was recently decommissioned (date unknown).
Bayside was a different experience for me. Roland and I were in downtown Baltimore waiting for a friend of ours to arrive at the airport when we decided to go check out the newly decommissioned Bayside power plant. After checking out the property, Roland decided to take the obvious step and try the front door. It opened right up. I was stunned, but I scurried inside quickly only to be greeted by the familiar smell of transformer oil filled with PCBs. It’s not a bad smell at all. In fact, it’s quite sweet smelling. After we were done exploring the original power transmission building, we decided to go and check out the newer section that contained the turbines. We were somewhat skeptical at first, because all of the lights were on and there was that uneasy buzz that electrical machines give off. This place looked as if the workers were going to come back from lunch at any moment. But they never did. In fact, it appeared that they had left one day and never came back. Their refrigerator still had food in it, projects were still scribbled up on the dry-erase boards, etc. In fact, on a bulletin board in the middle of the plant, there were pictures of the workers and amongst those pictures were some other pictures that had been added by other local explorers of themselves wearing respirators to hide their indentities! Obviously, the workers weren’t coming back anytime soon.
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Clearwater Finishing Plant
Owner: admin
Size: 84 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Clearwater Finishing Plant was built in 1929 and its main function was to add color and design to existing textiles. After filing for bankruptcy in 1989, the plant closed its doors permanently, but left a fairly large environmental mess that required a superfund designation and subsequent EPA-funded remediation due to its close proximity to local water sources and a natural spring. In 2007 the plant was purchased by private investors who plan to redevelop the facility and turn it into a light-industrial use complex.
Clearwater is what I like to call “a backup location.” If I’m bored on a Saturday afternoon and I don’t want to drive too far to explore, Clearwater is the place to go. And somehow, every time I go there, I find something new that I haven’t seen before.
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Sibley Mill
Owner: admin
Size: 114 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Sibley Mill was built in 1880 and began production in 1882 on the Augusta Canal where the Confederate Powder Works Mill was during the Civil War. After the end of the war, the powder works was dismantled to make way for the new mill. The only thing standing from the original powder works today is the obelisk chimney in front of the mill. In 1923, the Graniteville Company acquired the mill, which later became Avondale Mills. The mill ceased operations in 2006 and is currently under contract to be renovated by Clay Boardman, former owner and head of the Enterprise Mill redevelopment project. The plant generates its own hydroelectric power and sells back the surplus electricity to Georgia Power.
JC sent me an email one day telling me that had access to the Sibley Mill in Augusta and that I was free to come explore at any time with him. So I scheduled a free Saturday with him and we spent a nice hot, August day sweating to death. We didn’t take many pictures that day due to the sweltering heat, so we came back in mid-September when things had cooled off a bit and that time, we took many pictures. I spent at least 8 hours that day photographing every nook and cranny I could find. What was interesting is that the entire place has power and all the lights work, so almost none of the shots that I took required natural light. Fluorescent lights do different things to different cameras, but my trusty Rebel was able to handle the task without any problems.
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Western State Hospital
Owner: admin
Size: 38 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Western State Hospital, located in Staunton, Virginia, received its first patient in 1828. Shortly thereafter, an admissions policy had to be put into place due to high demand that restricted use of the facility to people that were of significant danger to the public and to themselves. In 1894, the site changed its name from Western Lunatic Asylum to the current Western State Hospital. Dr. Joseph Dejarnette, the namesake of the Dejarnette Children’s Asylum, was the longest-serving director of the facility, from 1905 until 1943. In the 1970’s, WSH moved its facilities a few miles up the road and the vacated buildings became known as the Staunton Correctional Center, a medium-security men’s penitentiary until its closing in the year 2003. Future plans for the site include redevelopment to generate loft apartments for the Staunton area.
WSH had become one of those “Flavor of the Week” sites that everybody was posting shots of online, so naturally, me and the boys had to go check it out. I do believe this was one of the second coldest days I have ever experienced in my life, so we had plenty of incentive to stay inside the buildings and not roam the property. The place had been cleaned out pretty well, but we were really after the infamous spiral staircase that everybody was posting their shots of online. We got an added treat when we discovered the chapel and its still intact pipe organ. This was my first time shooting medium format film as well.
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Thermafiber
Owner: admin
Size: 8 Images
Created: 14-10-2007
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St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church
Owner: admin
Size: 8 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
St. Peter & Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in the Liberty district of Pittsburgh was built in 1890 and ran its course until the mid 1990’s when the local diocese deemed it fit for closure due to declining population and parishioners in the immediate vicinity. Kevin Smith filmed his comedy “Dogma” using the exteriors of this church in parts of the movie.
It was a hot summer day in Pittsburgh and we were ready to explore the “Dogma Church.” We were on our second day of straight exploring the Pittsburgh area and we went around the back of the rectory towards the open window only to see a crackhead pop up from underneath a pile of leaves and yard debris and then scurry off, much like crackheads do. After climbing through the open window, we discovered that we had to squeeze through an open window 8 feet in the air that was only about 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall in order to actually get into the sanctuary. After we conquered that hurdle, we finally got to photographing the sanctuary, but it was so hot we were dripping wet with sweat the entire time. If there’s one thing that takes the joy out of exploring for me it’s extreme temperatures.
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St. Nicholas Coal Breakers
Owner: admin
Size: 65 Images
Created: 14-12-2007
The St. Nicholas coal breakers were built in 1932 and they closed in 1964. Amazingly, and I've never seen anything like it since, this place is in excellent condition. Most places I visit have been vandalized in some way or another. Imagine my amazement when I found an entire room full of specialty light bulbs, not one of them broken, all in the original boxes. It's almost unfathomable. It's as if the workers left yesterday, but it's been 43 years since they left. |
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Richmond Power Station
Owner: admin
Size: 21 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Richmond power station was built along the Delaware River in the early 19th century to augment the power being generated by the Delaware station down the river. The station was taken offline in 1985 and has stood silent ever since.. Richmond is one of the 3 power plants that was used in the filming of Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys” movie, starring Bruce Willis.
I love Richmond’s architecture. Where Delaware has a labyrinth feel and beautiful rooftops, Richmond has grand architecture and a beautiful control room with an even grander view. Plus, this is the plant that contains the boilers that were used as the time machine and the shower room in “12 Monkeys”, not to mention the jail scenes as well.
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Pennhurst State School
Owner: admin
Size: 38 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Pennhurst State School was built back in 1908 in the town of Spring City, PA, a small place located about 35 miles outside of Philadelphia. It was used to house the mentally and physically handicapped until 1987, when all the residents were moved to other facilities. The reason: a class-action lawsuit forced the closing of the facility due to continued patient abuse by facility staff. Philadelphia television station WCAU developed a week-long series of 5 minute clips titled “Suffer The Children”, dedicated to chronicling the history of abuse at the facility. This investigative report sparked nationwide mental health reform.
By the time I got around to finding time to explore this location, it was beginning to enter the final stages of complete and total vandalism. Though not as bad as Byberry State Hospital, Pennhurst is often referred to as “Byberry Part 2.” Roland was with me on both occasions and he confirmed that since his first visit over 2 years ago, the damage was unprecedented and saddening. Only a few artifacts remain, wheelchairs and stretchers comprising the majority of these artifacts.
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Olympia & Granby Mills
Owner: admin
Size: 59 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Olympia Mill and Granby Mill were built in 1899 and 1897, respectively. Located in what is now known as the “Olympia District” of downtown Columbia, South Carolina, the area is undergoing a regentrification process that has seen both Olympia and Granby redeveloped into loft apartments.
Olympia was the first textile mill that I had ever photographed and one of the first locations that I had ever explored. Olympia had a very impressive basement system that also served as its heating and cooling system using a system of open ductwork. Another incredible feature were the vast oak hardwood floors that were simply left to rot over the years. Many homeless had begun taking up residence in this vast mill and some had started fires in their attempts to stay warm or to scrap metal still left over.
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Ohio Edison Power Plant
Owner: admin
Size: 20 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Built in 1940, the Ohio Edison power plant was eventually shutdown in 1994, but electrical current was still flowing through this beast until 2003.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get nearly enough time to explore this place. I spent about an hour trying to find a way in and ended up cutting myself on some broken glass during the entry. This was our next to last stop after 4 straight days of exploring the Western Pennsylvania and Ohio area.
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Naval Research Laboratories Satellite Facility
Owner: admin
Size: 5 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
The Naval Research Laboratories Dishes, or NRL for short, were constructed in 1967 at an existing Nike missile base outside of Maryland. The dishes were used to transmit high quality images from the battlefront in Vietnam directly to the White House in Washington, D.C. In March of 2005, the rights to scrap the dishes were auctioned off on Ebay for a measly $136.20. As of late 2007, the dishes have been removed and are in the final stages of scrapping.
Remnants of the Cold War have always interested me greatly. It’s amazing to think of the sheer amount of money poured into a war where no shots were ever fired and we lived in fear. I remember the bomb drills in elementary school where supposedly ducking under your desk would protect you from a nuclear blast. I remember the arms race, growing up in the era of Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union. I remember fallout shelter signs on the sides of buildings. And here we are today, fighting unseen forces where Nike missile bases are rendered useless against terrorists. Oh how the times have changed. But at least we have some good Cold War relics to photograph.
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Tennessee State Prison
Owner: admin
Size: 30 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
The Tennessee State Prison was opened in 1898 to house 1,403 prisoners for its 800 cells. This immediate overcrowding never stopped and until the day it was closed in 1989, the prison was notorious for its problems and was finally shutdown after a class action lawsuit was filed and the federal courts issued an injunction against the Tennessee Department of Corrections from housing inmates in this facility. Since that time, the Tennessee Department of Corrections has been allowing the Tennessee Film Commission to rent out the facility to filmmakers and photographers. Movies such as “The Green Mile” and “The Last Castle” have been filmed here as well as various music videos throughout the years due to its close proximity to Nashville.
Matt and I had the fortunate opportunity to gain access to this facility for an entire day to photograph almost the entire facility. Unfortunately, the medical building had been deemed off limits, apparently due to abuse by VH1’s film crew when they were there shooting “Celebrity Paranormal Project.” Thanks, VH1. We really appreciate that. Either way, we had a great time and we got a lot of good shots now that the doors were wide open for us.
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Hudson River State Psychiatric Facility
Owner: admin
Size: 14 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Hudson River State Psychiatric facility was built beginning in 1868 in the upstate New York town of Poughkeepsie. This facility was built using the popular Kirkbride plan that lent itself to better patient treatment using a moral philosophy. The facility was modernized throughout the years and even contains a bowling alley. After years of partial closings, the facility closed for good in the year 2001. This site enjoys a National Historic Landmark designation that it received in 1989. Future plans for the location are to redevelop and convert the site into residential and commercial mixed-use buildings.
Having grown up in nearby Kingston, NY, the fact that my father worked at IBM right across the street from Hudson, and my uncle, a psychiatrist, had even done some work at this location, I had to see this place for myself before redevelopment began. I had a really enjoyable time skirting around the edges of rooms whose floors were completely collapsed with the exception of 1 or 2 feet on the edges. Of particular mention is the clubhouse where many a sleepover take place overlooking the facility and the beautiful Hudson River.
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TCI Ensley Steel Works
Owner: admin
Size: 19 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
TCI Ensley Steel Works was built on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama in 1889 and was the heart of steel production in the South until its closure in the 1970’s.
There’s not much left of Ensley, but what is left is a skeleton of a once great steel mill production facility that made Birmingham the “Pittsburgh of the South” at the turn of the century. I’ve always enjoyed photographing this location because it’s so easy to do and the sunsets are incredible.
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Dejarnette Children's Asylum
Owner: admin
Size: 11 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Not much is known about Dejarnette Children’s Asylum, but much has been written about its namesake, Dr. Joseph Dejarnette, the administrator of Western State Hospital, which is right down the road from this facility. Dejarnette was a pioneer of what came to be known as “Eugenics”. Among the principles of Eugenics is that of selective breeding, whereby only the most physically, mentally and racially fit are encouraged or allowed to reproduce. Dejarnette was a big fan of sterilizing the mentally or racially unfit. Dejarnette once complained the Germany was sterilizing way more patients than the U.S. and that we should catch up. Why again was a children’s asylum named after this guy?
Dejarnette was one of the creepiest places I’ve ever been. We were there on a cold, windy day and the doors and windows were slamming shut on a constant basis, which can become quite nerve-racking. I’m not a big believer in hauntings, but I do occasionally get that feeling where all the hairs on my neck stand straight up. This was one of those places that made that happen. Then I ran into Katy’s Poem. I knew instantly that this wasn’t just graffiti. You’ll notice her use of the word “levels.” This is very telling, because anyone that has any experience with group homes or inpatient care knows what levels are. Some kid high on mushrooms didn’t write this. I may be totally wrong, of course, but sometimes you just know deep down inside when you’re staring at patient art, and a lot of patients will tend to come back to asylums because unfortunately, it’s all that they knew for most of their lives.
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Central State Hospital
Owner: admin
Size: 85 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Central State Hospital was opened in 1842 in the town of Milledgeville, GA, which at one time was the Georgia state capitol until it was moved to Atlanta in 1868. The campus hosts a few mental treatment facilities as well as an active prison and VA hospital.
Central State is one of the last remaining virtually untouched mental institutions in the Southeastern United States. This is one of the few asylums that still have remaining equipment as well as a morgue. Of particular interest are the numerous x-rays and the autoclaves that are still intact throughout the buildings.
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Carrie Furnaces
Owner: admin
Size: 45 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Carrie Furnaces lay on the Monongahela River in Rankin, Pennsylvania, right outside Pittsburgh. Only furnaces number six and number seven remain today. The furnaces were once a part of the Homestead Steel Works and they began operation in 1907 and ceased operation in 1978. Future plans for the site include a national park dedicated to the history of steelmaking in Pittsburgh.
Carrie was my first steel mill and it’s still my favorite steel mill, even after having photographed Beth Steel. Even though it’s right in the middle of Pittsburgh, it’s one of the quietest places I’ve ever been and the most peaceful. After photographing this location on three separate occasions, I had the unique opportunity to have a guided tour in 2006 when the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area opened up the location for public tours. It was extremely exciting and interesting to be shown how the mill operated during its hayday by former mill employees.
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Bennett Girls School - Halcyon Hall
Owner: admin
Size: 10 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Bennett School for Girls was built back in the late 1890’s and it started out as a resort in the town of Millbrook, New York. It was later converted into a finishing school for girls in the early 1900’s, where it operated until its closure in 1977. It has stood silent for 30 years and local developers are still unsure of future plans for the site.
Millbrook, New York, is only about 20 minutes from where I grew up, so I figured while I’m in the area exploring Hudson River State Psychiatric, I might as well take a quick detour to see this Victorian masterpiece. We were allowed to park across the street at the house of one of the neighbors who was friends with a person in our exploring party. As we approached the school, an older woman stuck her head out one of the windows on the top floor and started yelling for us to come inside and join the fun. After we got inside, we were met by a group of women who were exploring the place and taking knick-knacks for a mural that one of them was working on.
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South Carolina State Hospital - Babcock Building
Owner: admin
Size: 83 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Babcock was built during the period of 1857 to 1885 by architects George Walker and Samuel Sloan. Although not officially a Kirkbride, the building was modeled very closely to Thomas Kirkbride’s moral philosophy as well as the Kirkbride architecture. This facility was given National Historic Landmark status in 1981. Future plans for the site include a mixed-use residential and commercial use complex.
Seeing as how this asylum is only 15 minutes from my house, I have had more than ample time to photograph the entire location on multiple occasions. I’ll never forget the first time I went in. It was about 11pm and we were scared to death of the state police that kept patrolling the premises every 10 minutes or so. After a few trips, we realized one day that the state had cut all funding for security on the property, so for a good two years or so, we had free reign of the place. Security was reinstated once Kevin Bacon came to town in 2006 and decided to shoot a movie there. After this, the state locked her up tight and is moving forward with redevelopment plans. But no worries, I’ve taken well over 30 trips to this beautiful location and one day, even managed to walk 33 people right in the front door with me.
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The Abyss Movie Set
Owner: admin
Size: 13 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
During the energy crisis of the 1970’s, power companies were scrambling to build new nuclear power plants all over the country. That all stopped after the Three Mile Island incident, and the Cherokee facility is no exception. After construction was abandoned in 1983, a local filmmaker bought the property from Duke Power and showed it James Cameron, who later decided to use this as the film set for his upcoming movie “The Abyss”. The site is now back under the control of Duke Power and Southern Company, who plan to redevelop the site for one of the first new nuclear power plants in over 30 years. Rumor has it that the Deepcore movie set has been destroyed and removed from the site.
Roland and I decided to check out this place on Saturday afternoon and we didn’t realize that it was a nice 2 mile hike through the woods, so we forgot to bring water. On top of that, we were dodging the security patrol that came around every 28 minutes like clockwork. But all of that trouble was well worth it as we finally got to see Deepcore in all its movie set glory.
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Bethlehem Steel
Owner: admin
Size: 38 Images
Created: 24-12-2007
Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, began operations in 1867 when they produced rails for the expanding railroads as well as armor plating for the US Navy. The company ceased operations at the Bethlehem plant in 1995 and filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after being unable to compete with cheap foreign labor. Bethlehem Steel produced the steel that helped build such landmarks as Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam and the George Washington Bridge among others. The site is currently being redeveloped for use as a casino by the Sands Casino Corporation with an expected completion date of 2009. The plan is to dedicate half the site to a casino and the other half to a sort of historic center.
I had been wanting to shoot Beth Steel for a long time, and I finally got the opportunity in July of 2007. A local explorer that lives not far from the site and who explores the site on a regular basis was kind enough to give us a guided tour and help us dodge the on-site workers and security patrol. The sheer immensity of this place was astounding. I had shot Carrie Furnaces a few years back and at the time, was blown away by the size of that place. But Beth Steel was larger. Much larger. It was as if I had come to the Disney World of abandoned buildings. It was so large, I didn’t know where to start, much less stop.
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Delaware Power Station
Owner: admin
Size: 28 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Delaware power station was built along the Delaware River in 1920 to help with the growing power needs in the Northeast cities that were rapidly outgrowing their current infrastructure. The station was decommissioned in 2004 when its remaining turbines were silenced forever. Delaware is one of the 3 power plants that was used in the filming of Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys” movie, starring Bruce Willis.
Delaware remains, to this day, one of my most favorite locations to photograph and explore. Most people say they prefer the Richmond plant up the river to Delaware, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Delaware is a labyrinth that takes days to manuever and photograph. Although the turbines have been removed, the turbine hall is almost twice the size of that of Richmnond’s turbine hall. Also, this power plant has the unique feature of containing a basketball court. That, and the rooftops are top notch, providing a beautiful view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
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Westport Power Generating Station
Owner: admin
Size: 37 Images
Created: 23-12-2007
Westport power generating station was built shortly before the Bayside power plant right across the river in Baltimore around the year 1906. It ceased operation in 1993 and as of late 2007, demolition has begun to make way for redevelopment. This is also one of the 3 power plant locations used in Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys” movie starring Bruce Willis. Until the Pentagon was built, Westport was the largest concrete structure ever built.
Westport’s best part has to be the coal cars that reside on the top level of the main building. After you finish climbing 6 or 7 flights of catwalk stairs, you reach the firm foundation of concrete, only to be frightened once again by the catwalks that hover over the cavernous coal hoppers. I think one of my scariest moments ever was putting my foot through a stair about 6 stories up at Westport. Yeah, that’s one you’ll never forget. But the coal cars are definitely worth the climb.
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