abandoned

Last week Jeff and I got out and explored a few abandoned homes. I do believe they were my first real homes. Earlier in the year I was able to explore a handful abandoned trailers in Bombay Beach but being as those were part of the decline of the whole area it’s kind of a different vibe. At Bombay Beach the whole area was in disrepair. The entire town was essentially in ruins. These homes, alone, surrounded by churches, and businesses are easily overlooked, partially due to the growth around them. Trees, brush, and weeds have taken over the areas surrounding both. If you blink while driving by, you’ll miss them. In the first; a spacious kitchen, large living room with gorgeous natural light and a fireplace, a small den, two bedrooms, built in cabinets. All left for mother nature to take back over.

 In the second house; two bedrooms, a gorgeous retro kitchen, living room, quaint sun porch, large upstairs loft, and a brightly colored bathroom. 

Houses are weird to explore, so many emotions. I like them for the same reasons I like exploring any other place, I like to document. These are places that meant something to someone, a home especially. Clothes in the closet, board games in the living room, food in the pantry. Those belonged to someone, they belonged to a family. It’s hard to convey all the different emotions when you see these things. I’ve seen thousands of photos of abandoned homes online but there’s nothing like actually being in one. I’m sure with every home I find I’ll become a bit more desensitized to it but only time will tell…
xoxo

It was originally built in 1913, then rebuilt in 1928. The church closed in the 80s but wasn’t completely abandoned until 2002. In those twelve years the building has essentially been gutted. The stained glass is gone, scrappers have long since taken all the metal, and most recently vandals have taken to writing dumb crap on the walls. It just makes my blood boil to see people painting obscenities on walls. STOP IT. In all reality though, for being probably one of the most popular spots to explore in Cleveland, it’s not in that bad of shape. I mean, it still has a roof! Guess they just don’t build ’em like they used to.

My first visit was fairly brief but on this one I took my time and poked around the church a little more. I ventured into the basement, and even up a very old ladder to the top of one of the steeples where I found even more ladders. The wooden one shown below took you to the very top of the steeple on the outside. I passed on that, partly because the floor wasn’t in the best condition and the last thing I want to do is fall through the floor of a big old church while climbing a ladder. But I’m still happy to have seen a view that people who have lived in the neighborhood their whole life have never seen.

xoxo

A little while back, on my six month in Cleveland anniversary, I visited a new to me abandoned building. I’ve been holding on to these photos while I tried my hardest to research more about the building. I’m finally throwing in the towel. I can’t seem to find much at all. This is an abandoned factory that did metal plating, aside from that I have no dates or history. It was still an interesting building, and I’m rather pleased with my photos so here they are…

All the machinery has been removed since this place closed its doors but the upstairs offices have tons of paperwork, books, and records strewn about. That kind of stuff is always my favorite but I am always curious who was the one to make such a mess in these places. Was it a former employee trying to prove a point before he left the place for the last time? Young kids just having fun making a mess? I mean, you can’t deny it would be fun to just go nuts in place like that, let out a little steam.
xoxo


PS. If you’re as curious as I was when I first saw it, that “hot!!!” file tab literally had nothing exciting in it. I was hoping for juicy office gossip, or maybe some nudie pictures (we found some fairly graphic ones in another part of the building!) but it was just regular old paper work! Booooring.

The first unit of this plant was built in 1924. It produced 2,500 barrels of cement per day. After another year another unit was built and production doubled. In 1955 the company announced it’s plan to expand yet again, this time to be able to produce 11,000 barrels per day. During the 1960’s this factory was the largest in the state and employed many of the residents of the surrounding area.

In 1973 the plant’s parent company decided to sell in an effort to get rid of all non-essential businesses.  It was all down hill from here. The plant went through a handful of new owners in quick succession. In the 80’s there were strikes, and eventually in 1993 the company declared bankruptcy and closed down. A few years passed and the EPA stepped in to clean up the area. A great majority of the buildings on the property were demolished.

Since then what’s remaining has been left to rot. Most recently the building has been used by local military and police for training purposes. Much of the land around the plant has been declared off-limits by the EPA after large sinkholes began to develop.

It’s actually pretty crazy to think that so many buildings on the property were demolished. This is easily one of the largest places I have ever explored. It is MASSIVE. Jesi, and I barely made a dent on the place before declaring we were both too hot, and tired to do anything else here.

Although it was almost completely cleared out inside with nearly everything gone, it was still a super interesting building. One of my favorite parts was all the “no spitting’ signs painted on the walls. There were a handful of them throughout the building, particularly near stairwells. It’s kind of hilarious to me that it was such an issue they had to do that.

The second floor was covered in stalactites, and stalagmites. I was particularly interested in the stalagmites covering the floor. They had such a strange appearance. They looked fluffy, almost like shaving cream or something of a similar consistency.

I’d like to get back here sometime in the near future and finish checking out the area. There was so much we didn’t get to see!
xoxo

 What these photos aren’t showing you is all the trash in the building. Actually, you can kind of see it off in the distance in the reflection photo! The majority of these photos were taken on the outside edges of the building, as well as on the second floor. In the middle of this place, on the bottom floor, it’s just all trash. Trash piled higher than your head. More trash than I’ve ever seen anywhere other than a dump. Surprisingly it didn’t really smell all that bad. Although I imagine on a hot summer day it would be intolerable.

xoxo