Tag:

abandoned

Abandoned Observatory

by Kaylah Stroup September 3, 2014

The observatory is another building that was on my radar long before I moved to Cleveland. I actually ended up there once by accident when I got lost on my way back from Cleveland. Sometimes the MapQuest app gets me allllll mixed around, and that was one of the times it actually turned out okay. I parked my car, got out and snapped a few photos. Once again, never thought that some day I’d be inside of it with my best friends (check out our super cute group shot here!)

The observatory is probably one of the coolest buildings in Cleveland, in my opinion. Its size is deceiving from the outside. It doesn’t look that large but once inside you realize, it’s quite large and it’s a maze!

In the 1950s Cleveland’s light pollution began to make research impossible from this location. Eventually the building was sold in 1983, abandoned, and remained neglected until 2005 when a couple who planned on turning it into their residence bought the property for a mere 115k. Those plans were soon thwarted when the new owner was convicted of mortgage fraud. Since then the building has just been sitting and rotting.

xoxo

abandoned auto parts + apartments

by Kaylah Stroup August 27, 2014

One of many buildings we explored on our grand adventure day was formerly an auto parts store on the lower level with apartments upstairs. We’ve actually all been itching to hit small buildings as opposed to the big factory buildings. Factories are interesting, but normally they’re pretty gutted. Scrappers have stolen anything and everything worth money, equipment is gone, and they’re just big empty buildings. Small buildings are normally less ravaged in that sense. They have more things left in them, including personal items that help tell a story about the building’s former life.

This place was FULL of stuff. The only other thing I had seen like it was at the Salton Sea. The floor was absolutely covered in the downstairs. You couldn’t see the actual flooring at all. There were tons of stuffed animals, clothes, boxes, as well as miscellaneous papers. Surprisingly, it somehow didn’t smell.

xoxo

Ps. Did you spot the GIF?

Six months in Cleveland – the celebration!

by Kaylah Stroup August 19, 2014

Last Thursday I celebrated six months living in Cleveland, and boy oh boy did I celebrate! Jeff, , and I set out around in 8am to do some exploring. We were on a roll so after each building we’d all be saying “just one more…” Just one more ended up being the three of us exploring eleven abandoned buildings, nearly half of which were new ones to all of us, in fourteen hours with one short lunch break. It was one of the most fun days ever.

I have so many photos from the day to share over the next few weeks, I’ll be breaking them up by location. First I’m going to start with our last stop of the day. It’s actually kind of sweet, this building is a little bit special to me for a few reasons. I had seen it from the freeway the day I bought my car. It stuck out to me because of a piece of graffiti on the side that I really liked. I wanted to photograph it so bad but couldn’t imagine getting off getting off the freeway, venturing into the city, and getting close enough to the building to shoot it. Remember I’m from the country, cities were absolutely foreign and terrifying to me a little over a year ago. I never would have thought that months later I would inside that building taking pictures, exploring with friends, and watching the sunset from the rooftop. It’s neat how things come full circle like that. Funny thing is, I still haven’t photographed the outside like I wanted to so long ago. Haha!

While we were up on the roof I practiced my night photography skills. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I mean, I understand the basics of how to take great photos at night, but I’m still trying to master it. The first photo is my favorite. The sky and clouds were so perfect that night, it was almost like it never got completely dark outside. Had we not all been absolutely beat from running around all day I’m sure we could have stayed up there for hours.

Can’t wait to share more photos from this day!
xoxo

Abandoned Auditorium

by Kaylah Stroup August 13, 2014

On my birthday, Jeff and I went to one of the places we went on our first date. It’s kind of funny actually, I was SO incredibly shy he didn’t know whether or not I was having a good time. He swears I showed a total lack of emotion that day. I didn’t even pull out my camera once. I was overwhelmed, in a really good way. I was with this cute guy who took me somewhere I thought was incredibly cool. I was looking at all these spots in the building thinking “oh man, this would be a great spot for a first kiss!” At one point we even went up on the roof, and I thought “this is it, he’s gonna do it now!” Nope. Haha! Anyway, ever since then I’ve been itching to go back there and shoot it.

Two main things I’ve noticed about this building:
1. There are a lot of shoes in this place. Basically every room has at least one shoe in it. And they’re awful shoes. They remind me of being seven or eight and getting all the shoes my aunt wanted to put in the family garage sale, just ugly bridesmaid shoes. (Totally loved them when I was that young though, nothing better than dress up shoes! I mean, c’mon!)
2. Weird chairs! Are they melting? Jeff says they’ve slowly been doing this for a long time. What exactly is happening here?!
xoxo

ruins + mushrooms

by Kaylah Stroup August 9, 2014

Not too long ago Jeff took me to the ruins of an old power plant that just so happen to be next to a beautiful waterfall. It just occurred to me while looking at the draft for this post that I didn’t even take one photo of the whole thing. Hah! Guess I was a bit distracted by the abundance of mushrooms.

Once again, I’m amazed by all the little things you could miss if you don’t look hard enough. Ohio is a pretty darn awesome state that certainly doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
xoxo

Sunrise in Cisco

by Kaylah Stroup July 31, 2014

Remember in this post when I mentioned that the very first stop on our roadtrip was a ghost town in Utah but my film photos didn’t turn out so hot, and I wasn’t exactly pleased with my digital ones either but maybe the photos really aren’t that bad but are kind of overshadowed by the photos I am really pleased with from the trip? Yeah, that! I went back through all of the photos, edited them, and actually ended up really liking them. So, here are my photos from Cisco, Utah.

According to what I could find in my brief attempt at figuring out what happened to this town, Cisco was settled in the 1880’s and served as water-refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Cisco met it’s demise when diesel and electric locomotives superseded the steam locomotive. The town is only mere minutes off the highway so vandals rapidly accelerated the town’s journey into decrepitude. And perhaps it will mean more to you than it will to me, but Cisco was featured in Thelma and Louise, as well as Vanishing Point. Neither are movies special to me, but I can definitely appreciate the fact that might be why someone would be interested in this place.

I still hard time believing this really happened. Not just our amazing luck of finding a ghost town at sunrise the very first morning on the road, but the whole trip in general. When I think about it for too long I get a little teary eyed. That was honestly one of the best weeks of my life thus far. I don’t know, maybe it’s not really everyone’s thing but if ever ever ever get the chance to spend a week exploring somewhere with someone you love or even by yourself, DO IT.
xoxo

Updating to add that three years later, this is where Jeff proposed!

burnt + abandoned factory

by Kaylah Stroup July 28, 2014

Not too long ago Jeff and I found ourselves inside a new building. Not a new building new building. Quite the opposite actually, this one had been abandoned and even caught on fire at one point. This is just one of the very few we’ve gotten to explore for the first time together. The building was fairly small, at least compared to a lot of the other places I’ve been in. Inside there were three floors. The first was dark, damp, and full of miscellaneous furniture. The second floor was full of chairs, and the third just had desks. The first floor seemed to be the one most affected by the fire. Charred desks were scattered about. The second and third floor had their own problems, namely reeeally really sketchy floors. I’m honestly surprised one us didn’t have at least a foot go through.

Like I mentioned above, the first floor was dark, and damp which is the absolute perfect condition for mushrooms to grow. I’ve spotted mushrooms in abandoned buildings before. It’s always exciting but there were SO many here. In the past I probably would have admired them briefly before deciding it was way too dark to shoot and moved on. Buuut I am learning my camera, and I have someone who is always encouraging me to push myself. With the flashlight from my phone and the perfect camera settings I was able to shoot these photos. I’m obsessed with them. I couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off my face after I saw what I captured. I love that the mushrooms look like they’re about to be abducted by aliens!

xoxo

abandoned truck stop

by Kaylah Stroup July 24, 2014

Recently Jeff and I stumbled upon this incredible abandoned restaurant / gas station / truck stop / former motel. From the road it just looked like it would be a quick stop but we really had no idea how awesome it would actually be. I’m not one hundred percent happy with all of these photos but I do think there are a few winners in the bunch, and the others just help give a better idea of what this place was like.

I’d really like to head back to this place to shoot it again. Like I said, I didn’t expect the building to be as awesome as it was so I was kind of having a difficult time concentrating on photographing it. I just kept wanting to see what was around every corner. Not to mention it was fairly dark inside, and I didn’t have my tripod on me.

xoxo

abandoned amusement park

by Kaylah Stroup July 17, 2014

Hidden behind some homes in a sleepy little town remains the skeleton of once booming amusement park. The park was open for one hundred years, opening in 1878, and eventually closing in 1978. Since then mother nature has been doing her best to take the park back over. There isn’t much left still standing in the park, and according to a list I found online it seems something else is getting demolished (or burnt down!!?) every few years. I feel pretty lucky to have been able to see what was left at this point even though most of the larger things are now gone forever.

After we left the park I text my mom a photo of the ferris wheel. When I told her where it was she said she recalled going there when as she was younger. I asked if she had any photos to which her response was that she was “14 or 15, and more interested in boys at the park than taking pictures.” I also asked if she rode the ferris wheel, she said she didn’t remember but I could say she did if that made my blog post more interesting. Haha. I suppose there’s a great possibility that she did ride if even if she was too distracted by cute boys to remember. That’s a really neat thought to me, that my mom probably rode that ferris wheel or one of the roller coasters that’s since been demolished. I enjoy this hobby for a multitude of reasons but one of my favorite things is definitely hearing from people who had a personal connection to a place. I’m not quite old enough to have places that I’ve really spent any amount of time in become neglected to the point where they’re just abandoned. But I hope that someday when a building or place I have some connection to is in complete disrepair that someone will take photos to share.
xoxo

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