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abandoned

abandoned greenhouse : round three

by Kaylah Stroup October 26, 2015

Last Sunday, as part of our anniversary adventure, Jeff and I swung by the abandoned greenhouse. We’ve visited in the winter, in the spring and I’ve been not so patiently waiting for the perfect time to go see it in the fall. Alas, it wasn’t as colorful as I had been hoping and dreaming it would be. …At least that’s what I thought while we were there. It wasn’t until I got home, sorted through the photos, and compared them to past visit’s photos that I realized there was some definite color going on in there. It’s kind of funny because that was the same reaction I had the last time we were there.

It’s hard to go into a place like this, that doesn’t really have too many objects to photograph, for the third time and try to find new things to shoot. I honestly wasn’t sure I got anything I really liked but the more I look at them the more I appreciate them, especially that first shot. It’s easily my favorite of everything I shot.

I didn’t plan very well in terms of taking photos that I would easily be able to replicate on future visits to compare the differences. I did take a very similar shot of the car each time though. I found it interesting to open each of the greenhouse posts (links above + below) in a separate tab, scroll to the car shot and click back and forth. My urge to shoot this place in the snow isn’t all that strong considering what I mentioned above about struggling to find new shots of this place but I feel like I need to take that car shot with snow.

One of my favorite things about this spot is that it could easily be overlooked. It’s in a fairly rural area, surrounded by fields, and if you aren’t paying attention you may just drive by it. It could be mistaken for just a large overgrown area. There are a few spots where you can see the glass paneling but otherwise it really doesn’t look like too much from the outside. After entering it’s like being in a jungle. It’s kind of weird because you’re inside of a building but this building is just a frame that is covered in vines. It’s like being outside but you’re inside. …It’s also like I’m trying way too hard to explain this! Heh!

Jeff and I had planned to take outfit photos together and make it a little tradition to do that for every six month anniversary. I was having one of those days though where after every photo I found something “wrong” with myself. We didn’t end up shooting too many of us but I managed to find a few that I just adore. So maybe every six months we won’t get a full outfit post but here’s to hoping we can at least get an adorably cheesy shot together.
xoxo

Find previous abandoned green house posts here: winter without snow, and in the spring.
Unrelated to the greenhouse but way, way cute – Mine + Jeff’s one year anniversary photos.

Post Apocalyptic Columbus

by Kaylah Stroup October 19, 2015

I’ve never been someone who though the idea of an apocalypse was cool. That kind of sounds silly because I’m sure that most people don’t think the idea of an apocalypse is “cool” but what I mean is that post apocalyptic movies and books don’t necessarily spark my interest. They aren’t something I search out. Obviously I have a love for all things abandoned. I love to see what things look like after humans have left them behind. So I guess in a way I am totally enthralled with “post apocalyptic” stuff.

Over the weekend Jeff had to run to Columbus for some business. He invited me to tag along. I agreed to go on the promise that we would find something to shoot down there. It can be kind of hard to find abandoned things to explore in a city that you’re not familiar with and we didn’t have all day to search for spots. I knew that so I was trying to keep an open mind about whatever we did stumble upon.

After driving around a little bit Jeff remembered a spot he had recently seen a photo of. We did a bit of research on our phones and as luck would have it we were actually less than five minutes away. It’s a small stretch of abandoned highway that has a perfect view of Columbus. The only way to describe this spot was post apocalyptic. It’s impossible to see the skyline peeking out from behind the over grown highway and not feel like you’re in the Walking Dead.

This was my second stretch of abandoned highway (the first being the abandoned PA turnpike) and the one thing I cannot get enough of is that center line. I don’t what it is. Maybe because those lines just prove what this used to be. It’s not just a hunk of concrete with cracks in it where plants have begun to sprout, it’s a road!

After leaving that spot we hit Thurman’s Cafe for lunch. My burger was pretty awesome but dude, those onion straws were what really won my heart. I could really go for some right now… From there were headed to some abandoned trains cars we found online while researching.

Not our most exciting adventure but an awesome one nonetheless! These two spots were way cool. It’s always fun to find weird little forgotten spots that are just barely off the beaten path.
xoxo

The Rubber Duck Factory Revisited

by Kaylah Stroup September 28, 2015

Last Sunday Jeff, Jason, and I attended a lecture on Cleveland history. We learned the history of a handful of buildings downtown, and ate lots of snacks. It was pretty awesome. Not only was what we were learning interesting I absolutely love seeing people talk about their interests. It was wildly obvious this man loved researching our city and that was enough to get me excited.

After the lecture I was feeling a serious urge to get into something abandoned. I guess it really just comes down to the fact that passionate people spark my passions. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what I love about photographing abandoned buildings but something I really enjoy is documenting changes.

Something during the lecture that piqued my interest was when he was talking about this headstone and how he was really glad someone had photographed it way back when because it is no longer legible. It’s just a worn down obelisk now. He mentioned that a lot of things can last for a while, they might stay in the same condition for hundred years then all of a sudden in the next fifty go rapidly down hill. I’ve found abandoned buildings to be a prime example of that.

After the lecture, while waiting on a friend to get off work, we walked over to “The Rubber Duck Factory” just to waste a little bit of time. I hesitated to even take any photos of the place because none will ever been fun as the ones from my previous visit but then I thought about why I loved photographing these places so much and what he had said about deterioration of things.

This old warehouse is in no way, shape or form as significant as a headstone but it’s crazy to see how quickly it’s just crumbling away like the headstone I mentioned above. So much has changed since my last visit; furniture is gone, someone has been dumping shrubbery, there is tons more graffiti, the roof in one of the largest sections has collapsed and most noticeably… I couldn’t find a single rubber duck. My last visit we gathered nearly five hundred of these dirty ducks. I checked all the spots I knew I hide ducks and didn’t see even one.

It’s funny to me that now anytime someone goes there they’ll be left wondering “Why in the world is this called The Rubber Duck Factory?” I love that I was able to go there and document a time where there was an abundance of ducks because no one else will be able to do that again. …Unless the ducks show up again…? I guess that’s not totally out of the realm of possibility. Maybe they’ve just been kidnapped!? Oh man, someone should have totally turned this into a puzzle complete with a ransom note. Opportunity lost!

Like I said, this building isn’t all that important in Cleveland history but it’s certainly fun to record little things like this. Soon it will be demolished so that condos can be built and all that will be left will be the memories and photos myself and other photographers have captured.
xoxo

Find my post from my first visit here.

Sept 27, two days after drafting up this post, the Rubber Duck Factory actually burnt down. Such a crazy coincidence.

abandoned in the desert 2015

by Kaylah Stroup September 14, 2015

Last year Jeff and I took a pretty epic road trip (six states and 3,204 miles of driving). During that week we stumbled upon abandoned building after abandoned building in the middle of the desert, this year’s trip was no different. There were so many. Driving along roads less traveled and even the highway it’s so exciting to look out and spot these places, just waiting for us. There is just this rush of excitement, and a sense of discovery. Some of my favorite memories from both of those trips, and our relationship in general, include these places.

There’s just something about abandoned buildings in the desert. They have a different feel, a different smell, just another vibe altogether. In the Midwest abandoned buildings are musty, and most suffer from water damage. The freezing and thawing year after year ages them so much more quickly. They generally just feel rotten. In the desert you could almost describe the buildings as “crispy”. Everything is sun bleached and dried out.

I find the couch in the photo of above particularly funny. I really really don’t understand how it’s in such great condition. I guess it once again goes back to the lack of precipitation out there because I can say without a doubt if that thing was in Ohio it would be covered in moss at the very least.

I’m missing the desert a lot today. …But that’s nothing new. I look forward to visiting again, in the mean time I’ll just be dealing with all the feels that these photos leave me with.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

by Kaylah Stroup August 24, 2015

I spent my twenty fifth birthday in a mental hospital – one that was abandoned, purchased at auction, partially restored, and now offers tours! I’m talking about the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. It’s a little over two hours away from Oglebay, where we stayed the night, so it was kind of must. We woke up fairly early, ate the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had, and made our way there. Although I’m not a huge fan of guided tours (okay, I kind of hate them) and that’s all they offer – we had to see this place!

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was in operation from 1864 until 1994. It was originally built to house only 250 patients but in the 1950’s peaked at 2,600 patients. Like the majority mental hospitals that were open at the time, there are many stories of wrong doing. An investigation in 1949 found unruly patients locked in cages, lobotomies being performed with ice picks, and conditions so poor they were surely the cause of death in many patients.

This building has suffered it’s fair share of abuse as well. In 1935 a patient started a fire in his closet that destroyed six male wards and caused one of the cupolas to fall through the roof. It sat abandoned from the time it closed, in 1994, until 2007 when it was bought at auction for 1.5 million dollars. Of course, much like any abandoned building, many explorers found their way in to photograph this gorgeous building, and in 1999 vandals did quite a number on the interior…but it’s probably not what you’re thinking. All four floors of the building were damaged by police officers playing paintball!

The building’s condition had deteriorated to the point where it’s survival was threatened. A dedicated team of staff and volunteers are now committed to restoring it to it’s former grandeur. Our guide pointed out a few things in the main lobby that they had restored and it’s apparent how much time and love they’re putting into this place. One of the other people on our tour asked “Are you ever going
to fully restore it? Or just leave it looking abandoned?” I don’t recall exactly what she said but I caught something about how they would probably leave some sections fixed up just enough to be safe because photographers would otherwise be outraged. Jeff and I shot each other knowing looks. Heaven knows I love me some peeling paint!

One of my favorite things I saw were actually the stone faces on the exterior of one of the buildings. It is said that spirits cannot come in through the front door so they put these ugly faces above the back door to scare away any spirits who might wander in the back. The uglier the better. While I don’t believe in “spirits”, I do LOVE folklore. After walking back in the building Jeff whispered “Can we get some of those for our house?” I had already been thinking of asking him the same thing!

After the tour you’re allowed to visit a wing of the main building that’s basically a museum. There are tools, old photos, headstones, and even some of the former patients artwork. It was a great way to end the tour, especially since I wanted more. We took the shortest tour since I hate guided tours so much (and of course, time constraints) but I was way into it! I feel like they could probably rope people into the longer tour at the end of the short tours by simply offering to let them pay the difference and continue on with the group.

Like I mentioned, I am not a fan of guided tours but this one was well worth it. Our tour guide was knowledgeable, kind, and seemed to actually be interested in what she was doing. Maybe I’ve only been on guided tours with poor guides in the past? We only took the first floor tour but I would love to go back to take the cemetery tour. It’s not my thing, but if you’re into ghost tours they offer those year round as well. I definitely recommend stopping in if you’re anywhere in the area! It was waaaay cool to be able to finally visit such an incredible building with such amazing history.
xoxo

Death Valley National Park

by Kaylah Stroup July 29, 2015

I don’t know what I was expecting from a place called Death Valley but somehow I was still shocked by the conditions in the park. At the visitors center we stood beside a sign that read 119 degrees Fahrenheit, which is easily one of the hottest temperatures I’ve ever experienced. Why we had to visit at the hottest time of the year is beyond me but I’m definitely glad we went. It still blows my mind that just a day before we were on the coast where I was worried I hadn’t brought enough warm clothes.

We did a lot of driving in Death Valley National Park, and not too much else since we’re both absolute babies in the heat. One of the few spots we stopped was at Mesquite Sand Dunes. It was insanely hot. So hot that I could feel the heat through my shoes which I thought was crazy. After roaming around in the sand a bit shooting photos we scurried back to the car. We sat down, turned on the air, chugged some water, and realized there was a funny smell in the car.

“Do you smell burning rubber?”
“I think it might be my shoes…?”
Lifts foot as close to face as possible in the car. “Yep!”

That sand was so hot our shoes were actually melting. The park’s brochure actually said of the eighteen heat related deaths in the park sine 2000 three of them occurred in the sand dunes. My photos don’t really seem to capture the size of the dunes and just how expansive the area was. But to see this place in person and experience heat that oppressive that fact really isn’t all that shocking.

The goal was to not spend too much time in the park since we needed to get out of the area before we got too tired. Every other night that we had tried to sleep in the car this trip it was miserable. The last thing we wanted was to be sleeping in the car in this heat. After the dunes we cruised to the visitor center to get stamps in our National Parks passport. We sat inside looking over the other main parts of the park trying to figure out what else we wanted to see. Death Valley National Park is massive, it actually has more miles of roads than any other national park. Sadly everything else we were interested in visiting suggested having some sort of fancy pants all terrain tire that our rental most definitely didn’t have. Guess we’ll just have to go back another time to see The Racetrack…

We made one last stop in the park, at Zabriskie Point. You walk up this steep hill to the an overlook where no matter which way you turn there is a gorgeous view. It kind of seemed like all the other visitors in the park that day we’re following the same agenda as us – only get out of the car when absolutely necessary. This overlook, and the visitor center were the only place we really saw anyone else. Even with the crowd at Zabriskie Point it was a perfect last stop. It was so beautiful you could easily just tune everyone else out.

Right outside of the park there were tons of abandoned buildings. It was a busy-ish area and a great majority of them were fenced off so we passed. We did manage to find another outside the fenced area that we stopped at. Just a small shell of a building but I love the photos of it nonetheless. I actually have a whole post of abandoned things we visited in the desert that I’ll share another day. The desert is a wonderful place!

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Ballarat, CA

by Kaylah Stroup July 23, 2015

Fish Rocks, Salt Wells Canyon, CA

Cell phone service in the desert is hit or miss. I either had all my bars or nothing but while I did have service I was browsing Roadside America for spots to hit. That’s how we found Ballarat. Formerly a supply point for the mines nearby, Ballarat is now a ghost town. In it’s heyday it was home to nearly 500 people. It had 7 saloons, a jail, a school, a handful of hotels and more. There isn’t much left anymore, just a few rusted out all cars, shells of buildings, and a cemetery.

I was a bit nervous to visit since it’s a little ways off the main road. I was worried it would be home to someone who might be offended by our visit. A sign near the entrance of the town read as follows…

“this is a free zone take any kind of photos you want. camp party make movies etc no harm. nobody cares feel free. learn nothen setting in your car the friendly zone welcome to ballarat ghost town…”

After seeing that I felt free to roam…

The thing I was most excited about in Ballarat was the cemetery. I’d been on the lookout for an old desert cemetery since the last trip and we had yet to stumble across one. I saw photos of this one on Roadside America and that was actually one of the biggest reasons I wanted to visit. This one was smaller than I had been hoping for but still so awesome. It had such a gorgeous view and it was just a world of difference from the cemeteries we have here. And this headstone?! Get out! Easily one of the most interesting I’ve ever seen in person.

We didn’t stay too long in Ballarat, it was hot and we were both anxious to get into the national park but it was definitely a great stop.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Salton Sea of the Midwest – Revisited

by Kaylah Stroup June 16, 2015

Twice in the past few months I’ve shared photos from the place Jeff and I have dubbed the Salton Sea of the Midwest. (See here + here) On Memorial Day a big group of us headed out to catch this place at sunrise…except we were running late. Typical. Regardless, the lighting was still beautiful and even more than taking photos I enjoyed spending time with my friends. There were a few times I put my camera down, forgetting to take photos just to laugh, and tell stories. It’s a rare occasion any more that the majority of us get out together so I found myself just trying to soak it all up.

Okay, so taking photos was still absolutely awesome. I was blown away by how green this place was. Our first visit was at the very end of winter. There was still some snow on the ground and obviously nothing was growing. This time the amount of growth actually made the place seem even more abandoned than when everything was dead. Vines covered the insides of trailers, crawling their way across couches and out of windows. Toward the end of the road there were even some trailers so completely overgrown with trees, and other plants if you weren’t specifically looking for them you could easily miss them.

The ever important groupshot.

Two other things to note about this adventure;
1. I have never seen more bugs in my life than on this small abandoned stretch. Seriously, just like a swarm of tiny little annoying bugs. Every spider web was just covered in them. Walking down the road was bad enough but as soon as you ventured off the path and into the tall weeds you had better have your mouth shut and be prepared to get assaulted. Bugs. everywhere.
2. It smelled. BAD. I know I’ve read a lot of articles about how bad the Salton Sea stinks (just one more thing this place has in common with it) but I honestly don’t recall it really being that bad. This place, on the other hand, was just rank. As soon as you thought you were getting used to it the stench would hit you again.

Grossness aside, it was a most excellent time, and I even picked myself a beautiful little bouquet to take home.

There were plans of bringing a grill, cooking some food, and hanging out a while but the early morning rush resulted in a grill being brought but no food. We ended up staying just long enough to shoot some pictures. Maybe another time…
xoxo

abandoned party supply company

by Kaylah Stroup June 11, 2015

Whenever Jesi comes to Cleveland to hang out I always rack my brain to think of awesome places to take her. This city has no shortage of abandoned buildings but I want to take her places that will just wow her. The abandoned “rubber duck factory” was a hit and something that I felt would be super hard to top. My only real idea for our adventure was a building formerly home to a company that supplied window displays for large companies, and rented decorations for parties. The company closed in 2009 after nearly 80 years in business. The internet boom basically killed the need for a place like this, people can now order these things from the comfort of their own home instead of buying locally.

Before closing the company held a liquidation sale but clearly they weren’t able to get rid of everything. This building is chock-full of left over decorations. There are three floors, not including the basement, that are just absolutely packed with things. The floors seem to be somewhat organized by holiday or theme. The top level is Christmas. There are boxes upon boxes, still unopened, of tinsel, ornaments, even trees!

The second floor seems to have a lot of craft supplies. Massive bolts of now moldy fabric, and fake flowers litter the floor. Two large cutting tables sit on one side of the room. Shelving units now hold a few random bottles and an empty pack of cigarettes, signs others come here to a have their own party.

Sometime after closing a portion of the building caught fire. That and some pretty extensive water damage make the floors on one whole side of the building pretty dangerous to traverse across. Despite the fact this was my third time inside the building I still haven’t covered a lot of ground simply because it’s not worth the risk of falling through the floor. There are also lots of really really dark areas in the building, which I don’t venture into either. What can I say? When it comes right down to it, I’m a huge weenie.

Even excluding those huge portions of the building I may never see, it’s incredible the wide range of things there are to discover. I understand that a lot of times it’s easier just to leave things behind especially in a situation like this where your business goes belly up but this just seems like such a huge waste. I can’t even imagine how much money worth of merchandise is still in this building, the great majority of it non-salvageable now.

My very first visit to this building was late at night during a storm. The rain was just pouring into the building like there was no roof at all. Even though it’s been abandoned for a while now but I can’t imagine it’ll stay up much longer. Ohio weather is rough on structures that have no one left to fend for them. Although I say it in nearly every abandoned post, I do look forward to visiting this building again in the future to see how it decays.
xoxo

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