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Ever see an impressive derelict structure and wonder just how a building so elegant, sizable or centrally located could be abandoned? There are amazing abandonments all over the world, but some may be closer than you think. Many are even located right in the heart of major cities like New York or Los Angeles and are decades or even centuries old. From zoos to steel mills, prisons to offices complexes and monasteries to cemeteries here are 7 abandoned wonders of the USA.
Rochester, New York: Built in the early 1800s, Mt. Hope Cemetery was the first munipical cemetery in the United States with graves older than the official graveyard itself. Such famous persons as Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas are among those buried there in everything from lawn crypts and columbariums to family mausoleums. It seems strange, then, that the chapel at such an historically significant location would be abandoned to the elements, though it remains elegant even in its disrepair.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Western Penitentiary is over a century old and was finally abandoned a few years back, only to be reopened a few months ago. The site was, in a way, one of the world’s most temporary abandonments, left in pristine condition during its period of disuse and lending itself to the surreal experience of a recently working prison for visitors. Originally used in the 1800s to house Confederate Army war prisoners, it is now used for medium to low security containment of inmates requiring drug and alcohol treatment.
Lacawana, New York: The Bethlehem Steel Company was once the second largest steel mill in the United States. They manufactured everything from railroad cars and bridge and building parts to World War II battleships. After nearly 150 years in operation, the company finally declared bankruptcy less than a decade ago and has left behind a series of remarkably intact abandonments.
North Brother Island, New York: This abandoned 20-acre island sits amazingly close to the bustling center of New York City yet is completely unused. It was home to a hospital in the 19th Century, then housed veterans after World War II before becoming one of the first drug treatment centers for teens in the 1950s. Corruption and failure caused the facility to close and the island has since been off limits to the public, though some urban explorers have made their way onto it anyway. The island was also the site of an infamous shipwreck in 1904 in which over 1,000 people drowned or burned to death.
Palo Alto, California: During the dot-com bubble, Sun Microsystems experienced incredible growth and rapidly expanded in all areas including personnel, infrastructure and office space. Sun has since had ups and downs and has streamlined their operations and few people think twice about the amazing remnant abandonments they have left behind, save for a few intrepid urban explorers. Along with other things, the (above) adventurers found shotgun shells, cans of malt liquor, rows of servers and even working light fixtures.
Staten Island, New York: St. Augistine’s Monastary sits atop Grymes Hill and was once a school but now has been closed for over a half a century. Originally built as a school for boys, it was later converted and then sat idle until purchased in the 1980s. Each new owner, though, has since fallen into debt and the school was eventually purchased by a local college to avoid unwanted development, yet even Wagner College apparently has no plans to develop the property.
Los Angeles, California: The Griffith Park Zoo in Los Angeles is neither the oldest nor the newest of L.A.’s massive animal habitats. Though this location was abandoned decades ago it is unusually available to visitors even today. It isn’t every day that a set of abandonments not only survives for generations but also remains available to the public as a kind of museum or window into the past.
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116 Comments
December 18th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
For some reason I would like to go to the island in N.Y.C.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Those are all very interesting, but it seems like the only focus was major cities. In Macon, GA there is a 15th century Spanish monastery still preserved in the woods behind an apartment complex. It’s been filled in so you can’t enter it, but it was used as a slave church after the Spanish monks were run out by the Native Americans. If you know where to go, there is still a statue of St. Peter stepping on Satan’s head in the woods, as well. When the monks were there, there were 12 statues, all pointing in the direction of the next so travelers would be able to find the place!
December 19th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Poor design. Pictures don’t correlate to narrative. How hard is it to create borders?
December 19th, 2007 at 7:43 am
No Pabst brewery in Milwaukee?
December 19th, 2007 at 7:51 am
does anyone know if you can explore the church itself? or is it locked down pretty good?
December 19th, 2007 at 8:00 am
really should have detroit’s michigan central train station on here.
http://www.seedetroit.com/pictures/mcsweb/
December 19th, 2007 at 8:15 am
great site.
Not only are these abandoned places cool
I have a whole city of them an hour away: Detroit
http://detroityes.com/home.htm
December 19th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Very nice. Michigan Central Station is definitely one of the more beautiful buildings in America that has been abandoned.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/s.....04008@N23/
December 19th, 2007 at 8:26 am
lackawana!!! Not LACAWANA….. Check your spelling before posting a story!!!
December 19th, 2007 at 8:27 am
GREAT post with an awesome collection of photos! i’ve always wanted to explore some of the abandoned building here in Florida… i’ve just never gotten around to doing it..
December 19th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Here’s another abandoned piece of American history:
http://www.iserv.net/~chaffee/ch07006.htm
(Launch Pad 34, Cape Canaveral, site of the Apollo fire, and the launch of Apollo 7 - abandoned in place)
December 19th, 2007 at 8:33 am
This was fascinating, thank you for this post. :)
December 19th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Glad you mentioned Mt. Hope cemetary in Rochester, NY. You missed however, the Rochester Subway system. There are some really cool structures down there and if you’re looking for awesome abandoned things, that’s the place to go.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:41 am
How can you not mention the abandoned train station in Detroit. In fact it should be number 1 on your list. It’s spectacular. Too scared to go inside and see the crackheads? lol…couple other places in the D that you could have mentioned that are better then what you have shown, but the train station should have been number 1 on your list…
December 19th, 2007 at 8:46 am
I agree with you…We have a lot to explore…
December 19th, 2007 at 9:05 am
No mention of the Detroit Train Station?
December 19th, 2007 at 9:17 am
That was a fun post, thanks.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I’m surprised you mentioned North Brother Island without mentioning its most famous resident, Typhoid Mary.
And Mt. Hope may look abandoned, but somebody’s obviously been taking care of the grounds there, so it’s not completely abandoned.
Thanks for the article!
December 19th, 2007 at 9:56 am
The old Jefferson Hospital in Houston, Texas was recently refurbished into artist lofts. The old building has a long history of illness and death dating back to before the Civil War; it was creepy and haunted - I went into it twice while it was unsecured and still utterly abandoned. Now, it is a showcase of urban renewal, although bodies are still buried all around its perimeters. Shiver.
http://www.avenuecdc.org/jeffdavis.asp
December 19th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I know the Rochester, NY location well.. that cemetery is the oldest municipal cemetery in the US (if I’m not mistaken) and very beautiful. Alas, the entire cemetery has sections that have fallen into disrepair over the years.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Once again… coastal bias. We have way better ruins the in midwest.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I used to work at the Sun building in Palo Alto until it was “abandoned”. Sun sold the property to the Jewish Communtiy Center show on the sign in the photo. So, I think it is a little unfair to characterise Sun as having abandoned the building.
Some months after we moved out it was used as an urban combat training facility by the local police SWAT team which would explain the presence of the shotgun shells.
You’re lucky to get the photos as the building has since been torn down. All that is left is a large pile of rubble and a 3 storey construction crane.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Kind of left out New Orleans, LA there.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I used to drive by the old Sun building in Palo Alto often. However, it was razed a few months ago and is now full of gravel and construction equipment.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Interesting, but maybe a more appropriate title would have been “Amazing Abandonments of New York and California.” Surely there are more interesting things in the states in between.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Another cool one (although not in the US), is the NSA Field Station Teufelsburg, on the outskirts of Berlin. It was an US spy post during the cold war when Berlin was still divided. My latest excursion there had me escorted out and lectured by German police.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sh.....9535178098
http://picasaweb.google.com/sh.....4154000770
http://www.ccc.de/teufelsberg/
December 19th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Check out Fort Ord in Monterey California. Abandoned Military bases are fun!
December 19th, 2007 at 11:19 am
I’m surprised the old train station in Detroit wasn’t in here. It’s an incredible structure that is home to dozens of bums now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.....al_Station
December 19th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Cool :-)
December 19th, 2007 at 11:44 am
what about the Bethlehem steel mill? That’s an amazing piece of work
December 19th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Seems that you missed the Uptown theater in Chicago. Check that one out.
December 19th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
You spelled Lackawanna wrong
December 19th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
i live in Bethlehem, PA very close to the original Bethlehem Steel factory. It’s currently being torn down and turned into a Sands casino. the plan is to try and maintain some of the structures and incorporate it into the casino. it should be finished by the spring of 2009.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
The old Sun facility in Palo Alto has been demolished and new construction is going up as I write this. It began approximately six weeks ago, and estimates are that it will be complete in early February, 2008.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
This is an amazing compilation, i live in rochester, and mount hope is truly beautiful.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
The Sun Microsystems building is now demolished. Work has begun on a Community Center.
Having worked in the bulding. during the bubble, I never found the building to be anything special. It was a building and nothing more.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Very cool, thanks.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
you forgot about the detroit train station, by far the most impressive.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
lots of old places there. surprised me to see how many of them are in ny. im going to have to try to check a few of those out.
Taking Over The Net
December 19th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
The Western Penitentiary is very a eery place, I would love to visit the place though and take some pictures for my photography course :)
December 19th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Woodkerne is available for St Patty’s Day, Celtic and Irish concerts, parties and weddings!
December 19th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Wow all of this going to waste. One would think they could find a good use for these buildings and sites.
December 19th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
so are they gonna re-open ‘em … ???
December 19th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Really? I wouldn’t have thought they counted as being old enough to be abandoned? Over the pond ‘abandoned’ means noone even looked or thought about the stupid place for 600 years.
Those places are just unoccupied. Plus, I really thing ‘wonders’ is pushing it.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
you should make a huge list…like 50
i enjoyed reading this…but i want more
chop chop
December 19th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Check out this awesome spot just outside Washington DC — once Teddy Roosevelt’s “hunting lodge”, a casino and brothel, then a girl’s school, and later seized by the government for the war effort.
http://www.saveourseminary.org/
December 19th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
They missed a huge one…When they were in the Bay Area they should have stoped by Oakland and checked out the Oak Knoll Area. Its a navy hospital and city and church, its huge and abandoned. Just recently they put up gaurds because the sale brought a lot of publicity…..
December 19th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
I love this blog. It is beautiful and SO interesting! I always wonder about the people who used abandoned buildings … what were they like, what were their hopes, dreams, experiences. All so fascinating. Thanks for such an interesting blog!
December 20th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Wow the LA zoo was in so many kids shows - wonder woman, 6million dollar man and more - amazing!
December 20th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Nice pictures, but how do these buildings qualify as “wonders of the world”?
December 20th, 2007 at 7:04 am
you should check out Seaholm Power Plant in Austin, TX. That’s a crazy building that’s been collecting dust for about a decade. Also, it might be worth featuring some of the Cold War-era abandoned military installations in the midwest and the desert.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:07 am
There are so many beautiful buildings like this abandoned in New Jersey. If anyone wants to see more of these kinds of buildings, I would suggest picking up a copy of N.J. Weird magazine. And no I don’t work for the zine. I just want to bring it to attention.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Upsala College in East Orange, NJ is an incredible abandoned site. Although I think they’ve begun to tear it down.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 am
the Armour Swift meat packing complex in Fort Worth, Texas is an amazing abandonment. It was site of the worlds largest grease fire a little over 30 years ago. now it sits abandoned and decaying. very dangerous, but full of awesome photo opportunities. you can find pictures scattered in my gallery at http://che-gue-petey.deviantart.com/
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
didn’t they film the panda/grizzly scene in anchorman at that L.A. Zoo?
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I would love to know more about the Spanish Monastery ruins mentioned by Carson in Macon, GA…I live in Atlanta, so it would be an easy drive for exploration
December 27th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
It’s hard to tell which text goes with which pictures. If you put dividing lines between each section that would help a lot.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:54 am
You spelled Lackawana, NY wrong for the Bethlehem Steel photos.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:12 am
itz really Cool Abandoned wonder of the World
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Carson and Lis …. email me about the ruins in
Macon … I have seen ‘em all my life but don’t
have many facts … would like to compare notes.
Please put “Macon ruins” in subject line. Thanks
bufordbox@earthlink.net
January 7th, 2008 at 9:56 am
hi Carson,
i’m pretty close to Macon. can you be a little more specific?
thanks!
January 28th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
You guys dont know ANYTHING!
Come to Detroit, we have more huge abandoned buildings than youll ever see in your LIFE. INcluding a big 15 story trainstation from 1917
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
There are a number of ruins–former homes, businesses, and industrial sites, and ghost towns of different sizes–to be found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, specifically in what’s known as “Copper Country”. Here the copper mining industry was once so prevalent that the area was highly populated and one of its cities, Calumet, was at one point considered as a contender for the state capitol. Henry Ford even designed a community near here, in Pequaming–his own utopia–that is now nothing more than a dirt road with delapitated structures overgrown with woods and lupine in the summer. A trip from Houghton to the tip of Copper harbor takes little time and there are very few people, but you’ll see rows of miner’s houses, factory ruins, mine shafts, abandoned schools, etc. among dense tall-pine forests, Lake Superior shoreline, and even a beach black with copper tailings. Calumet is a city along the way with stunning red-sandstone architecture, including churches, a theatre, restaurants, etc, plus some original cobblestone streets…the architecture and the feeling of another place in time are incredibly well-preserved. I live in Southern Wi but drive up to Upper Michigan often just to take pictures of the haunting landscape of a once industrious and prosperous area.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Interesting photos, but you could have made an entire page just from abandoned facilities in Detroit. Google “ruins of Detroit” and prepare to be fascinated. Of course, the *real* photo op will come after the Atchafalaya River finishes taking over the Mississippi (despite the government’s attempts to prevent it) and New Orleans becomes uninhabitable.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:25 am
You should come with your camera to Detroit. You could write another post like this.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
The abandoned Rochester Subway seems more interesting than all of these.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
It should be noted that the old los angles zoo was one of the sets for Police Academy, i can’t recall which one but (there were 7) it was used as a base for a fictional gang in the movie
March 1st, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Amazing pictures! I wonder why Sun just left the whole building with tons of equipment?
March 6th, 2008 at 11:50 am
what about 7 abandoned countries…
i have one…
Venezuela…
we all abandoned it in hands of a SOB
March 19th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Never thought that i will see such abandoned American places.Quite amazing & Captivating.
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Why are these wonders only from usa. I thought it would be about wonders from america, not just the u.s.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:11 am
I never will sleep in a place abandoned :s It makes me shudder.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I wish someone would talk about the vast underground tunnel network under the City of Cleveland. Only a few of the city’s water department and gas department employees have ever had access to it. Many of these tunnels it is rumored were used as escape routes for the Kingsbury Run murderer who supposedly had one of the few maps left intact from an earlier time.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
There is also a rather vast underground network of interconnected tunnels and facilities beneath Macon, GA. The existence of this hidden city is actually widely known about but kept very quiet by the locals. I have been trying to organize an expedition for sometime but gaining access is strictly forbidden. I have contacted individuals who have documented and explored some of them and the evidence is quite amazing. I am also aware that entrance can still be gained through an empty vault in Rose Hill cemetary where an entrance to the system has not yet been sealed to the public, although entrance into the vault is a violation of law and could result in crimal charges. It is owned by a high level masonc family. This particular tunnel runs all the way to the City Hall building before branching out into the rest of the network (allegedly). The history of this particular tunnel is more nefarious than the others but it is still an entrance. I have however gained partial entrance through another hidden cave in Rose Hill which led me into an underground chamber but the two adjacent tunnel entrances had been sealed with concrete so no further expedition was possible.
In reference to the ancient monastary, it is located behind what I believe is called Northwood Apartments but I could be wrong. The apartment complex is to the right off of Forest Hill road if you are coming from Vineville Ave and is almost directly across from the back entrance to the Hospital. As the original poster said it has been largly sealed off and the woods are extremely thick, but it can still be accessed. I am also led to believe that it can still be accessed freely through the tunnel system which is still in active use.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I came here to look at the old pictures of the Western Penitentiary that i was in back in 67. The place was a reminder to be a good boy from my release, and it worked.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Buffalo Central Terminal is also one grand example of an abandoned building. A preservation society owns it now but it is for all intents and purposes abandoned…The abandoned giant grain elevators in Buffalo are also quite remarkable
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Amazing! Crumbling worlds of the past in our own back yard. I think you have the beginnings of a book here!
Darrin
July 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
lucius2571, Can you point me in the direction of the hidden cave in Rose Hill. I would love to see the chamber it leads to and have a great deal of interest in exploring the tunnels under Macon. I’ve heard about them for years but have never been able to access them. Drop me a line about the hidden cave
plycuda440@yahoo.com
July 17th, 2008 at 7:07 am
i love abandoned houses infact wednesday is our “rural decay adventure day” where we go day tripping and hunt for abandoned houses in the area to photograph. i agree that there is a strange fascination with these structures - they seem to draw us in… who lived there, and why did they go abandoned. check out my blog, for some of these forgotten treasures. keyword:abandoned
July 27th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
sun moved their hq to a new site at the foot of the dumbarton bridge a few miles away.
they sold the old property to the jcc, and construction would have begun immediately, but the idiots on the city council here (in palo alto) wanted to do a traffic impact analysis, or some such bs, and the project (as well as an albertsons in the area that wanted to remodel) was held up for a few years, ’till some people finally got their heads out of their collective asses.
but the building was in very good shape the whole time (like 4 years or so).
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