(Check out our complete collection of 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.)
[Image used with Permission of Photographer Ben Willmore]
Much of America’s little-remembered history can be found in largely unknown structures scattered across the United States, some of which are silently falling apart. Many of these have amazing claims to fame and set records in their time - the world’s first auto assembly line or the largest brewery in the US - while others represent outdated building types that recall decades past or even generations before our time. Also be sure to check out parts one and two of this series! Also note: there have been a few (good) format-related comments so just a heads up: scroll past the images to get a description of each structure!
Abandoned Beer Brewery Complex
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Once the largest brewer in America, the Pabst Brewery was opened in the mid-1800s and closed its doors over a century and a half later in the mid-1990s. Over the course of its existence the complex bottled millions of barrels’ worth of beer. For some time the city considered demolishing all associated structures though a compromise was reached and funding was found so renovation for new uses has begun on some of them.
Abandoned Mental Institution for Children
Waltham, Massachusetts: Perhaps the only thing more disturbing than the many abandoned insane asylums spread across the United States are those scattered few asylums dedicated to children. The Gaebler Children’s Center was opened in the 1950s as a place to separate children from adults in the mental health system. As mental hospitals closed down homelessness and incarceration increased in adult populations so too has this closure led to increased juvenile detention.
Abandoned Factory Town Housing Residences
Whittier, Alaska: The Buckner Building was once the largest building in all of Alaska and housed virtually the entire population of the area. In the 1960s an earthquake rendered it unsafe to occupy and it has been abandoned ever since. So why not demolish it? It is quite simply more effort than it would be worth: the only way to remove the debris would be by a very limited-capacity tunnel or by sea.
First Automobile Mass-Production Facility
Highland Park, Michigan: A little-known building on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, was once home the to the first automobile production facility in the world to feature an assembly line. Ford’s claim to fame began in the Highland Park Ford Plant in the early 1900s in this revolutionary building that now sits essentially abandoned. Currently the structure is used to house assorted documents and artifacts.
Abandoned Military Academy Complex
Augusta, Virginia: Founded at the end of the Confederacy in 1865, the Augusta Military Academy (originally the Augusta Male Academy) remained open for nearly one hundred years before closing its doors forever in 1954. The building remains relatively intact and was even used for an episode of Fear on MTV though the name of the school was changed to deter ghost hunters and urban explorers.
Abandoned Drive-In Movie Theater
Hartford, Connecticut: There is nothing like the demise of an entire building type to usher in a new form of ubiquitous urban abandonment - and the Hartford Drive-Through movie theater is no exception. With the slow decline of such establishments few have found ways to reuse large rural parking lots with small and awkward associated buildings and big outdoor screens so many, like this one, simply sit deserted.
Abandoned Church and Boarding School
Torresdale, Pennsylvania: Eden Hall was once a proud French Gothic Revival church developed in the mid-1800s as part of an early boarding school complex including classrooms, dormitories, a library and a gymnasium - most of which were destroyed in a fire in the late 1970s. Unlike other abandonments featured here this deserted building was unfortunately recently destroyed by fire just a few years back.
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60 Comments
March 19th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I think one of the hardest things to realise is that sometimes, however great a building is, it needs to be knocked down so people living today get a better quality of life.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
These pics give me goosebumps…
March 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
i think people posting these kinds of curious tidbits should keep in mind that web pages scroll down. info should go above the picture set, so we can read about what we’re about to see. slightly annoying. still a nice collection.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Shocked to see Waltham, MA make the list, usually these locations are primarily in Rust-belt states. Waltham was a tech epicenter of New England before the dot-com crash. I hope Waltham preserved the offices of Lycos, SGI, etc so that our grandkids can one day see an Abandoned Wonder of our generation.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I want to echo Jeremy’s post. These are really interesting and should be given a little more consideration in the formatting department. The relevant header and copy should be above the photos. Some type of separation should exist between each item as well.
Keep up the great work, I am going to attempt to visit the Gaebler Children’s Center this weekend.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Awesome images. Keep up the good work
March 19th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Can’t help but wonder how misleading these images are…the Hartford Drive in is gone now(replaced by condos), but that’s not the point. The point is that everything else around the drive-in was still bustling, and I’d bet that the photographer was dodging traffic on the Turnpike when taking some of the wide shots. And who the heck was mr. b?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
And there used to be flea markets at the Hartford Drive-in on weekends.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Wow….this is interesting and your post made it to the Digg Homepage. Congratulations :). Good collection. Where did you get those pics from ?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
That childrens hospital in Waltham is crazy, Looks exactly like that in person, Try going there at night and having the watchman who guards that place chase you around thats what Bentley kids did for fun… Fuxin NUTS!
March 19th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Wow..I don’t know if alll of those buildings qualify for great historical sites, however I must give some hugggee props to the photographer!! There are some beautiful and incredibly intruitging shots
March 19th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Pours out some beer for all of the departed breweries
March 19th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Please don’t publish the names and exact locations of these buildings. I’ve been in several Kirkbrides that have been smashed, covered in spray paint and every artifact has been removed once the word got out you could get into them. These are historic 100+ year old asylums that people cover in tags. Sure, publish the photos as they are good, but if you want them to look anything like that in a few years leave the locations out.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Will- good point. Still, all posted locations are public knowledge - and some of them are still vague enough to prevent anyone who doesn’t already know from finding and vandalizing them.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:03 am
The Hartford Drive-In has been demolished. Toll Brothers is in the midst of a 76-ish unit development of “Luxury Townhomes”.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Sad to say but the Hartford Drive in has since been demolished and town houses have been put up in its place.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:28 am
How so, Tom?
LEt’s knock down this condemmed building which houses several dozen homeless people, albeit in an unsafe manner, and put up 800 dollar a month apartments they can’t afford!
That’lll improve thier quality of life!
March 20th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
We not only have an abandoned brewery in PA I need to check out (pre-1776!) but a couple abandoned drive-ins as well. There’s also an asylum for kids that was abandoned in the ’80s, called Pennhurst, which is super creepy from the pictures I’ve seen.
Good stuff, as always!
March 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
What a waste - could’nt these buildings be used for the homeless?
March 20th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
These are truly amazing. I had never heard of most of them, despite being fascinated by such historical sites. Sadly, we just razed our old drive-in here in my home town. Heartbreaking, but inevitable.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:18 am
Beautiful. I love abandoned wonders. Hoping to get out there myself and do the same thing
March 21st, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The thing I love about these structures is how they seem to keep the memory alive. I really love how they look after years of abandonment.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
The Buckner Buildiing was in perfect shape aquired by the City of Whittier. They just let set there and rot.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 am
This is absolutely amazing. Sad they are not being used more effeciently.
Kristal Rosebrook
March 24th, 2008 at 4:23 am
The kids’ insane asylum looks cozy, perfect for a sleepover :P
March 24th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I echo the comments of Jeremy and others :
PLEASE put the descriptions ABOVE the related photos!! It makes is hard to enjoy an otherwise fine site.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Thank you for share
March 25th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Excellent article. Just thought you might enjoy this sight which talks about an abandoned cold war site in North Dakota. srmsc.org
March 26th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Wow Strange Buildings !
March 28th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Some awesome abandoned buildings in Ohio: http://www.RejectedMemories.com
July 1st, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Detroit is a haven for abandoned buildings… the entire east side for instance, housing, schools, churches, factories, everything. Detroit according to the United Nations is the only city in the world that is reforesting itself. Just a little correction though, Highland Park is a city within the city of Detroit, nowhere near the outskirts, making the abandoned Highland Park facility photos even more poignant. For years the cities and state of Michigan gave away property or didn’t charge taxes in order to keep the automakers in the state, but as soon as the Big Three could find cheaper labor, they did, replacing entire lines with robots, then moving their operations, first to the south (sun belt) then to the Machiladora and beyond. I find it ironic that now after abandoning Michigan for greener pastures, they’re slowly going out of business. Good riddance to bad rubbish. On the plus side… lots of loft conversion possibilities ;)
Mark Duran
July 8th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Amazing. Simply amazing. You should try New Orleans since Katrina. There are hundreds of abandoned buildings. Great site.
September 27th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Tom, you have no idea what you are talking about. Buildings are no longer built to this level of quality, and the pool of labor who is skilled enough to even work on them is declining, let alone build new buildings of that quality. By fixing up and preserving old buildings, not only is our history preserved, but todays construction workers can learn from the craftsmanship and ingenuity of the builders of the past. A lot of building technology has improved, but much of it has also made cutting corners easier, and reduced the level of skill needed by workers. Especially when it comes to the detail work on that Gothic church in PA, to even suggest ripping that down disgusts me.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
The 5th listing on this page, Augusta Military Academy closed it’s doors in the early 80s, not 1954. I lived there for three years and graduated in 1979. While the main barracks are indeed boarded up, the other large stone buildings are used by the local community. There is also a school museum on site that is open. An annual alumni reunion is held there every spring as well. http://www.amaalumni.org
October 31st, 2008 at 11:04 am
1) Tom, does the quality of life improve by developers razing historical, cultural and social memory/records… & often times, demolishing buildings made with materials that are superior to the cheaply and shoddy materials of today… making construction/demolition waste one of the largest contributors to landfills? This is not a “quality” I want in my life. Nor is it a “quality” I want latter generations to inherit.
2) Some structures are beyond reuse and some of them should be allowed to bury themselves as they are elegy, grave, or sacred place in their own right, determined by their own context. Each should be critically approached and analyzed before “actions” are taken.
3) To save a places, structures, or atmospheres, my plead to readers is this…. Nominate these to the National Register of Historic Places and your local certified government, or state Preservation Office. Likely they’ll be rejected, scoffed, or humored, but a clear message will have been sent, and with some dedication, eventually these will be critically examined by such councils as potentially significant and historic places worthly of not being for sale. Yes, Tom. Some things should never be for sale.
4) Thanks to all of you doing the fieldwork, or engaging in rural/urban exploration by reading, writing, & thinking about this stuff. Even you, Tom.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
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December 12th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Amazing pictures! I love seeing these! Makes me shiver with it’s beauty!
February 19th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I’m shocked there are no Kirkbrides that may it to this lineup. Even Danvers (which has since been demo’d, but was the site where a suspense film was made).
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 am
The Buckner is NOT owned by Whittier.. Its owned by a private company.
With a lean on it.
I go there all the time to take images. The city generally doesn’t care, my cop friend down there said they just leave it alone.
Its to bad cause I know of a few people who go in there and destroy it, burning pieces of wood and the such. (Intelligence, I tell ya..)
June 24th, 2009 at 9:19 am
There is something very mysterious and haunting about abandoned places. Love the pictures on your website!
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