Seen on a map, this old home would seem to be obvious to everyone around. Yet, owing to the wooded, rolling topography of Tennessee, it’s mostly unseen. It is also a unique hike to get to. This makes for a great “aha!” moment when it finally comes into view. It looks to be roughly a … Continue reading The Mansion in the Hollow
In four parts, namely: The old boarding house, a Jimmy Carter era motel, this humble abode, and, lastly, the manor in the woods. Continue reading Empire State Gothic
Some recent vacation time at work gave me the opportunity to escape the bitter cold and massive snowfalls of Chicago. I gladly traded those in for… the bitter cold and even deeper snows of upstate New York. At least I wasn’t unprepared; my trusty shitkicker boots proved their worth yet again. Having to trudge through knee-deep … Continue reading The Great Outdoors
We’ve all heard things about Philadelphia and Philadelphians. They’re mean. They throw snowballs at Santa Claus. They’re assholes who got dressed down by Bill Burr when they wouldn’t stop booing comedians at a show. They’re just the embodiment of the nasty, brutish, always-in-a-rush sterotype of the big city, particularly East Coast, denizen. And you know … Continue reading Phila-fucking-delphia
Last summer, I went to jail. Voluntarily. Did I mention the jail had been abandoned? That’s probably obvious, if you have any familiarity with this blog. Nevertheless, on a hot, steamy day during last July’s trip out to the East Coast, we headed to a well known former county lockup. I had never been to … Continue reading Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200
On a disused stretch of railroad tracks in the woods of Tennessee stands an abandoned train. Just a locomotive and two passenger cars make up the train which sits between a creek and a wooded hillside. The French language signs inside the cabins suggest an origin in Quebec, or at least Canada, which seems a … Continue reading Tennessee Ghost Train
It’s not exactly common for a major urban cemetery to become abandoned and fall into disrepair, but that’s exactly what happened to Mount Moriah, which straddles the southwest city limits of Philadelphia. Its story is similar to that of countless other abandoned places and buildings: changing socioeconomic factors slowly eroded the graveyard’s relevance until it … Continue reading Mount Moriah Cemetery
Theater opulence reached its zenith in the early part of the last century. The boom in motion pictures, which quickly became the prime form of entertainment for the masses, coupled with the trend of studios owning their own theaters which they strove to make as lavish as possible in order to attract patrons, created this … Continue reading American Palaces
Out in the woods of rural Pennsylvania sits an old house, overgrown with weeds and thistles. Slashing our way through the dense shrubbery, and getting sucked into calf-deep mire, we felt more like Stanleys searching for Dr. Livingstone than urbexers. But once inside, the old cabin would yield some interesting finds. The home had belonged … Continue reading Rural Time Capsule
“Live in the moment” is a phrase I struggle with. The idea behind it seems to be that, if one’s consciousness could stop engaging in various forms of fretting and recalling involuntary memories, it could focus all of its faculties on the Now, which would be a purer, “truer” lived experience. It may be better to … Continue reading In Search of Lost Time
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