Won't someone please think of the children?

mANVIL

This place is an unfortunate side affect of large, poor, urban environments. It was like an orphanage for children (and young adults) who were mentally and/or physically disabled and therefore could not be supported under the standard foster care system. Essentially it was a place to house the 'undesireables' of society. In addition to the administration stealing its funding, the facility suffered from severe overcrowding, squaild living conditions, and multiple cases of physical and sexual abuse. It became so bad that a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children and eventually caused the facility to be shut down. The buiildings still stand, stuck in time as if they just locked the doors and left. What was once a beautiful 250 acre campus of brick dorm, school, religious, and medical buildings is now essentially a ghost town.

Ann McRae

Wow, so many things pop into my mind that I am speechless.

Thanks for posting this. Great work.

I am still amazed that you guys go into those places.

ann

leaforte

Thanks for sharing!

JenGrace

All I can say is wow...you do such a great job of finding and capturing places like this!

schmoo

You always do great work with reallyreallyreally long exposures and teenytinyittybitty apertures.

You also make messiness look lovely. Way to document the underside of society before they are forgotten!

Rhuarc

Nice shots! That palce reminds me of the location that Mike Rowe did an episode of Dirty Jobs at. He was there with a reclamation company salvaging things like bathroom tile, wood siding, and old style bathtubs.

Flyinggina

Beautiful, moving and infinitely sad.

Virginia

mANVIL

Rhuarc wrote:

Nice shots! That palce reminds me of the location that Mike Rowe did an episode of Dirty Jobs at. He was there with a reclamation company salvaging things like bathroom tile, wood siding, and old style bathtubs.

Rhuarc, that was upsala college in new jersey. Very similar style of buildings. Good memory.

mANVIL

I'm glad you guys enjoy these.

Schmoo - the underbelly of society is my stomping grounds!

jziegler

Another great set!

When I saw the first shot, I was thinking, that doesn't look so bad. Not only is there a backboard, but a hoop and even a net! I know some places near me that the kids play at in worse shape than that court.

But, wow, what an amazing building. What a waste for it to all sit empty.

Keep up posting shots of these types of places.

Regards,
James

ehughes

Very moving set of pictures, where is this place? Do you have to get permission to get in and look around?

cwphotos

Very nice. Simply amazing the fact that the place exists in relative entirety.

Cantfeelmyfingers

what an unfortunate past this place holds. Neat place to explore.

DRT-Maverick

Reminds me of the anime Monster and the orphanage 511 Kinderheim where they used the children to do educational and psychological personality experiments and brainwashing.


Amazing gallery.

kelsow

How on earth do you get into these places.
Around here, buildings like this are either torn down or sealed up.

We have an old American army base from the cold war that's been
bricked up and covered with graffiti but I can't get into the place.
I'm sure it's full of great images...

mANVIL

kelsow wrote:

How on earth do you get into these places.
Around here, buildings like this are either torn down or sealed up.

We have an old American army base from the cold war that's been
bricked up and covered with graffiti but I can't get into the place.
I'm sure it's full of great images...

I spend ALOT of time doing this and do ALOT of driving (almost 50,000 miles in the past year). I have also found that the new england area and industrial northeast (rustbelt) contain the largest density of interesting abandoned structures. That is not to say there isnt anything on the west coast. Keep looking, you'll find something.