My Love Affair with Abandoned Places

I've recently discovered that two sites of abandoned, decayed buildings have been or will soon be torn down. I had the most delicious time photographing these places and wandering about their premises. The first was an old boarding house on West Main St. in Salem, Virginia. It was demolished soon after I found it. The second, one of the best finds I have stumbled across yet, is also being torn down. I'm talking about the old burnt up, falling apart Skyline Parkway Motor Court in Waynesboro, Va. I understand these buildings are dangerous and eyesores, but that doesn't stop me from feeling that somehow this is a tragedy. I am glad that I was fortunate enough to catch these places before they were lost in oblivion. I know a lot of these places are well known by other photographers who have an equal penchant for this particular delicacy and have probably been captured for posterity. But I still feel quite an obligation to do my part in routing out these places and exploring them! For one, the old Mountain View Manor I stumbled across in Middleburgh, NY doesn't seem to have been captured and shared on the internet before. I'm sure real estate folks, or attorneys and government officials may have taken pictures for records sake, but it is highly unlikely those will surface for public enjoyment. That is why I am particularly pleased that I was given this gem of a place to briefly explore out of the blue over the summer. I hope to keep finding places like these in the future.

Here's the recently demolished house in Salem.


View from inside the Skyline Parkway Motor Court


Mountain View Manor


Thanks for reading friend! If you want to see more of my pictures, you can check out my photostream in the flickr box on the right.