A trip into the Mountain State had been a long time coming. After driving through much of West Virginia in search for abandoned residences, schools and hospitals several years ago, I thought that a thorough return visit was in order. It's not obscenely far from my current residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, but most of my trips into the state has been to go backpacking through the wildernesses and national forests that blanket the state. Rumbling through derelict buildings just seemed as if it was a secondary mission or a side trip only if I had the time. Plus, there were plenty of abandonments closer to my apartment.

 

But that changed once I had obtained legal access to Sweet Springs Resort, which is on the border with Virginia. Any length and difficulty of a drive would be worth it for that.

 

This post is a combination of five Abandoned blog entries, so I am posting the highlights below.

 

1 We stopped in a rural Ohio community to investigate a potential school, which we realized that it was still active. But while musing through the town of a few hundred, we came across the Winegardener Chapel, which was erected in 1887. We stopped and got out to shoot some photographs in the blazing afternoon sun, and much to our surprise, the owner of the church conveniently lived in the residence next door and was more than happy to allow us inside.

 

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4 During the night, we stopped at an abandoned Ohio River crossing south of Wheeling, West Virginia.

 

5 Deteriorating above the Ohio River since it closed in 1991, the Bellaire Interstate Toll Bridge connected Bellaire, Ohio to Benwood, West Virginia. The two-lane cantilever span was completed in 18 months and opened in 1926 to much fanfare, utilizing 7 million tons of steel and realizing a link between the two busy, industrial communities.

 

6 Portions of the movie, Silence of the Lambs, was filmed on the Bellaire Interstate Toll Bridge, and numerous weddings were held on the span. Shown below is a toll booth on the Ohio side of the river.

 

7 The former B&O Benwood, West Virginia crossing now carries CSXT.

 

8 The closed National Tube pipe mill is in the distance.

 

It is sad to remark that the bridge, which is structurally sound, has visually deteriorated to the point that it "necessitates" removal. The once silver paint has become a shade of black, and the asphalt pavement sports weeds and trees. It doesn't help matters that the Ohio approach was removed

 

9 Oh, Wheeling... Once one of the primary cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and later the State of West Virginia, this rust-belt community has seemingly fallen on endless hard times. Despite the historic Centre Market, the West Virginia Independence Hall, and the famous Wheeling Suspension Bridge, you can't but help think that the city is lacking in something.

 

10 If the exterior proclaims this as a symbol of Wheeling's decline, the interior doesn't help reverse the notion that some properties in this long-declining city have just been pushed the wayside. At some point, after the school closed, it was converted into a home for multiple businesses. A bathroom fixtures dealer, a state office and some rooms that were used primarily for storage kept this stately school active for quite a while, but it seems that the last occupant left about ten years ago.

 

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12 The renovation introduced a new collection of wallpapers that can be best described as interesting and tacky.

 

13 During the afternoon, after a hearty lunch at a downtown pizzeria, we discovered three factories within minutes of each other, although the details of their history are vague at best. The first factory, which abuts a steep hillside in an isolated part of Ohio County, is at least five stories high and extends from the street back into the hill.

 

14 It became clear from the deterioration and condition of the various floors that this factory was sealed off from the top-down. The first floor had paperwork and materials dating to the late 1980s, and the stairwell leading up to the second floor featured a floor door that was at one point locked and barricaded. Another set of steps led downward into stone cellars, although it was flooded and not accessible. The second floor was devoid of much of anything interesting, sans a stack of blueprints, various doors and a crude pinball machine. The third floor, which was also sealed at one point in the staircase, featured various sizeable rooms built into the hillside that had obviously been abandoned for much longer than thirty years.

 

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16 This is unfortunately where the trip through this building ends. Two staircases lead to the fourth floor and further back into the hillside, but unfortunately, both are well sealed with wooden boards. A ladder, rotting and in very poor condition overall, leads through a hole in the floor to a crawlspace -- possibly to an exit point on the fourth floor or elsewhere.

 

Onward to... Clarksburg, West Virginia can be best described as a city raised around the glass and coal industry, having been an important stop along the Northwestern Turnpike, now known as U.S. Route 50. The Turnpike was chartered in 1827 and reached Clarksburg nine years later. The city further prospered when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was extended west from Grafton in 1856, where a large railroad yard was constructed. The St. Louis main, as it later became known, allowed the railroad to ship goods to and from the east coast and the Midwest.

 

Population surged, but the mechanization of the industries in the latter 20th century, along with the exporting of employment to locales with cheaper labor costs and the decline of the domestic glass industry, left Clarksburg with a size under 17,000. Poverty extends out in almost every neighborhood, and the downtown -- while structurally imposing, contains much vacancy and deterioration.

 

17 The former Clarksburg Central Junior High School, highly visible from both downtown and U.S. Route 50 traffic.

 

18 Not all is gloom and doom, like the above Clarksburg Central Junior High School, as several notable buildings are being restored or are slated for restoration. The service industry continues to thrive on the fringes of Clarksburg, providing much needed employment for an area with a devastated industrial base. For instance, the former Waldo Hotel in downtown, completed in 1904, was one of West Virginia's most luxurious hotels

 

19 Nearby is the former Holy Rosary Catholic Church, established in 1906 to meet the needs of the Slovaks, Poles, Crotians and Slovenians. The parish also included many Hungarians and Greek Rites. The Slovak church was unique due to its demographic, and as a result, worshippers would travel upwards of 50 miles or more to attend.

 

20 The church construction was completed on September 30, 1909, when the cornerstone was laid. Due to a dwindling population and an increasingly poorer income base, Holy Rosary closed in 1984 and was merged into the Immaculate Conception parish of Clarksburg and the Sacred Heart parish of Chester.

 

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We drove through the night from one end of the state to the other...

 

24 Having legal access into an abandonment is pretty exciting, especially when it regards the mammoth Sweet Springs Resort in southeastern West Virginia. Unfortunately, we found out too late that the grass wasn't "manicured" and the interior "wasn't worth photographing." Like, while we were on the grounds, about to be led inside.

 

25 They bottle water.

 

26 With the troubles at Sweet Springs, we decided to depart and make the most of our day in southern West Virginia. The weather, while hot, was at least sunny. Traffic was light. And we were well rested after driving through the previous night from one end of the state to another. It did not take long to find our first find of the day, a four-room schoolhouse that resided on a farm!

 

27 Sweet Springs School

 

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29 A nearby church.

 

30 Beaver High School in Bluefield

 

31 We finished the trip driving along U.S. Route 52 through southwestern West Virginia. With light diminishing fast, we opted for the former Bluestone High School in Bramwell. Constructed in 1948, it served as an elementary and high school for African-Americans. Although it closed in 1963, it was later reused for a local business. In 2000, a restoration project for the abandoned school began under the direction of a formal Restoration Committee, and the roof was repaired. Other than that, it is derelict.

 

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We hopped in our cars and began to leave the property. As soon as we began accelerating to get out of the grass lot we were in, a West Virginia state trooper passed by and came to an immediate stop.

 

Shit. Of all the places to be caught at, the Bluestone High School -- with its doors wide open, was the last place that it should occur. The cop turned on his lights.

 

And then turned them off and sped down the road to Bramwell.

 

Tired, we departed our ways after exploring the Bluestone High School. It was a long and lengthy excursion through eastern Ohio and West Virginia, but well worth it! I hope you enjoyed the variety of update!

 

The blog posts covered -- click through for more photographs!

A Musings in Ohio: Winegardener Chapel

B Musings in Ohio: Bellaire Interstate Toll Bridge

C Musings in West Virginia: Wheeling

D Musings in West Virginia: Clarksburg

E Musings in West Virginia: Southern Fringes

Very Nice!

 

  I've got a Victor Adding Machine very similar to the one in your photo. It weighs about 20 pounds, and it still works. According to Wikipedia, the Victor company of Chicago started manufacturing adding machines in 1918 and eventually morphed into an electronic calculator and computer manufacturer.

 

  Undoubtedly the original adding machine was manufactured in the United States, and contained about 20 pounds of steel. Chances are that modern calculators are manufactured overseas and contain less than one pound of plastic. The adding machine sort of tells the story of those abandoned factories.

A shame.