Posted March 7, 200718 yr Mods: I am combining my photo threads of abandoned relics into one place, if that is acceptable to you. Exterior goodness photo gallery Old Taylor Distillery -- Old Taylor Distillery is located adjacent to the Old Crow Distillery on Glenn's Creek just outside of the capital of Kentucky. Constructed by E.H. Taylor, Jr. in 1887, Taylor was a leader in the whiskey industry in the state. When the Old Taylor Distillery was constructed, it was considered a showcase of bourbon making in the entire state. Pergolas, reflecting pools, stone bridges, gazebos and castle-like buildings adorned with turrets surrounded the property, giving it a charming feeling. The main structure was constructed entirely of limestone. Inside the building were gardens and rooms where Colonel Taylor would entertain guests and important officials from the capital. Much of the Old Taylor Distillery is still intact today after it closed in the late-1980's. Here are some scenes from the exterior. 1. Established in 1887, Old Taylor was located only minutes from Frankfort via rail. 2. 3. Dead. See the URL's above for the remainder of the history about Old Taylor and for more photographs! Enjoy this small narrative on this mostly-forgotten relic in central Kentucky.
March 7, 200718 yr Interesting photos and information. It's too bad the brand didn't survive; it was quite nice & mellow and was once my potion of choice.
March 8, 200718 yr Wow. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 8, 200718 yr Who still manufactures it? I think Old Taylor is still made as well, just by another company.
March 14, 200718 yr Exploring rural West Virginia Along the one-lane Lansing-Edmond road, which parallels the New River Gorge in Fayette County, is this quaint two family house. Unsure if it is actually abandoned, it features newer porch posts and deck and furniture on the inside. The yard is certainly unkempt, however, along with the falling-apart barn, roof and drive. -- Lansing, West Virginia once boasted a gas station and general store, but all that is left is a scattering of homes and ruins. -- Fayette, located along the banks of the New River in the shadow of the New River Gorge Bridge (US 19), there is nothing more than ruins today. This coal loading tower is pretty much all that is left of Fayette. A mine was located above the tower on the hillside, and pulverized coal was loaded onto the spur in the background. A water tower was located behind the coal loading tower, although it is gone today. Prince today is home to an art-deco train station, but in its more vibrant past, it hosted company stores, a freight depot and dozens of residences. Opened on June 26, 1946, this art-deco train depot still serves the Amtrak Cardinal line several days a week. The overhang of the waiting platform was designed to be oriented in reference to the meridional position of the sun. During the summer, the station provides relief to the passengers who wait for the train, but during the winter, it provides bountiful sun rays. These non-functional lights were even designed in the art-deco sense. See the following URLs for more information -- Coal camp towns of Fayette County, West Virginia Rural houses of West Virginia More extensive writeups on each town will be coming soon, along with more photographs! Stay tuned.
March 15, 200718 yr I added much history regarding Fayette, South Fayette, Prince and Thurmond, West Virginia. Here is some trivia to showcase how important this part of West Virginia was during its boom times -- Did you know that the Prince depot, with its sleek art-deco design, was to service the Chesapeake and Ohio's 'Chessie' passenger-system? The ultra-modern network was to leapfrog the competition, however, changing demands by the 1950s halted all work with the Chessie. The Prince depot was the only one of its kind constructed for a system that never ran one revenue mile. It was also the second-to-last depot constructed by the C&O. Did you know that Thurmond, with a population that never exceeded 500, handled more freight than Richmond, Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio combined? Find out more about these unique towns at article! I added a wealth of information and photographs regarding Thurmond from my sister article at American Byways. Enjoy!
May 31, 200718 yr Mt. Sterling, Kentucky High School: Abandoned in the 1990s, I received permission to conduct interior photography of this historic structure. Unfortunately, the owner has no plans for the building, so it remains neglected and open to the elements. There are currently 16 photographs at Abandoned. 1. Auditorium 2. Auditorium: If you can't see it, there are people in the photo :) 3. Hallway: Much of the school is in disarray, as portrayed in this photograph. 4. -- Mt. Sterling, Kentucky Baptist Church: Closed only a few years ago, the active congregation relocated to 'greener' pastures on the outskirts of the city. I will soon upload some photographs, including a rendering, to the site soon. There are currently 16 photographs at Abandoned. 5. Chapel 6. Offices 7. 8. Preaching: Jay is preaching to... no one! :) Enjoy!
July 2, 200717 yr Located in the heart of a major city, the Tennessee State Penitentiary was closed to all prisoners due to its unsafe housing conditions and general lack of maintenance. Today, several film production companies utilize it, along with other smaller industrial businesses. 1. Administration building Constructed of 800 single-occupancy cells in two cell-blocks, it also housed an administration building, offices, warehouses, and two factory structures. Outside of the prison walls was a working farm. Upon its opening in 1898, it housed 1,403 inmates, creating instant overcrowding issues. 2. "Chaos" in a cell block. This is five stories high. Throughout the prison's life, it was the home of numerous staged mass escapes and riots, the last being in 1985. Mass overcrowding, inadequate facilities, poor ventilation, and "hellish" conditions earned it a class action lawsuit. The suit (Grubbs v. Bradley - 1983) stated that the Department of Correction was to never admit any new prisoner into the walls of that state prison due to its severe overcrowding, inadequate facilities, and non-existent ventilation. 3. Health clinic's isolation ward In 1989, the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution opened its doors to house incoming inmates. The state prison, once hailed for its hellish and barren conditions, closed its doors in June of 1992. 4. Unknown building at the rear. It may have been a medical facility at one point (this prison housed the hospital for the entire state prison system), or a minimum security attachment. Some rooms were decorated in paint, while one had an elaborate "fireplace." 5. Power plant 6. Death row (that's not me) I would like to thank the Tennessee Department of Corrections for showing us around the facilities and allowing us access to their buildings, and the Tennessee Film, Music and Entertainment Commission for helping coordinate the day-long trip! It was very much worth it. You can find many more photographs from this trip and prior trips at my entry on Abandoned! Hope you enjoyed this photoset!
July 22, 200717 yr Here are a bunch of randoms that I've uploaded to Abandoned over the past week. I've almost gone through my 2007 photograph collection, which means that I can start going through some 2006 directories! :) 1. Kentucky School for the Deaf: No real information here, just that some buildings are abandoned. 2. Exteriors at the Mt. Sterling High School in Kentucky. 3. Raccoon Furnace: Constructed in 1833 along what is today Kentucky Route 2, it closed in the late 1800s. 4. Along the road next to the Old Taylor Distillery.
July 22, 200717 yr My friends and I broke into an abandoned church in one of my old neighborhoods in Cincinnati..it was scary as hell.
October 15, 200717 yr River Valley Hospital will soon be demolished. A ceremony celebrating its long life as a hospital drew several hundred Sunday, and it will soon make way for upscale housing, which Ironton currently lacks a lot of. Read on about its great history and its expansion plans that were brought to a sudden halt. 1. Newer entrance, stocked full of copiers, equipment and furniture draped in black mold and other nasty toxins. 2. Original entrance from 1937. An ambulance business is in front, blocking portions of it. Several small extensions and renovations were underway when the facility abruptly closed. Southeastern Kentucky Baptist Hospital: Constructed in 1951 and expanded in the 1970s, this will soon be torn down thanks to money provided by Governor Ernie Fletcher. It's already a total loss in some areas, with the only restoration remedy being a total gut and rehabilitate -- which is unlikely given its condition. I poked my foot through the roof while climbing around. I added a lot of history relating to the building, and photos under "Last Chance." 3. Morgue. 4. The hospital was pretty much like this throughout. 5. Surgery. Enjoy these photos!
October 16, 200717 yr You shoot some fascinating places. Your photos will become a valuable archive over time.
December 1, 20168 yr The factory that produced the first welded steel pipe is partially abandoned. Wheeling Steel's Benwood Works dates to 1884 when Riverside Iron Works, its earliest predecessor, became the second mill in the area to produce steel. The use of natural gas for industrial purposes began a steady rise in the late 1880’s, prompting demand for tubular goods for piping gas. The company opened a pipe mill in 1887. Despite skepticism that it could be achieved, steel was able to be formed into pipe and threaded. In 1899, Riverside Iron Works was acquired by the National Tube Company. Shortly after, National Tube constructed a 500 ton blast furnace to reduce its dependence on Carnegie Steel for raw material. The facility grew to consist of two pig-iron blast furnaces, five buttweld furnaces, and two lapweld furnaces. It also had two 5 ton Bessemer converters, three 8-foot cupolas, and two 3-hole soaking pits. It was capable of 1.25 million gross tons of pipe and boiler tubes and 40,000 tons of galvanized goods per year. National Tube's Benwood Works was later acquired by Wheeling Steel. The company retired the blast furnaces in the mid-1950's, opting for steel slabs sourced from its Steubenville Works. Wheeling Steel was acquired by the Pittsburgh Steel to form the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation in December 1968. Foreign competition was chomping away at Wheeling-Pittsburgh’s dominance in the piping industry by the 1970’s. In September 1982, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel notified workers that it planned to close the Benwood Works on December 15. The move would result in 500 workers losing their jobs, although most had already been laid off. On December 9, the company postponed closure plans as negotiations with the United Steelworkers (USW) were underway. The USW eventually settled on a pension plan designed to shrink the workforce to 200 to 250 employees. Citing deteriorating market conditions and overseas imports, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel closed the Benwood Works in July 1983. Most of the former Benwood Works has since been reused, although a portion along the Ohio River remains abandoned. More →
December 5, 20168 yr In early 2016, I ventured to the remains of Universal Atlas Cement, a former cement plant in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. It opened in 1906. Work to modernize the Universal Atlas Plant began in 1953, which continued on until 1972. United States Steel, the owner of the plant, announced drastic cutbacks at 16 plants affecting 13,000 workers on November 27, 1979. Included in the notice was Universal Atlas Cement, impacting 180 employees. Aerials showed the plant derelict by 1993 and partially demolished by 2005. It's been in an idled state with the general offices, a set of silos and the slag dump remaining intact. More →
February 17, 20178 yr If you can make the trip out to Gary Indiana, it's well worth it. The whole city is practically abandoned and the buildings are beautiful. I'd highly recommend it.
May 8, 20196 yr The Guyandotte Hotel is a long abandoned hotel in the coalfields of West Virginia. Guests in the hotel over the years included then-Senator John F. Kennedy, United Mine Worker’s President John L. Lewis, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, and other dignitaries. 1 Note the high water mark on the wall from flash floods in 2001. 2 The hotel closed circa 1978. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 I've held this old hotel in my maps as a place to return to for close to 15 years. I used to pass by it a lot when I was younger and it was in much better condition then. When I returned, the rear wall partly collapsed, leading to the destabilization of part of the upper four floors. I did get an encouraging message from the town council who informed me that they are working through West Virginia University in securing funds to stabilize the Guyandotte Hotel and shell it out for future restoration. It lies right on the path of the future four-lane Coalfields Expressway, which for now is ending just outside of the town and will provide a high-speed connection to Interstates 64 and 77.
May 8, 20196 yr Great stuff. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
May 17, 20196 yr not mine -- but i thought it was kind of interesting: more: http://rrsignalpix.com/tower_a_nyc.php New York City's Pennsylvania Station's Tower A New York City, New York Tower A was opened on November 27th 1910 and housed a Union Switch and Signal Company Model 14 interlocking machine. The machine was the largest machine used in the station and had 179 levers. Of the 4 towers at the station this is the only machine having over 100 levers; as Tower D reached 71. Tower A had 141 levers to control the 124 signals, 15 double slip switches, and 47 switches. The tower was located above the rails, later the tower was covered by the station making it seem as though the tower was located in the ceilings of the station. In the 1940's the interlocking machine received an upgrade as the entire original wooden interlocking cabinet was replaced with the more recognized steel cabinet and steel levers replaced the original brass levers. The switch and signal indicators were also replaced from the old style of boxed lamps at the back of the machine to the modern front panels of lamps. The other 3 interlocking machines at Penn Station never got these upgrades. Tower A remained mostly intact over the years as it was busy all the time. In the 1980's the tower was given control of Bergen Interlocking and later Portal tower was closed and remoted to Tower A. The tower was manned by two train directors, an assistant train director, and two levermen. The cutover to close Tower A started on September 30th 1994 and the tower officially closed on October 1st 1994 at 2:44 Pm. Control of Tower A was given to the new Penn Station Control Center known as (PSCC). The tower still remains today above the station tracks. The interlocking machine front has been gutted and the levers have been mostly removed. The locking bed remains intact and the circuit controllers are also intact. The model board remains above the machine and dark. Power to the tower has been cut and the lights dark. A thick layer of dust and dirt cover everything inside, over the years things have been taken apart, probably kept as keep sakes. To get to the tower you have to walk up a very narrow spiral stair case then walk a narrow catwalk that goes around the tower. To most you would never even know a tower was there, but to a few it's an interesting place. Encased by the surrounding station and with the very busy tracks below, the tower is probably never going anywhere.
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