Deserted Places

Monday, October 15, 2012

An abandoned concert arena in Western Australia

Perth Entertainment Center opened its doors on 27 September 1974 and for the next 3 decades it was the venue of choice for many top international rock and pop artists. Queen, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, U2 and Oasis were only few of the names that performed on its stage.

The indoor arena, built in the city center of Perth, Western Australia, had a capacity of 8,000 seats and it is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest purpose built regular theatre (containing a proscenium arch) in the world. Except of music concerts, it also hosted theatrical plays, musicals, circuses, corporate functions and international beauty pageants (Miss Universe 1979). From 1990 to 2002, it was home to NBL team Perth Wildcats and from 1988 to 1989 to WNBL's Perth Breakers.

The venue officially closed in August 2002 and remained abandoned ever since. It was demolished between May and December 2011, and now a new facility called Perth Arena is being built in its place.

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abandonedjourney.com

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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The Holy Family Orphanage in Marquette, Michigan

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Built in 1915 in Marquette, Michigan, the Holy Family Orphanage was the dream of Marquette Catholic Diocese Bishop, Frederick Eis. It cost somewhere between $90,000 to $120,000, an astronomical sum at the time. The mammoth structure was designed to accommodate 200 children. It was furnished with classrooms, a dormitory, bathrooms on every floor and an annex that housed heating and plumbing facilities. There were laundry and kitchen facilities, a large dining hall and playrooms.

The orphanage stayed open for more than 50 years. At the end, its inhabitants were a group of Cuban children, refugees from Fidel Castro’s Revolution. It finally closed in 1965 and since then it has been left abandoned. Today, the six story building stands with half of its windows boarded up and an over-growth of trees and wild foliage that seems to be melding with the dilapidated structure. Many urban legends and myths are circulating about kids being tortured and dying inside the orphanage, while there are also reports of ghost sightings inside the building.

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Chad R. Johnson/flickr.com

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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The UFO houses of Sanjhih

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The UFO houses of Sanjhih (三芝 can be romanized as "Sanjhih" or "Sanzhi") -as they were nicknamed- was an abandoned building project in the Sanzhi district of the New Taipei City in Taiwan. The futuristic buildings were intended to be a vacation resort marketed towards the US military officers coming from their East Asian postings.

Construction begun in 1978 but the project was abandoned 2 years later, due to investment losses and several car accident deaths and suicides during construction. Legend has it that the accidents were result of the blasphemous act of bisecting the Chinese dragon sculpture located near the resort gates for widening the road to the buildings.

After the resort's abandonment, the UFO houses became a tourist attraction due to their architecture. There were plans for conservation of at least one of the structures but between late 2008 - early 2009, all buildings were demolished to make room for a commercial redevelopment of the area.

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SEE ALSO: More abandoned houses // More abandoned ghost towns around the world // More abandoned places in Taiwan // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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cypherone/flickr.com

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Prypiat, the ghost town of Chernobyl

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When the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster took place in 1986, a large area of land was heavily contaminated by radioactivity. The Soviet government ordered the evacuation of over 90,000 people living in proximity to the disaster area. Inside the so-called Chernobyl Exclusion Zone lies the now abandoned city of Prypiat.

Pripyat was founded in 1970 to house workers for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Officially proclaimed a city in 1979, its population reached 50,000 people before the accident. Pripyat was a fully functional city with 15 primary schools, one hospital, malls and restaurants and a primarily young population of factory workers.

After the Chernobyl disaster, the residents had 2 days to evacuate the city. They were told to carry with them their documents, a few vital personal belongings and some food. Everything else was left behind. Today, the levels of radioactivity have decreased significantly and the city, although still excluded and guarded by the army, is visited by guided tours.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned ghost towns around the world // More abandoned places in Ukraine // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE/boston.com

The fourth reactor of the former Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in the background

Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images/Boston.com

Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE/boston.com

Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images/Boston.com

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Friday, September 21, 2012

Surfridge, a ghost town within Los Angeles

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Inside the city of Los Angeles, right next to the LAX airport, lies the ghost town of Surfridge. It all began in 1921 when Palisades del Rey neighborhood, what later came to be called Playa del Rey, was development by Dickinson & Gillespie Co. All the houses in the area were custom built and many among them were beach houses of Hollywood actors and producers.

In the 1960's however, parts of land in the southern part of Playa del Rey, which was known as Surfridge, were acquired by the city of Los Angeles to facilitate the expansion of LAX airport and to address concerns about noise from jet airplanes. Some home owners chose to remain in the area but eventually all houses were either demolished or moved.

Today, the abandoned land of Surfidge is protected by barbed-wire fences. People have long gone from what was once a beachfront paradise, however the lamp posts in the empty streets still light up every night.

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ATOMIC Hot Links/flickr.com

\\\ CINEMAFIA ////flickr.com

Neil Kremer/flickr.com

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Sunday, September 16, 2012

An abandoned railway station in Abkhazia

This is an abandoned railway station in the former Russian territory of Abkhazia. It is unknown since when this station has been inactive but the railway system of Abkhazia was isolated in the 1990s, due to the blockade imposed by Russia.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned railway stations around the world // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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englishrussia.com

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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

An Abandoned Japanese Strip Club

This abandoned strip club was discovered somewhere around Japan's Okayama prefecture by blogger and urban explorer abandonedkansai. Not much is known about the place besides its name "Sightiseeing Theater", an euphemism. The photographer describes his exploration:

It seems like the entrance fee was 3000 Yen [...] To the right was a side entrance that lead directly to the oh so known strip room with its orange stage and the countless tine stool bolted to the ground. Well, countless, I guess there were about 150 of them, sometimes as little as maybe 15 centimeters between them. [...] Behind the stage was a small room with a bed and from there a dark, narrow hallway with an uncomfortably soft floor lead to another part of the building, a part that was actually even closer to the locked main entrance.

When I got out of the dark I stepped directly… onto a stage. A stage way bigger in a room way bigger than I just left. While the first location was a little bit shabby and tacky with plastic flowers everywhere and gigantic eagles painted on the wall the second room was… actually pretty similar; just bigger, more spacious and in better condition, probably thanks to the wallpaper that was missing in the other room. Close to the stage were the same tiny little stools bolted to the ground, but with a little bit more distance between them. The last three rows reminded me of old cinema seats – of way better quality [...]

This room was so cliché 70s porn it was tough to wrap my mind around it. The cheap pink plastic decoration was so horrible I felt a little bit embarrassed just looking at it, but I guess when it was dark and you focused on the stage it didn’t matter. Sadly it wasn’t completely dark in there. Just almost, with bright light coming in from a door leading outside.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned strip clubs around the world // More abandoned places in Japan // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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abandonedkansai.wordpress.com

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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The Secret Train Platform Under the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan

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Track 61 is an abandoned, once secret train platform beneath Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. It was once used by VIPs -most famously by Franklin D. Roosevelt- who wanted to make an entrance or exit the hotel without being seen or having to go through New York's traffic. A private elevator, existing even today, was large enough to fit Roosevelt's armored car and lead it to the hotel's garage.

The secret platform was first used in 1938 and in 1965 Andy Warhol threw a fittingly named 'Underground Party'. By 1978, the platform was known as one of the many places in Grand Central Terminal where squatters lived. Today, the train car which used to carry Roosevelt is parked abandoned in the track which is not accessible to visitors. It remains however a "holy grail" for many urban explorers.

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SEE ALSO: More abandoned railways and train stations // More abandoned places found underground // More abandoned places in New York // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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The Franklin D. Roosevelt car

Sam Horine/gothamist.com

The elevator constructed for Roosevelt's limo

Sam Horine/gothamist.com

Stairs leading to a subbasement

Sam Horine/gothamist.com

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

China's Abandoned Wonderland

"Wonderland" was supposed to be the Chinese version of Disneyworld. The ruins of what would be the biggest theme park in Asia are situated just 45 minutes outside the center of Beijing, on a 100-acre plot of land. Construction begun in 1998 by Reignwood Group (a Thai-owned property developer) but it stopped around the year 2000 after disagreements with the local government and farmers over property prices.

Developers briefly tried to restart construction in 2008, but without success. Property prices in China have risen 140% since 1998. Reuters photographer David Grey says 'Wonderland' is “another sad example of property development in China involving wasted money, wasted resources and the uprooting of farmers and their families.”

Today, the abandoned theme park lies surrounded by fields of corn while signs warn visitors to proceed at their own risk.

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SEE ALSO: More abandoned amusement parks and abandoned theme parks around the world // More abandoned places in China // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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David Grey/Reuters via theatlantic.com

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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Inside an Abandoned All-Girls School, Part 2

When Bennett College moved to its final home at Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York in 1907, it had an enrollment of 120 students and a faculty of 29. The course of study was six years: four years of high school and two years of higher study. Later, the high school courses were discontinued, while the junior college's two-year curriculum continued through the 1970s.

Majors of the junior college included art, fashion design, interior design, music, modern languages, literature, history, dance, drama, child development, equine studies, and domestic science. Activities at Bennett included gymnastics, golf, tennis, horseback riding and skiing. The school was home to a full time teaching Nursery School for 3 and 4 year olds, as well, as a riding stable. At the time of its closing, enrollment was around 300 students.

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Steven Bley

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