Journey to Ixtlan

On 7/12/08 I revisited an abandoned site that had previously scared me off. Previously on 1/5/2008 I wrote about the "Bad House in Clinton" with the following excerpt:

There is a two story house in Clinton SC. This location was last used as an apartment building. I first visited the property over four years ago. Back then it had a ‘for sale’ sign in front of it and I was not into photography. I inspected the house and noticed that there was structural decay and signs of squatter use. Flash forward to last year. My mate and I were driving through Clinton and I pointed the house out to her. She did not like it, sensing something “wrong” with the structure. After much debate I decided to photograph the property. Today I did take pictures of the outside of the house and never got to go inside. Part of me did not want to, but the desire to find that killer abandoned place drove me. Maybe my angels were looking out for me. A police car drove through the drive-through of the KFC restaurant across the street from the bad house. Then another police car pulled up and an officer went inside the KFC. I took the pictures outside the house and then decided to move onto other places when another police car pulled up to the first.

Well, on a lovely Saturday morning I returned to the house. This time I did not have fear of the location. Inside I found signs of classic building abandonment, squatting, and an urban gathering place. Fortunately nobody was at home! This brings to mind an issue with exploring abandoned locations. Some locations are used by squatters or perhaps worse. Besides backing out slowly (or perhaps running), what else do you do for safety in potentially dangerous environments?

Front of Abandoned Clinton Apartment House

Spooky Front Stairwell with Peeling Walls

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( More Pictures of the Abandoned Apartment Building... )

Would you participate in a ghost vigil? Are there times you would not?


From the Woodruff SC Northside School picture set...

Today I drove around with a lifetime resident of Laurens County. We took pictures of four country schools (all closed 1954 or before) and numerous abandoned houses. In all we looked at twelve locations. For now I have the pictures divided into two sets:

Laurens County Schools in this Flickr Set
Abandoned and Historical Buildings in this Flickr Set.

It will take some time to fully organize and label these pictures, so stay tuned for some really good pictures.

I found two really neat abandoned locations in Laurens. The first is the previous Cook's Gin, a cotton gin constructed back when OSHA did not have rules about exposed belts. Check it out in this flickr set.

Relocated Pelham Mill office is adjacent to the historical stonework dam built in the 19th century. Western Carolina Regional Sewer Authority took an active role in preserving a historical landmark in the Upstate. On September 11, 2002, historic Pelham Mill office building was moved onto land leased by Western Carolina to the County Recreation District for only $1 a year. This one-story brick building was believed to be built around 1870 and was used as the Pelham Mill’s office until the textile plant closed in 1930. The building became a Pelham Post Office until its closing in 1996. Since the building was never placed on the historical register, it would have been demolished if Western Carolina had not stepped in to help.

A new park is planned for 2008 at the site. The land is being cleared, revealing buildings and stone work from the dam's past. The clearing of the brush at the base of the dam has revealed some incredible brickwork and ruins of structures. I will post another blog featuring these newly rediscovered structures.

All 123 pictures of the location are in this flickr set.

Fire certainly was no stranger to the Pelham Batesville community. In fact, fire had destroyed the community's central landmark, the Pelham Mill, in the year of 1943. At that time the only fire trucks available came from Greenville and Greer, and both were too far away to be of much help. Only the small Mill Office survives to this day. The building is slated for renovation during the next few years.

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( Interior of the Pelham Mill office... )

This blog features the silos I found in Clinton SC. The large concrete silo revealed odd squatter constructions. Is it an alter or a bench? I suspect the mundane is more likely. Still, what would it be like to party in an echoing concrete silo? Sublime... The woods also revealed a partially demolished concrete block structure with metal basin and an incredibly large pressure tank.

These silos and their hidden finds complimented an incredibly decrepit house at the same location. All 142 pictures of the location are in this flickr set.

Top: Concrete Silo Bottom: Twin Metal Silos

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( More pictures of the silos... )

On 12/29 my mate and I stopped to view an abandoned barn on South Carolina Hwy 81 outside of Anderson. The property also revealed the ruins of a house and some odd ancillary buildings. This blog focuses on the barn. In the future I will post one more blog featuring the ancillary buildings.

All 129 pictures of the location are in this flickr set.

Top: Front and Side of Barn Bottom: Rear of Barn

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( More pics from the SC 81 barn... )

On 12/29 my mate and I explored an abandoned barn off of SC Hwy 81. We then found the ruins of the house and some ancillary buildings. I will do a full photo essay on this location after the New Year. For now I will leave you with the eerie remains of the house's fireplaces and an artistic view of chairs stacked in one of the ancillary building's doors.

All 128 pictures from the location are available in this flickr set.

Rear of the house looking at the two remaining chimneys on the left and right.  The tan object in the right hand side of the picture is the top of a well.  This was a two-story house that had three chimneys.  The house burned down in the early 80's.  Vines and briars are everywhere now, creating their own strange landscape.

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( Chimneys and Chairs... )

This is an abandoned house in Greer South Carolina. It has been up for sale for years and over that time the house has fallen more and more into disrepair. Amazingly the property, about 3 acres, and the house are still priced at $225K. Could the house be salvaged? Yes, but I do believe the asking price is too high for the current condition.

This picture set is the second of two adjacent buildings. The storage shed was featured in another blog entry. All 61 pictures from the abandoned house and storage shed are in this flickr set.

Top Picture:Overgrown abandoned house Bottom picture: Wall paper shows degree of neglect in house

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( More pics from the Greer house... )

Welcome to an abandoned and partially demolished warehouse building in Asheville NC.  The sign out front says, "Madison County Health Department". The building seemed well secured, but I gained entrance by pushing in a sliding warehouse door. Inside I found a mixture of building decay and ruin. First I walked across some wooden planks in a completely missing portion of the building.  This led to a dark shuttered room with an adjacent devastated elevator room.  Choosing discretion over valor, I merely took pictures of the furthest room instead of crossing the one apparently (?) solid beam over to the elevator platform.  The building did have an upstairs, but there was no way to access this area.  There was no need to put an "out of order" sign on the elevator!

This picture set is the first of two adjacent buildings.  All 65 pictures from the abandoned warehouse and boiler house are in this flickr set.

Front of abandoned warehouse building

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( More pics from the abandoned warehouse... )