Today my neighbor and I were talking about our dream homes. He wants to renovate an old dairy barn into the house of his dreams. I would love to get an old church or school and make it into my dream home. In the process of our talking, we started looking at old abandoned buildings of any kind ~ schools, churches, barns, etc.
1.
2.A church in France.
It got me thinking. We found some eerily beautiful and haunting buildings. What would it take to rebuild or refurbish some of these places? I decided to see what else we have left behind. Empty, lost looking cars or moss covered train tracks.
3.Then I found the saddest abandoned places of all, amusement parks. Have you ever looked at pictures of these forgotten places? Knowing that they were probably lived with laughter and joy makes the pictures of broken carousals and vine covered Ferris wheels that much harder to look at. These pictures were gut wrenching. Some of the pictures I looked at came with the story behind the reason the park was closed. Others I actually looked up. Here are a couple of pictures from the abandoned parks.
4.This picture is of an amusement park that never had its chance at laughter and fun. It is in Chernobyl. It was supposed to open 5 days after the nuclear meltdown.
5.A roller coaster in Germany.
Beautiful aren't they?
I looked for pictures of my home town's abandoned places. I grew up in Gary, Indiana. I went to school at Nobel Elementary (now closed) and Emerson Visual and Performing Arts (again, now closed.) Emerson was one of the very first high schools built in Gary. It showcased the fight for equal rights in schools and became an actual Fame type school in its waning days. I remember where my classrooms were and what they looked like. I remember friends I made then and all the fun we had. It was built in 1908 and was open until 1981. It reopened in 1982 as a visual and performing arts magnet school. It stayed open at the original building until 2008. Now you would never know that it was open as recently as 2008. It is kind of sad.
6.I also found incredible pictures of the Methodist Church that has been featured in many movies including Transformers 3.
7.These places and spaces would have such stories to tell if only they could. Can you imagine the history most of these buildings have seen? Emerson was 100 years old when it was finally closed in 2008. Both World Wars, the Great Depression, 9/11, the building was around for all of that history. These events were discussed and survived in this building. Most of the other buildings are as old, some even older. You can find much older buildings in Europe that have been around of centuries. What could we learn from these buildings? They show us the architecture and style of time period they were built. They mirror the tastes of the people that lived then. Even as buildings, they have so much they could teach us. That brings me back to my original question. What is it about broken, lonely places that strike such a cord in our hearts? I do not know that I will ever be able to answer that, but I do know that I have found a new interest. I want to see what these builds and places can teach me. I never would have thought about an amusement park in Chernobyl, not that it particularly matters, but I never really thought about the lives that were interrupted. I learned about the accident, but only that it happened and everyone had to leave, but as a child I did not think about the actual cost. Can you think to what it would be like if you were a child in Chernobyl and you knew the park was opening soon? I would have been so excited and then to have that gone, man it would have been very hard leaving everything behind.
Anyway enough rambling, I just had to get my thoughts down. They may not make a lot of sense to everyone else, but they do to me. :)
By the way, old forgotten cemeteries are just as interesting.
Here are the sights I found the pictures:
1. http://www.flickriver.com/photos/genbug/tags/barn/
2. http://photorator.com/photo/15346/a-famous-spot-in-france-st-etienne-abandoned-church-
3. http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2013/03/33-more-breathtaking-and-incredible-photos-of-abandoned-places/
4. http://500px.com/photo/17857761
5. http://www.pixellica.com/inspiration/urban-decay-derelict-amusemen-park
6. http://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/06/12/emerson-school-of-gary-indiana/
7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/5914990794/in/photostream/lightbox/
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