Abandoned America

All too often, the stories of abandoned places end in tragedy. In this episode, however, we're going to discuss an amazing success story: after nearly 30 years vacant, the gorgeous Lansdowne Theater is being rebuilt! My guest, Matt Schultz, the Executive Director of the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corporation, shares with us how this miraculous turnaround is taking place and his experience on how to save a local landmark.

Did you ever wonder how someone could become so obsessed with abandoned buildings that it engulfs their whole life? This is my story: the strange tale of of how and why I began photographing abandoned buildings across the world and started the Abandoned America project - an origin story for the podcast and website, if you will.

There's an odd overlap between dreams, abandoned spaces, and photographs - they all present distortions of the reality we are familiar with. Why is it that we find all three so compelling?

Gould Street Power Station in Baltimore was once the most impressive power plant in the city and considered a technological marvel, but now its demolition seems inevitable. In this episode, we'll trace the wild history of the site through the bitter public utility wars that led to its construction to its eventual closure and abandonment - a trip that includes a forgotten inventor, a brutal murder, and a look at what might be in store for the area in the years to come.

Forest Haven was a developmental center in Laurel, Maryland for children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities and chronic illnesses that was the site of what was described as "the deadliest known example of institutional abuse in recent American history." Today Forest Haven lies abandoned and mostly forgotten, but in this episode we'll explore how profound and often fatal neglect shattered lives of residents for decades, and why it was allowed to continue for years after some of the facility's most horrific injustices were brought to light.

Rumors of why the small neighborhood of Lincoln Way wound up abandoned abound: did some monstrous beast scare away the residents? Or was it for some more realistic and relatable reason? In this episode we'll explore the mystery of how roughly 40 homes on a quiet Western Pennsylvania street were left vacant for years, still littered with the former residents' belongings, and uncover the true story of what became of the community.

The SS United States is about as unique and incredible as it gets: an entire ocean liner that's larger than the Titanic, out of use since 1969 and moored in Philadelphia since 1996. Both the fastest liner ever built and the largest constructed on US soil, it's one of only two surviving relics from the entire age of passenger liners, and yet its future has been imperiled for decades and it seems like its time might finally be running out. We'll explore why the SS United States is so significant and meaningful, the desperate efforts to save it, and what it's like touring a ghost ship that ceased operations long ago and on which only echoes remain.

Located a short distance from one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, it's hard to imagine why the Fallside Hotel in Niagara Falls, NY would have been abruptly closed and left abandoned. To tell the story we need to look at the boom and subsequent implosion of the area's tourist economy, caused by industrial pollution and misguided urban renewal projects. We'll also talk about what the town's plans for the future are and how the fate of the Fallside Hotel may in fact be a symbol of rebirth for the area around it.

What would you do if the only bridge to your community burned and the town refused to rebuild it? The residents of Long Beach, CT found out the hard way and it destroyed their entire neighborhood, leaving nearly 50 beachfront homes abandoned. In this episode of the Abandoned America podcast, we'll explore the tragic story of what went wrong, how the fate of Long Beach was tied to the defunct Pleasure Beach Amusement Park located next to them on the peninsula, and what happens when the towns around you turn their back on you in a time of crisis.

The morning we snuck into Taunton State Hospital before dawn was like something out of a dream. It's one of those profound experiences that haunts you for the rest of your life, something you try to explain to others but can never quite find the words to express. Join Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America for a 22-minute exploration of what Taunton State Hospital's story was, why anyone would go to such great lengths to see it before it was destroyed, why it still matters today, and how even in the darkest places there still is beauty if you look for it.

The Randall Park Mall in North Randall, Ohio was, for a brief moment, the largest mall in the world. Less than 40 years later it was in ruins. In this episode we'll cover the mall's extravagant opening, tumultuous lifespan, why it finally closed, and what it was like visiting it in the aftermath. For a shopping center, it has some pretty shocking crimes in its past, and its story is more haunting than you might think. Come join Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America for a quick primer on the life and death of a megamall, once a mighty symbol of both the dreams and nightmares of American consumerism that now is no more. 

Gary, Indiana was once a thriving metropolis, but now it's a city of ruins. In this episode we'll discuss Gary's founding as a steel town, its economic collapse, and what still remains - including the abandoned City Methodist Church, the Gary Public Schools Memorial Auditorium, and the Palace Theatre. How did a city go from being called the "City of the Century" to having roughly a third of its buildings vacant, and what is it like going there today? 

Amusement parks are a happy part of many people's family memories - so it's hard to imagine a theme park of over 200 acres sitting abandoned for nearly 20 years. That is just what happened with the massive Six Flags New Orleans, however: left to rot after Hurricane Katrina submerged it for weeks, it has been vacant for over three times as long as it was open. Why wasn't the park reopened or redeveloped? Today I'm joined by Jake Williams, writer and director of the recent documentary about Six Flags New Orleans Closed For Storm, and we'll discuss the story of what happened, what the impact of the park's closure and abandonment has been, and what it's like exploring the remains, which are now inhabited primarily by alligators and snakes. 

In this episode we cover the demolition of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in West Philadelphia, a beautiful and historic church that could have easily been saved and repurposed but like so many others was torn down under questionable circumstances. We'll talk with Christopher Daniels, a teacher who found himself thrust into the role of a community activist trying to save a building whose fate seemed already sealed to find out what he did and what can be learned from the community's efforts to prevent the shocking destruction of a building many in the area knew and loved.

Today's episode is about an abandoned garden - but not just any garden, this one was created by America's first female landscape architect, Beatrix Farrand. Farrand is remarkable for many reasons - she designed the innovative and revolutionary landscapes for some of America's wealthiest families and most prominent universities and even landscaped the White House. However, much of her work today is lost. I'm joined by Karen Waltuch, Horticulturist at the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association, and David Hayes, Natural Resource Program Manager at Roosevelt Vanderbilt Van Buren National Historic Sites in Hyde Park, NY and we're going to discuss Farrand's legacy, her forgotten Wild Garden at Bellefield Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, and the amazing efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers to restore it and share it with the public. 

The documentation and exploration of ruins may have existed for centuries, but the history of the subject in the internet age is still a relatively short one. In the last episode we talked about the legacy of Ninjalicious, who helped turn people on to the subject, and in this episode we're going to take a look at the best known and most popular website on the subject before the advent of social media: Urban  Exploration Resource, or UER.ca. I'm joined by Avatar X, the founder of UER, and we'll take a look at  the cultural impact of the website, which recently celebrated its 20th  anniversary. We'll also talk about the ethical debates, the challenges of creating a community for explorers in the shadow of Ninjalicious' death, how UER was founded, and much more. If you don't know much about  the subject of urban exploration, this is the episode that will give you  the context for how it grew to such a prominent subculture today.

Brownsville, Pennsylvania used to be a prosperous town - what happened to turn it into a ghost town of dozens of rotting buildings that include the former train station, hotel, hospital, banks, churches, apartments and homes, and stores? The answer is a haunting mystery centering around how one man purchased scores of properties to build a dream, and why when it failed he left them to rot. In this episode I interview former mayor and lifelong resident Norma Marcolini-Ryan and we discuss Brownsville's glory days as a coal and steamship building city, what led to its decline, what it's like living in a city of ruins, and what the town's hopes for the future are. 

Chernobyl and its neighboring city Pripyat are two of the most haunting abandoned places on earth - but what is it really like in the exclusion zone today? In this season finale we'll hear from Mykhailo "Misha" Teslenko, a Ukrainian guide who has spend years exploring the remains of the worst nuclear disaster ever. We'll talk about what the real risks of radiation exposure are, the people who still live and work in the exclusion zone, and why so many things you may assume about Chernobyl are wrong. We'll also cover the dangerous and foolish actions of the Russian soldiers who recently invaded it, and why they posed such a danger to the rest of the world. Finally, we'll discuss Misha's return to his home in Bucha after the Russian massacres there, and what it is like living through one of the most horrifying genocides in modern history. Special thanks to musician Elizaveta, who allowed us to share her beautiful song "Home" at the end of the episode.

One of the more controversial subjects in the exploration of abandoned buildings is whether or not to keep locations secret. Join host Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America, guest host Matt Lambros, creator of the After the Final Curtain podcast, book series, and website, and Drew Scavello, the photographer behind Truth and Destruction Photography, as we chat about the reasons behind our approaches, and when/why we choose to keep locations to ourselves when sharing our photography, and what some of the consequences can be when locations gain notoriety on the internet.

The Catskill Game Farm grew from one man's collection of animals into the largest privately owned zoo in the United States and an incredibly popular tourist attraction that hundreds of thousands of people visited over the course of several decades. In this episode of the Abandoned America podcast, we'll talk about how the Catskill Game Farm became such a legend in the area, what factors ultimately led to its closure, and the huge controversies that erupted in its final days. I'll also talk with Cathy Ballone who, along with her husband Ben, purchased the property after the zoo closed and worked for years to open a bed and breakfast that honored the fond memories so many people had from their visits there. I'm joined for the interview by Matt Lambros of the After the Final Curtain book series and podcast, and together we'll find out how they managed to beat the odds and succeed. 

The Catskills region of New York has had two different periods of incredible popularity among vacationers and two different periods of decline that saw many of its most popular resorts left in ruins. In this episode I'm joined by guest co-host Matt Lambros, creator of the After the Final Curtain podcast, website, and book series, and we'll explore what led to its establishment as the place to get away from the city in the late 1800s, and what led to many of the most popular hotels left being left vacant. We'll talk about its subsequent rise as the Borscht Belt and how so many huge resorts from this period like the Pines, the Concord, and Kutsher's that were so influential in American culture were abandoned and eventually destroyed. We'll also cover some wild stories from the area's heyday, like poet Oscar Wilde getting publicly beaten with a sunflower and a bitter, years-long war over fried chicken. 

The vacant Third Presbyterian Church in Chester, Pennsylvania was an endangered architectural treasure in a city that has already lost many. A team of dedicated preservationists were making strides toward rehabilitating it into a much-needed community art center, but a sudden and horrific turn of events resulted in the destruction of the church. Join host Matthew Christopher and guest host Matt Lambros of After the Final Curtain as they interview Dave Guleke, a member of the Chester Historical Preservation Committee, and discuss what made the church so special and important, and why things went tragically awry.

Aside from homes, abandoned churches may be the most prevalent type of abandoned building in the United States - but why is that? In this episode I'm joined by Matt Lambros, author/photographer of the After the Final Curtain book series, and we'll discuss why churches are closing in such staggering numbers. The answers may surprise you! We'll also look at the history of the Ascension of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia, which was the third largest parish in the city and is now a stripped out husk in a once prosperous area now known for being an open air drug market. What happened to the church and the neighborhood around it, and how does that reflect on other urban churches that are struggling? Finally, we'll explore some of the challenges reuse projects face and some of the outlandish new lives closed churches have found. 

In this episode I'm joined by my guest Matt Lambros, creator of the After the Final Curtain podcast and book series, and we'll discuss Danvers State Hospital, one of the most infamous of the abandoned American asylums. Starting with the fascinating history and lore surrounding the site and journeying to the hospital's closure and the impact that had on the surrounding community, we'll wrap up with the role it played in Matt's interest in abandoned buildings and what it's like to explore a massive, crumbling asylum while searching for fragments of its past. 

In part 2 of our exploration of America's abandoned asylums, we'll discuss what led to the closure of so many state hospitals across the United States. Why was such an expensive, ambitious system dismantled and why is the word "asylum" now associated with such stigma and sadness? Together with my guest Matt Lambros, creator of the After The Final Curtain podcast and book series, we'll dive into what happened after the state hospitals were left to decay and why their closure may not have been as much of a victory for mental health care as we might assume.  

Of all the American ruins, asylums are perhaps the most iconic - but how did so many come to be left to rot across the country? In this two part episode we'll cover the history of the American state hospital system with my guest, Matt Lambros, creator of the After the Final Curtain podcast and book series. How were individuals with mental illness treated before the asylums were built? What led to their foundation, which was so idealistic and progressive, and how did the ambitious plan to provide humane care go so wrong that the term asylum became synonymous with a house of horrors?  

Now that we've discussed the history of theaters in America and why so many were lost or abandoned, let's take a closer look at a specific one: the Victory Theatre in Holyoke, MA, which has been abandoned since 1979. I'm joined by my guest Matt Lambros, one of the country's foremost experts on abandoned theaters and creator of the After the Final Curtain podcast and book series, as we ask how one of America's richest towns lost so many of its important buildings, what are the plans for the future of the Victory, and why does its revitalization matter so much to the town? 

How did so many grand theaters and movie palaces come to be abandoned?  In this episode we'll dive into the history of theaters in America with Matt Lambros, theater historian and creator of the After the Final Curtain book series and podcast. Together we'll chart the race to build increasingly ornate theaters across America and uncover why they eventually fell out of favor with the public, leading to hundreds closing and ultimately being abandoned or demolished. We'll also look at what the outlook for American theaters is, considering the current difficulties facing live productions during a pandemic.