Inside A Williamsburg Bar That’s Been Boarded Up For Nearly 19 Years: Scouting What Remains Of The Ship’s Mast
A couple of years ago, I wrote about a little boarded up storefront at the corner of North 5th & Berry in Williamsburg:
Exploring The Abandoned Pfizer Chemical Plant in Brooklyn
Today, Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with dozens of factories and research labs across the country, over 100,000 employees, and hundreds of billions in revenue. Amazing to think it all got started in a now-empty factory on the border between South Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy. Pfizer was founded as a fine chemicals…
A Crashed Jet Abandoned in the NJ Woods
This past Memorial Day, we set out to find a treasure hidden in the New Jersey woods. We drove an hour west of the city to a pleasant area of New Jersey, then turned off into an unassuming residential neighborhood and parked at the end of a cul-de-sac. Just off the street, we found a…
Abandoned on the Palisades: The Ruins of Cliffdale Manor
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been scouting the Rockland County area, and every time I drive the Palisades north… …I notice this strange castle-like structure whiz past out my window: Clearly the ruins of something, it kept bugging me each time I drove by until finally, I had to stop and figure out what…
Exploring An Empty Mansion: Inside Hempstead House
This is Hempstead House today: In comparison, the below picture was taken in 1940, shortly after Hempstead became a home for refugee children from England, who had been sent to the US because of World World II. The caption reads: “Huntsmen three play safari in the jungle that once composed the formal garden. Pith helmets…
Exploring An Empty Mansion: The Grounds
When you own an enormous castle like the one pictured below, and it’s only used to house your servants and horses… …you’re living in a world few of us can imagine. Castle Gould, based on Kilkenny Castle in Ireland, is located in Sands Point, NY (about 45 minutes from the city), on property once owned…
Hidden In An Abandoned Orphanage
This is the third-floor hallway of an abandoned orphanage. Opened in 1940 to house English children orphaned because of World War II, it continued operating until the mid-1960’s. Now, bedrooms that once housed dozens of orphans at a time, pictured above and below, are empty and forgotten, and have been for over 40 years. The…
Ruins in the Hudson
Two of my favorite ruins in Manhattan can be found partially submerged in the Hudson River, overshadowed by the nearby West Side Highway and row of ugly, bland Trump apartment high rises. They’re certainly not secrets to anyone who’s ever walked through Riverside Park, but I recently scouted them as backdrops for a film, and…
Abandoned Coney Island – Last Chance To See?
Note: Most of this has since been torn down. When I heard the rumors that Satan’s real estate division, Thor Equities, was allegedly planning to tear down some of the last remaining historic buildings in Coney Island in fear they might acquire landmark status (including the old Coney Island Bank below), I actually felt a…
Scouting an Abandoned Hotel in Southern California
Whenever I see a sign like the one below hanging outside of an abandoned property, I immediately feel an intense desire to get inside. When such a sign is hanging outside a hotel built in the early 1900’s in Southern California that has been boarded up since 1939, that urge goes through the roof. Let…