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Manteno State Hospital
In 1927, the state of Illinois purchased over 1,000 acres of land earmarked for a massive mental health complex to become known as the Manteno State Hospital. By 1929 the dedication ceremony took place with Illinois announcing Manteno as the tenth such hospital to be “dedicated by the State of Illinois to the welfare of its people for their relief and restoration, a place of hope for the healing of the mind and body where many may find health and happiness again.”
The City Under One Roof
After World War II plans were conceived by the U.S. military to construct a massive outpost in Alaska, due in part to the growing concern of suspected Soviet activities next door. Whittier was strategically chosen and construction on the 273,660 square-foot facility would begin in 1948. Five years later the Buckner building was operational. At the time it was the pride of Alaska, the largest building in the state.
The pride would be short-lived. When the Great Alaskan Earthquake struck in 1964 the facility was permanently damaged, leaving it exposed to the elements for the next 50 years. Read more…
The Forgotten Island of New York: North Brother
Located between Riker’s Island and the Bronx on the East River, North Brother Island currently sits in a state of disrepair, abandoned for the last fifty years. North Brother wasn’t always this way. Back in the nineteenth century, the city of New York decided an isolated location was necessary to quarantine and treat those suffering from infectious disease. North Brother Island provided the perfect solution.
Thus, existing facility Riverside Hospital was moved to North Brother Island in 1885 and re-established as a quarantine facility. Read more…
Accidental Bodies of Water: The Salton Sea
In 1904, there was no Salton Sea. The Salton sink occupied the vast expanse of land 40 miles south of Palm Springs, California with an elevation 226 feet below sea level. The Salton trough was formed by the stretching and sinking of the San Andreas Fault, on which the Salton sink sits. A flood in 1905 saw the Colorado River pour into the sink, and by the time authorities managed to stop the flooding two years later, the largest lake in California had already formed.
Fifty years later the Salton Sea would be seen as the American Riviera, one of the more popular destinations in California. But today, the lakeside communities sit in ruin and most are largely abandoned. Boarded-up houses and beach clubs litter the landscape. Along the coast, what looks like sand is actually crushed and rounded bones from millions of fish skeletons.
So what happened? Read more…
Dixie Square Mall
Dixie Square Mall has quite a history, despite standing in ruin for more than double the number of years it was in operation. Most recently classified as a “dead mall” (a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or low consumer traffic), Dixie was perhaps most famous for being the mall used in the chase scene in the movie The Blues Brothers.
Located in Harvey, Illinois, it stood vacant for over 30 years before finally being torn down in May of 2012. Here is the story of the Dixie Square Mall. Read more…
Abandoned Airport: Ciudad Real
Nothing highlights the Spanish financial problem like an abandoned airport.
Opened in 2009 at a cost of €1.1bn, the Ciudad Real Central Airport saw light use before being shut down in April of 2012. Ciudad Real is a Spanish city about two and a half hours south of Madrid. The airport was to be the first linked to the Spanish high-speed AVE rail system, making the trip to Madrid only 50 minutes.
Fort Carroll: Secure Bird Sanctuary?
In the mid-nineteenth century, Baltimore’s ports needed increased protection along the Patapsco River for the routes between Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay. By 1848, the United States War Department had the green light to begin construction on a hexagonal structure designed by Robert E. Lee.
The fort would be named for Declaration of Independence-signer Charles Carroll in 1850, and saw use in the Civil War despite not yet being fully completed. The structure was planned to have four levels, the first of which cost one million dollars to complete. Read more…
The First Attempted New York Subway: Beach Pneumatic Transit
Alfred Beach was an inventor and editor of Scientific American magazine. He was also a visionary for subterranean rapid transit. By 1849, New York was already a bustling hub of activity. Beach saw a need to ease the congestion on the city streets, so he penned a piece proposing an intricate system of underground tunnels for transit.
When he learned of the advances being made in pneumatics, Beach adopted the technology for his underground transport concept. It was an innovative concept, but ultimately costs would be too high for it to be practical. The concept would ultimately be little more than an attraction, and it would quickly be forgotten when the novelty wore off. Read more…
