Morristown College: School of Freedom

Morristown, Tennessee, is rich in history. It was first settled in 1787, almost a decade before Tennessee became a state. The town played host to both Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. It was also home to Morristown College, established in 1881 to offer former slaves opportunity for higher education. The school was fueled by donations and operated on a shoestring budget, yet managed to stick around for 113 years until it closed in 1994. The buildings never found re-use and eventually landed in the lap of an unmotivated owner, who ignored redevelopment and rescue efforts. More than twenty years after closing, Morristown College’s brick husks are still standing – albeit slowly crumbling – just blocks from the city center. A new owner hopes to change that, but development partners are needed before the plans can turn into a reality. Are these decaying buildings significant and an important part of Morristown history, or are they merely blight? Are they worth saving, and if so, what can be salvaged?

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Ravenswick Hall: Disrupting an English Manor

Sometimes Interesting

Abandoned English manors raise questions. How does a beautiful estate owned by the same family for generations become deserted and neglected? Ravenswick Hall is no exception. Once a proud English manor in North Yorkshire, it remained in the same family for generations. The estate was eventually sold out of the family, partially remodeled, then abandoned, and later repossessed by the bank. Recently it was re-sold, and is now waiting to be demolished in late 2016 to make way for new construction. A bankruptcy, a failed bid to make Historic England’s preservation list, and systematic vandalism headline the twentieth-century drama surrounding the 276 year-old estate. The new owner hopes to change that next year with a new Ravenswick Hall. So what’s the story behind these abandoned buildings and why are they being torn down? Read on.

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Prora: the Colossus of Rügen

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Owner of the title “longest failed beach resort of the Third Reich” belongs to Prora, a mostly abandoned collection of buildings along the Baltic coast in northeastern Germany. The seaside retreat was built by the world’s first large-scale tourism operator as an accessible vacation spot for 20,000 working-class Germans. Longer than some roads, this striking example of Third Reich architecture takes nearly two hours to circumnavigate on foot. Prora was never operational. After the onset of the Second World War, a diverting of resources stopped construction before the resort could be completed. Today the former Nazi creation is still partially developed while struggling to find developers, investors, and acceptance.

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Revenant of the Irish Hills Towers

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In the early twentieth century the Michigan Observation Company built a tower in the Irish Hills of southeastern Michigan. This annoyed a neighbor, who retaliated by building an observation tower of his own – only his was taller. The company responded by matching the height, to which the neighbor countered with several more feet of his own, again matched by the company. Eventually a truce was negotiated, and the towers, which stood just a dozen feet away from each other, operated independently for decades. For 76 years the towers stood as a roadside beacon for travelers along U.S. 12. in Michigan, however a steady decline in visitors since the 1970’s forced its owners to close the regional icons in 2000. Today they are poor condition, and require extensive repairs to avoid being demolished. Will they be saved?

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Overhills: Former Rockefeller Estate Sequestered on Fort Bragg

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For more than one hundred years the idyllic Overhills golf and hunt club in the foothills of North Carolina has remained hidden from the public eye. At the dawn of the twentieth century its private fox-hunting trails, golf course, secluded lake, and polo fields were quietly enjoyed by some of the most powerful families in America. This southern Arcadia was the antipode of Biltmore and a polar Pinehurst, content with a comparatively quiet opulent existence. Overhills spent more than seventy-five years as a private estate of the Rockefeller family before it was eventually sold to the Army and incorporated into Fort Bragg. For the last twenty years it has been isolated on military grounds, fenced but not groomed or maintained. Wild fires have replaced thieves and vandals as the chief threats to the abandoned structures, most of which have retreated into vegetative overgrowth. In this post we remember and tour the former Rockefeller estate, before it disappears under a canopy of longleaf pine forever.

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Hudson River State Hospital: Fourteen Decades of Mental Hygiene

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Welcome to the Hudson River State Hospital, the first High Victorian Gothic institution built in the United States. Located in Poughkeepsie, New York, it opened in 1871 and spent 140 years consuming tax dollars in exchange for housing the state’s mentally ill. It was built during a “moral treatment” era of mental hygiene and enjoyed national prominence under the leadership of luminaries in mental health. The hospital eventually attained a peak census of 6,000 patients in the mid 1950’s before sustaining a sixty-year decline. Advances in medicine and treatments, a high operating cost, and changes in social attitude contributed to its eventual closure in 2012. Today the structures have crumbled under constant assault from fires, vandals, and exposure. One thing still intact: A spectacular history spanning fourteen decades.

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Willow Bridge Service Station: Pricey Diesel, Free Iron Oxide

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At first glance this 1930’s filling station tucked away on a country road in Northern England is unspectacular. Yet visitors to the Willow Bridge Service Station are treated to a collection of dilapidated cars and rotting caravans scattered around the property. Willow Bridge is not abandoned, and is still very much in business. However today it only serves decomposition, diesel, and rust. The station lacks a fantastic history, but it does host a few dozen abandoned vehicles collecting moss and succumbing to the local flora. England-based photographer Guy Carpenter has captured the decay in detail and shares his images of those brave conveyances who elected to stay behind to confront a ferrous fate.

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The Ellen Austin Encounter

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One of the more fascinating oceanic tales is that of the strange encounter between the Ellen Austin and an abandoned vessel found adrift near the Bermuda Triangle. The Ellen Austin‘s captain sent two separate crews to bring the vessel to New York as a salvage prize, however both crews mysteriously vanished, and the derelict was lost forever. What ship did the Ellen Austin encounter, and what became of her two missing prize crews? What is truth, what is fiction? Sometimes-Interesting has gathered the information and presents what is believed, and what is known.

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