Into The Monolith

So this is it. The big one. The white whale. The greatest and last frontier for Rochester exploring. Like everyone else, I've had a few goes at it. Nothing any good, there's almost never a way in. So you can imagine my surprise when Ian calls and says it's open RIGHT NOW. Even then I didn't believe it; there had been enough of these kind of false starts before that the only thing they found is the same high up window again. But this time was nothing of the sort: the FRONT DOOR (!) had a wide open board. And…

Continue ReadingInto The Monolith

This Great Dead Town

(Part 4 of my Detroit/Cleveland adventure) Highland Park itself, if possible, managed to be even more desolate and Detroiter than its Detroit surroundings. After a local financial crisis bankrupted the town in the late 90s, Michigan took it over, and consolidated its government functions, leaving what was probably once a proud municipal square to decay: city hall, courthouse, police and fire stations surrounding a deserted square. OK, you got me this time Guilty as charged! (These cells lock. I don't know what we would have done if someone didn't helpfully leave the keys, and a sign, right outside there!) I…

Continue ReadingThis Great Dead Town

Everybody’s Doing The Fish

(Part 3 of my Detroit/Cleveland adventure) Following the suggestion of the hobo in the old hotel, we found our way after a few (well, more than a few) wrong turns to the Fisher Body plant. It's no Packard, but still a good taste of the Motor City's abandoned legacy. Fisher was/is the supplier of steel auto bodies to GM, and to a lesser extent some of the European models, and still has a major facility next to GM in Dearborn, even though this one in Highland Park closed in the late 90s. Architecturally, it is a nearly perfect Detroit boxy…

Continue ReadingEverybody’s Doing The Fish

Apocalypse: Here

After 32 hours and 1200 miles of trains (yeah about that... Chicago was nice and all but really? You can fall asleep on a train and wake up 3 states too far?) I finally arrived in Detroit. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see, maybe some third world abandonscape right outside of the train station, but it really seemed like any other American city I'd ever been to. There were cars on the road, people in the streets, a crowd gathering at the station to catch the next train to Lansing, 9am and well into their tailgate already…

Continue ReadingApocalypse: Here

The Decline and Fall of Iola

A second visit to this place proved more than enough to know why its days are numbered. Iola began its life in 1915 as a tuberculosis sanatorium, occasionally also holding mentally ill children. After TB was cured in the early 60s, Monroe County took the buildings over as offices, using them for veterans' affairs, traffic and corrections among others. Costello & Sons, a Brighton real estate firm known for constructing identical brick doctors' offices, bought the property in 2000 on a 10 year development contract, and is running out of time to tear it down and start work on its…

Continue ReadingThe Decline and Fall of Iola

Peeling Paint Asylums Aren’t Cliché

Don't worry, we had permission. This is the Walters Building at Rochester psych center, which is now owned by and partially used by the Al Siegel center for some sort of storage. They agreed to give about ten of us a tour, as long as we ran through it and saw the whole place in 45 minutes. Predictably, that meant we missed at least 3/4 of it. Oh well... it's the closest I'll ever get to seeing an asylum anyway. Apparently it was a dental asylum? Roofs are overrated. The stench of decay Steam tunnel to the Terrance building. Remember…

Continue ReadingPeeling Paint Asylums Aren’t Cliché