Yearly Archives: 2011

Hot Borscht

Grossinger's resort on a horrendously hot April afternoon. Open from the turn of the century to 1986, Grossinger's was one of the three crown jewels of the Catskill resort area, known in its time as the Borscht Belt or Jewish Alps for the predominant nationality of its vacationers. These resorts were the reason the now-desolate route 17 expressway was built from New York to Binghamton, which once packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic every summer weekend. Now the resort towns sit boarded-up and depopulated, and those resorts that haven't burned down yet remain abandoned and open to the elements. 25 years can…

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1977 House

Got lost on the way into Grossingers and found this thing. We're not sure exactly whose house it was, but it seems to have been either a VIP family at the resort who had their own summer home, or a caretaker of some sort, as it's well within the resort fence. Whatever the cause, these people left very abruptly, almost as if expecting to return next summer, not bothering to move out. The style and decor looks about like the late 70s... the resort closed in 1986, which may be when the residents finally left. The things people leave behind...…

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Concrete Central

I really need to cut down on the skip class and go exploring thing. Especially a week before finals. But if Nate offers to take me to Buffalo on some random Monday, do you really think I won't go? Of course Nate was all about climbing the thing, all he wanted was the view from the top. Like hell I'd climb a staircase with 34 of the first 35 steps missing... so I got to take pictures of the bottom for two hours while he had all the fun. Oh well... when life gives you columns, make -- colonnade? Columns.…

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Within A Mile Of Home

This is an absolutely rotten spot on the southwest side. I'd had my eyes on it for close to two years now as it sat near-abandoned, occupied by some clever squatters with Rube Goldberg booby-traps on the entrance. I never did get to figure out their story, but judging by the signs of life I'd seen, and the possessions left behind, it must have been a fascinating one. Last summer's occupant, who we came to call "Mr. October," made his presence very well known by keeping a boom box on the roof blasting baseball games seemingly every day. After a…

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Government Mold

I must say after the raves this winter, I still didn't know what this place looked like during the day. Having Nate and his friends around too made it different, none of them really knew the place so for them Iola really was all about discovery and exploration still. For me today was more about trying out the new 50mm lens, and learning just how far back-back-BACK i have to go to see a damn thing with it. No wonder Nate told me it's the most inspiring mistake I'd ever make as an explorer. This was my first time even…

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Fluid Dynamics 201

After the furniture factory, a few of us split off from the UR group at Nate's suggestion to check out this place in Niagara Falls he found. Once the power plant for the massive (and demolished) Union Carbide plant, at the time Niagara's biggest employer, this was the largest Tesla AC (54 volt) facility ever constructed. Union Carbide eventually failed massively, in part due to bad public relations after the Bhopal incident, and most of the compound met its demise. This part still remains, surrounded by active machine shops, but completely open for the past few decades. Other than the…

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