Institutional

Cold Borscht

I'm near the point where this becomes an addiction. It's finals of my senior year, and the only thing on my mind is getting back to the Catskills. Nate doesn't even want to wait the week (the misery of entrepreneurship and self employment has some silver lining, it seems), but I finally convince him to wait until after my last exam to go back. So we spent the week planning and plotting, and finding every abandoned resort that might be worth a visit. The first one we explored, the Tamarack, has a typical story of intrigue and shady dealings for…

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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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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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The Worst Day Since Yesterday

What better way to escape from Laura than skipping a few classes and going exploring on a Monday? First location was back at Sykes Datatronics again, I'm hoping I got a different look at it this time around? After that, we returned to the ever more interesting Iola Sanitarium, for building #7 this time I suspect these were some sort of holding cells. Building #7 found use after Iola closed as an office for the county department of Corrections. At the end of this basement was a cinderblocked-off doorway. Ever the curious (and frustrated) one, I threw a poorly aimed…

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Less Studying, More Exploring

How better to enjoy finals week? Bernar'r Macfadden was a very eccentric man. His Castle on the Hill, the Dansville Physical Culture Hotel, served as a shining example of his health advice. The inventor of Grape-nuts and push-ups, Bernar'r (originally named Bernard; considering this name unmasculine he respelled it with the roar'r of a lion) considered fresh air, the outdoors and a raw diet essential to the promotion of health. Besides vigorous exercise, the hotel also offered the latest in music and theater, and lectures religious and secular, to contribute to its patients' mental health. This brochure from about 1938…

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Cryptomnesia

A December day and night in a previously unexplored part of Iola Sanitarium. There were prisoners (and prison guards) on the grounds in the afternoon, apparently this is one of the places the county brings them for exercise. This room is cleaner than mine. I'm a bit surprised there are no squatters here, especially with the electricity still on! This didn't quite come out as intended. This one did... We called this one the Murder Room. Even if all that got murdered was some film props. And this is where it gets interesting... all the outlets work, and a few…

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