Institutional – Page 8 – This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed

Sandstorm

Post author:Concrete
Post published:April 5, 2010
Post category:Buffalo Industrial Institutional Niagara
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Back at Flintkote with the UR UrbEx. I'm still amazed we made this one happen, with Andrew on it and all! More giant machinery here The destructed ruins of what was once a relatively grand train station on the way to Niagara Falls. It was already closed for decades by the time it burned in 1974, and now only the brick and stonework somewhat remain. More fire damage... we probably could have brought this steel mill down with our hands. Some deranged protest... Lockport was left out of the Interstate highways, and someone wasn't happy? I guess? So many rusting…

Wrong Side of the Fence

Post author:Concrete
Post published:April 2, 2010
Post category:Buffalo Institutional
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I guess if I can't get into an asylum, the next best thing is to look at one from the outside? This was a weird trip from the start, I'm not quite sure what Ian had in mind but I think it was this. He knows I can't climb fences, and presumably he knew this place had a fence, so... I assume I got to be part of the scouting trip then he'd go back without me to see it. It was impressive just the same, and completely worth the 2-hour drive out to it. Or not. But I know…

Physical Culture

Post author:Concrete
Post published:November 2, 2009
Post category:Finger Lakes Institutional
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While its earliest origins were as a home for injured Civil War veterans and an asylum for children, the Castle on the Hill gained its greatest notoriety as a Physical Culture spa, or 'healthatorium'. Led by the highly eccentric Bernar'r Macfadden, Physical Culture combined bodybuilding, ascetic fasting and a strict raw food diet. An incredibly prolific writer, Bernar'r wrote about 115 books, copies of which used to be stacked by the thousands in his publishing house (which burned down in 2006) behind the sanatorium. Guests here included most of Wall Street and Broadway in the '20s and '30s, at the…

Introducing IOLA

Post author:Concrete
Post published:October 25, 2009
Post category:Institutional Rochester
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Third meet of the UER season, and a chance to meet some new explorers. NeonTempest wanted to introduce us to this place, the Iola Sanatorium, to show us what "real exploring" was like. Which, to him, meant something like park a mile away with 12 people, and march right onto the grounds in the plainest sight possible. Just to take us straight downstairs into this. The whole point of going was these tunnels, blocked off with fresh new cinder blocks. So we get to try another entrance, going through this just to find more cinder blocks. By the time he's…

Buffalo!

Post author:Concrete
Post published:September 19, 2009
Post category:Buffalo Industrial Institutional
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Fall couldn't come soon enough; another semester of college, the Bills have a chance again, and it's UER season! First place of the day was an orphanage school whose days are numbered Painting the tunnels before graduation seems to have been a tradition here Next was a boring old furniture factory that isn't worth much of a mention here. Then, somehow, we decided to attempt this iconic site This was about as far as we got before paranoia took over... cops on the brain are the (second-)worst! At least we weren't caught...

School’s Out Forever

Post author:Concrete
Post published:March 29, 2009
Post category:Institutional Rochester
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My third time out with the UER group... I'm so impressed with them, epic abandoned places every single time! This one is an abandoned high school about 30 miles away in Orleans county I never would have seen without them. Creepy enough for you? They said all the seats used to be full of stuffed animals too. Any guesses what the shape of this is supposed to be? Most rooms had one of these on the wall Or how about a translation of this (Japanese?)