Common Knowledge

When looking for a place to explore, never discount the obvious. Anyone who has seen this building enough times would notice the lights are never on, and the windows are broken, on the first two floors. This one is only an elevator ride away from me - the building where I live, 111 East Avenue, used to be the Sagamore Hotel, one of the most luxurious places in the city in the 1920s and 30s. Among the more interesting historical uses of the building, the penthouse once housed W2XRT, among the first television stations ever built, going on the air…

Continue ReadingCommon Knowledge

Missiles? What Missiles?

My friend came in from Ithaca this weekend for some exploring, and after some Friday night drinking and draining (making use of his crow-wrench tire iron that I took by mistake almost six years ago and *still* forgot to return), we thought we should try some new places out in Niagara Falls, see if we could find a "missile silo" someone posted on UER about a month ago. It didn't go according to plan at all, we went around in circles looking for it, found a few fenced off vacant lots, and finally something that looked like a plausible base.…

Continue ReadingMissiles? What Missiles?

I Love The Smell Of Asbestos In The Morning

And what a view it was to wake up to Sunday morning! We didn't even really explore this building much during the night, but in the blazing morning sun, it was a sight to see. This building was in even worse condition than the state park ones, but I don't even care, I like the further extremes of decay more than I ever would a pristine place that looked like it just closed last week. After this building, with it still only being 8am, we wandered back along the bike path into town for coffee and breakfast (bagels with lox…

Continue ReadingI Love The Smell Of Asbestos In The Morning

Kings Among Runaways

While I was in Zuccotti Park, I got an admittedly very unexpected call from one of the people I'd desperately tried messaging through the night, Yossi from Urban Odyssey, who was completely interested in spending a weekend at Kings Park! So we met in Brooklyn, waited a few hours for people we hoped might show up, and took the ride out there on the Long Island Railroad. Getting in was easier than we expected, with open doors on a building right in a state park! I felt right at home among the peeling paint, and thoroughly amazed to be in…

Continue ReadingKings Among Runaways

I Want To Wake Up In The City That Never Sleeps

If it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done. I'd been planning to go to Boston this weekend but obviously it's not the time to do anything suspicious out there. So I figured it was as good a time as any to try the Catskills again and maybe actually make it to my first Kirkbride asylum. I thought I had some solid plans, but once I was already on the bus to New York, everything fell apart again and I was left scrambling. I sent out a bunch of messages to any explorers I knew in the…

Continue ReadingI Want To Wake Up In The City That Never Sleeps

The Underground Art

It may be trivially easy to access, and everyone's been there, but one of the best things about the Rochester abandoned subway is that every few months, the graffiti changes like the exhibits in a gallery. This time, we were here to remember Seth (HIAR) who took his own life last winter, and try to get pictures of as much of his art as is still around...

Continue ReadingThe Underground Art