I've been doing some "urban exploring" of my own lately. I've got ~160 pictures of varying quality and a bunch of details, but I've only got enough time to post a handful of "teaser" pictures at the moment.
This place is only about 35 minutes from Three Rivers, so I'd be more than happy to take you guys on site sometime. I've edited the name and location of the building out of one of the photos due to my professional relationship with the site. I'll let you guys know what it is and where it is via IM if you want to know about it. I promise I'll be forthcoming with more details tomorrow, assuming you guys want them.
I apologize for the crappy pictures, but I'm stuck with my old school 2.2mp digital camera. Also, the place was pretty dark, so flash was required, resulting in a lot of washed out shots when reflective surfaces were involved. I might take my 35mm setup out for a couple of shots.
Just to give you an idea of what you're looking at, this place was a manufacturing facility with a sizable attached office building. The facility manufactured glass, plexi-glass, and mirrors for a variety of clients.
Without further adieu...
This place apparently had an auction in 1972. I know the offices were closed around 1995, so I'm not sure what the purpose of the auction was. It may have simply been to sell off excess equipment.
This place has a bunch of nifty electronic/electrical equipment including ohm meters and printed circuit boards for unknown industrial equipment. Here is such an example...
There is a lot of "permanent" equipment left at the building, including this huge scale tucked between two semi-trailer docks.
Inside the office area, one of the larger rooms (presumably a conference room) has a white board with an interesting message on it. I have no clue if this was written as a joke or if this was a serious task list for a company going out of business. I'd like to think it was the former of the two. The other side of the white board (out of the picture) has "Jesus Loves You" written across a work flow chart. Weird.
Here is a view of the front lobby where the main entrance is located, as viewed from the front office where a receptionist's desk probably sat. As you can see, the drop-tile ceiling is badly damaged, leaving telecom wires dangling from the ceiling.
This is easily the freakiest thing in the entire building. An "executive" hallway houses the accounting and administrative offices, and this plaque is randomly placed in the center of the hallway on the left side. It's sitting directly beneath a 180° security mirror. Definitely spooky.
Here's a closeup with me in the reflection!
Most of the office furniture from this building is missing, with only a bunch of cubicles being left behind, along with a few hutches here and there. One small desk remains in what I assume is the company president's office. On this desk is a phone book (for some reason, there are tons of phone books all over this building) and, interestingly enough, a King James bible. It looks like it was practically brand new when it was left behind, as there is little sign of use.
This is another thing that falls into the "freakin' weird" category. In another formerly-posh office, which I assume was the vice president's office, a bunch of dust has fallen from the ceiling where a ceiling tile was damaged. In that dust are some animal prints, which look much like cat prints to me (then again, what do I know about animals?). The problem? They're freakin' HUGE. I put my car key next to it for comparison.
...and a closeup.
The area above the offices was used for storage, and this place wasn't really cleaned up when the company went under. As such, this place has more cool remnants than the rest of the building combined. Here's a key box that was left upstairs. Most of these keys seem to go to industrial manufacturing equipment that is long gone.
Yup, that's right, FORMALDEHYDE! This bottle expired well over a decade ago, but it's still nearly full. I have no clue why a bottle of formaldehyde was in this building in the first place, let alone up in a storage area.
Apparently, the owner of the company was a Christian author. An entire case of one of his books is located in the storage area, along with a bunch of envelopes for both the defunct company and his ministry. It would appear he ran his ministry out of the same building as his company. Here's a stack of his books that were lying on a desk.
Here's a nifty (but misspelled) sign leading into another area of the factory. More cool stuff awaits!
More details coming tomorrow, if you guys want them!
-b0b
(...feels like Santa.)