Abandoned America Blogs and News

In this episode Matthew interviews Stacey Tenenbaum, a Canadian filmmaker who produced and directed a beautiful documentary called Scrap. Scrap takes a poetic and meditative look at what becomes of the objects we use after they've ceased to fulfill the function they were originally intended for.
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Gould Street Power Station in Baltimore was once the most impressive power plant in the city and considered a technological marvel, but now its demolition seems inevitable. In this episode, we'll trace the wild history of the site through the bitter public utility wars that led to its construction, to its eventual closure and abandonment.
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Today Forest Haven lies abandoned and mostly forgotten, but in this episode we'll explore how profound and often fatal neglect shattered lives of residents for decades, and why it was allowed to continue for years after some of the facility's most horrific injustices were brought to light.
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Rumors of why the small neighborhood of Lincoln Way wound up abandoned abound: did some monstrous beast scare away the residents? Or was it for some more realistic and relatable reason? In this episode we'll explore the mystery of how roughly 40 homes on a quiet Western Pennsylvania street were left vacant for years, still littered with the former residents' belongings, and uncover the true story of what became of the community.
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The SS United States is about as incredible as it gets: an entire ocean liner that's larger than the Titanic, out of use since 1969. Both the fastest liner ever built and the largest constructed on US soil, its future has been imperiled for decades and it seems like its time might finally be running out.
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Located a short distance from one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, it's hard to imagine why the Fallside Hotel in Niagara Falls, NY would have been abruptly closed and left abandoned. In this episode we find out what happened, and why the Fallside may be a symbol not only of decline but perhaps also of rebirth.
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What would you do if the only bridge to your community burned and the town refused to rebuild it? The residents of Long Beach, CT found out the hard way and it destroyed their entire neighborhood, leaving nearly 50 beachfront homes abandoned. In this episode of the Abandoned America podcast, we'll explore the tragic story of what went wrong.
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Join Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America for a 22-minute exploration of what Taunton State Hospital's story was, why anyone would go to such great lengths to see it before it was destroyed, why it still matters today, and how even in the darkest places there still is beauty if you look for it.
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The Randall Park Mall in North Randall, Ohio was, for a brief moment, the largest mall in the world. Less than 40 years later it was in ruins. In this episode we explore the grandiose rise and cataclysmic fall of this megamall.
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How did a city go from being called the "City of the Century" to having roughly a third of its buildings vacant, and what is it like going there today?
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Amusement parks are a happy part of many people's family memories, so it's hard to imagine what happened to Six Flags New Orleans: left to rot after Hurricane Katrina submerged itfor weeks, it has been vacant for over three times as long as it was open. In today's episode of the Abandoned America podcast, we get to the bottom of why and how it happened.
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In this episode we cover the demolition of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in West Philadelphia, a beautiful and historic church that could have easily been saved and repurposed but like so many others was torn down under questionable circumstances.
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Today's episode is about an abandoned garden - but not just any garden, this one was created by America's first female landscape architect, Beatrix Farrand. Farrand is remarkable for many reasons - she designed the innovative and revolutionary landscapes for some of America's wealthiest families and most prominent universities and even landscaped the White House. However, much of her work today is lost. We're going to discuss Farrand's legacy, her forgotten Wild Garden at Bellefield Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, and the amazing efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers to restore it and share it with the public.
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In this episode we talk the shocking past of the now-abandoned Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. For decades Dr. Albert Kligman conducted unethical and harrowing medical experiments on Holmesburg's inmates - in this episode we explore what those experiments were, how they formed the basis of the modern dermatology industry, and what happened in their aftermath.
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The documentation and exploration of ruins may have existed for centuries, but the history of the subject in the internet age is still a relatively short one. In this episode we're going to take a look at the best known and most popular website on the subject before the advent of social media: Urban Exploration Resource. I'm joined by Avatar X, the founder of UER, and we'll take a look at the cultural impact of the website.
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Jeff Chapman, also known as Ninjalicious, a man was instrumental in bringing the subject of urban exploration to the public and founding a community based around it. I'm joined by his friend Avatar X, who created the website UER.ca, and we discuss Ninjalicious' life, legacy, and why he is someone who those with any interest in how and why urban exploration became a cultural phenomenon should know.
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The American shopping mall, once a social and commercial touchstone, is vanishing. Today I talk with architectural critic Alexandra Lange (author of "Meet Me By the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall") about their birth and slow motion collapse.
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Brownsville, Pennsylvania used to be a prosperous town - what happened to turn it into a ghost town of dozens of rotting buildings? In this episode I interview former mayor Norma Ryan and we find out.
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Chernobyl and its neighboring city Pripyat are two of the most haunting abandoned places on earth - but what is it really like in the exclusion zone today? In this season finale we'll hear from Mykhailo "Misha" Teslenko, a Ukrainian guide who has spend years exploring the remains of the worst nuclear disaster ever.
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One of the more controversial subjects in the exploration of abandoned buildings is whether or not to keep locations secret. We chat with the photographers behind After the Final Curtain and Truth and Destruction Photography to explore their reasons and approaches.
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