I have a list of big abandoned things I want to get into a photograph. I'm pretty lucky, because I've been able to cross the bulk of them off. I think the only really big thing I have left is hospital and hotel. Derek and I came so fucking close to getting into an abandoned hospital in NOLA, we were just a few months too late. They had cleaned it out and started restoration like, five months before we got there. I was so devastated. It didn't even stop us from trying to get in, either. We just couldn't find a conceivable point of entry. We looked twice. Parked, got out, checked out the perimeter. It just wasn't happening.
Movie theater is another one I want, but even then, I've kind of half gotten that because I found a drive in theater that Derek and I investigated. Twice. Oh! And Asylum. But everybody wants asylum, right? No surprise there. I think "abandoned Europe" is one giant box I'd like to tick off, as well, though it's almost all chateaus. So perhaps the more accurate list of what's left is hospital, hotel, movie theater, asylum, chateau.
Before we left Texas, we got to check a HUGE mark in the box next to 'prison', and I gotta be honest, I never thought I'd be able to explore and photograph an abandoned prison. Having the chance to do so was seriously fucking amazing, and Derek and I lunged at it. It was an absolutely wild time, and it's probably one of my favorite explores ever. So I thought I'd make a post about it. It dawned on me while I was driving around today (seriously close to running out of gas because I kept making the wrong decisions) that I started this blog like, eight fucking years ago specifically to share photos, not ramble about my relationships, both old and current. I've been fucking around exploring my feelings when I should have been posting all of my adventures. What a fucking LOSER.
I was not expecting an entire abandoned neighborhood on the same property as the prison. The person we were with told us that the neighborhood was where the guards lived, and I was never able to properly verify that. The information I've found on the property is actually pretty fucking sparse, probably because it was home to decades and decades of human rights violations, but that's just speculation on my part. It seemed like a pretty legit factoid, as well, so I feel good about leaving it here, but with the caveat of 'this is the best info I currently have, it may be incorrect'.
I was really hell bent on getting some interesting shots of these houses, but they were mostly gutted and bland. This house, however, I almost missed. It was so overgrown, I thought it was just a shitload of shrubbery, and I was pleased to see it was an overgrown house instead. Nothing of note inside, and even this photo isn't noteworthy. I just really liked the little treat hidden inside the bushes.
It was so fucking QUIET in here. No street noise, because we were about a mile from the road, and even then, the road was just a two laner without much traffic coming or going. There weren't any critter sounds, either. No birds, no squirrels, and we couldn't talk to each other because the place was definitely heavily monitored, and we didn't want to get caught (bad news from the future!).
Inside one of the houses. Seriously gutted. Not even a comically old and dusty can of beans. Just fucking empty.
How. Fucking. COOL. Walking out of the shade of the heavily treed neighborhood and into the bright sunlight and seeing this gigantic monolith was just amazing. I was so fucking thrilled to be there, I almost didn't want to go in.
I mean, I know this probably looks big, and it obviously IS big. It's a prison. But I'm fucking telling you, this building has god damn PRESENCE, and it is so much fucking bigger in person. There is no proper scope for how massive and dense this place is.
There's a jacket hanging from the middle of the guard tower, and we legitimately thought someone was hanging out in there. We were ready to scatter, but one of us figured out it was just a piece of clothing. Panicked the fuck out of me for a solid moment, though. I didn't end up going up into the guard tower, because I think Derek went up there and there were bees. I didn't want to get stung.
That'll keep 'em out.
The guy from our urbex group that met us at the prison figured something was wrong, because most of the litter and garbage and glass that was all over the floor was cleaned up. He got a little bit spooked about people maybe being more involved in the property, and gave us a warning to be twenty times more stealthy than we would have been. No need to tell us twice, friendo.
Not a terribly inviting view, huh? But it's prison.
I think the map on the wall said this was the cafeteria/food store area. I loved this hallway. The door at the end was locked, which was a real fucking shame, but onwards and upwards.
Speaking of upwards, this is the hallway and set of windows that anybody who's ever been to this prison (uh, in an urbex capacity, that is) takes a photo of. I took one from this angle because it seemed necessary, but I really wanted to take one from the other angle. Unfortunately, there would be some bad news in the future.
Well fine. I will not. And so I did not.
This was one of the common areas, and that big tub is a piss tub. Hooray! The toilets had been ripped from the walls.
Another common area, but this one is gated in a way more obvious way. This one also had a fuckin' huge mess o' bees in the doorway, so this was as far in as I went. Have I mentioned I'm allergic to bees? I am allergic to bees.
Here are the amazing gates to the two smaller common areas.
This is probably the way wrong sentiment, but I would fucking LOVE to do a boudoir shoot in this stairwell. That shit would be fucking AMAZING. That light is god damn to die.
This is probably the only remnant we found that was proof positive people had been in here once, besides the chair at the front.
I really fucking wish I had been able to investigate every single arm of this prison. Our trip got cut WAY short, though. We came back out from our first foray into the prison to meet two other people from our urbex group that were a little late, so I thought I'd take another crack at taking a photo that would accurately get across the magnitude of this building. And I failed.
I could not get over how apocalyptic this prison felt. It was fucking surreal.
Well, you heard them. Try tounge, but hole. Derek and I had a good laugh trying to figure out what this was actually trying to say. Was it "try tongue, butthole" or a shortened version of "try to tongue butthole" or "try tongue, but whole" as in the meat delicacy?
As you can see, respirators were a must. But it was so god damn stuffy in there, because it was Texas heat, inside, no air movement, WITH a respirator AND long sleeves and pants (so we wouldn't get nasty shit on our bodies). Black mold don't fuck around, though, so we didn't, either.
Upstairs from here was the library, but no books. Just a bunch of toppled over bookcases. The school rooms were upstairs, as well, but I wasn't inspired to take any photos of them.
These are the transient cells, and these are right next to the other side of the hallway with the vine covered windows, and that was my next stop, so I could get a perspective on that hallway that nobody else was getting.
Unfortunately, that's when the bad news from the future showed up. One of our group ran in, loud whispering that there were trucks on the property and a guy with a drone and we needed to fucking leave now now now now now now. So I snapped this last photo and off we ran, making our very own prison break, which was exhilarating, and my legs got scratched to fucking shit running through fucking blackberry brambles and hiding in machine sheds and making daring breaks while we hid from the people who could get us into serious fucking trouble if they caught us on property. I think it took about thirty minutes to escape, and we all had to split up.
This is the entrance to the medical ward. This is where Derek and I hid, and it was seriously creepy in there. There weren't any working lights, but there was a hole that had something red covering it, so there was a really sickly red glow over one of the doorways. It was hellish looking. We made a mad fucking run for it after this, caught up with our group, and then we made the long trek back to our cars. We hit up an abandoned house one of the other group members had seen, and I found these AMAZING bricks that were from like...I believe 1904? Maybe earlier? They were really worth a pretty little penny, and there were a LOT of them, but taking things is against the rules. I didn't end up going into the house, though. A cop pulled a lady over a little too close to the house for our comfort, so we all left and said we'd go back to the house. We never did, though, which is an absolute shame. I kinda wanted to grab those bricks. :/
Anyway, this is about a year late, but it's up here now!
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