Abandoned and Almost Forgotten

 Situated around the country are thousands of places which once were whirlwinds of activity; manufacturing plants, factories, stores, furnaces and homes, places which have been deserted and left behind. The people who worked or lived in them took off, possibly due to economic reasons, disease or poor water. These places now sit empty and are slowly decaying, returning to nature.

    Ivy, often poisonous, grows over the faces of the buildings. Roots spread between the bricks and their roofs collapse, allowing sunshine and greenery to fill the once dark rooms.

    Occasionally, some places appear to have been used the day before with machinery sitting in neat rows, but if you look closely; the start of rust is evident on the once oiled surfaces. Most often, signs of previous trespassers remain; broken glass, damaged equipment and scattered papers along with mostly unintelligible words sprayed across any and every open surface. What is it that causes people to destroy these places?

    Entering into a place such as these always make me wonder about its past. Who was it that ran this machine? Did they enjoy the job, was it a profession or just a way to earn some cash to help them survive? High technology hadn’t arrived yet, but to the people who worked these places, it was as good as it gets. No matter what time in history, owners and investors are always looking for ways to increase production! We tend look at these places with modern eyes, not the eyes of those who inhabited them.

    Frank and I visited a couple places recently which brought up some more questions to ponder.

    One was a small town in Armstrong County. Originally called Yellow Dog, it later was renamed Shadyside Village. The town was built in the late 1800’s but the houses date around the early 1900’s. It was constructed for the workers of the Pittsburgh Limestone Company. To live there, they promised not to unionize or strike. They were called “Yellow Dogs” by the unions and it was because of this that the town got its name. The company went out of business in the 50’s but the town remained inhabited until the early 2000’s when people started getting sick from the water. The final resident moved out in 2011 or 2012. The place has sat empty and decaying ever since.

    People can visit the site by contacting the owner and paying a small admittance fee. The place is a mess. It appears as if the people just picked up their necessities and walked away. There is still food on the shelves, toys and clothing lay strewn across the floors. A piano sits in a living room with wedding portraits sitting on it. In other houses, debris looks as if it had been stashed in piles and then forgotten, the stacks high enough to impede access. Moisture has done a job on the buildings with sunshine, and rain, falling on the floors in the attics. Windows are broken, allowing vines into the houses and the paint is peeling. 

    Walking around the village requires a careful eye, not all the porches are stable and some of the banisters are only hanging loosely on the walls.

    Lots of people have come though these houses and I can’t imagine that the things left behind are in the same spots as they were when the owners left. It is doubtful that they left their wedding pictures sitting on the piano or decorated a still standing Christmas tree with old 45RPM records. To me, they seem placed there by opportunistic photographers, recorders of “history”. Surprisingly, there is very little graffiti.

    Over time, the houses will continue to deteriorate until it will become too dangerous to visit. The place will be forgotten to all except for some “old timers”. Trees and weeds will fill in the yards and the houses will collapse, leaving only the stone foundations. Like everything else, time will eventually remove it from our sight and our memories.

(on-line photo, 1989)

    A few days later, we visited another place, this one an old glass manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Jeannette. Established in 1889, The Westmoreland Specialty Company, later re-named The Westmoreland Glass Company, specialized in making milk glass amongst their other products. It went bankrupt in 1984 and has been slowly caving in on itself ever since.

    The roofs of the buildings have fallen in but the places which are still accessible have obviously been visited by many people. Graffiti is on almost everything. Fire companies have been called numerous times. A neighbor told me that he is worried that eventually one of the smokestacks will collapse onto the near-by railroad tracks, he wants it torn down. Whatever is going to happen, the process is well under way!

    We entered the ruins by way of an open door. A couple nicely placed stones helped us get past the high step. Once inside, the floor itself was relatively clear, the building stretched out into the darkness. Thankfully we had flashlights since there are open holes hidden in the dark. Not big enough to fall into, but large enough to break a leg if one was to walk into it unknowingly. The open doors and windows provided some light but the further into the building we went, the darker it got. 

    There are two large bottle ovens on the site, named because of their shape, not their end products. Each has spots in their chimneys where bricks are missing. The bases of them are massive, helping to support the weight of the huge stacks above. Piles of broken white glass, in all sorts of different shapes and shades were scattered around the furnaces.

    A circular ramp led up to the second floor. The metal roof had collapsed long ago and there were pathways in the dust that showed the ways that previous explorers and artists had gone. The two ovens had numerous arched entrances surrounding their bases, smaller ovens were situated around the two larger chimneys, each one had a purpose, but I don’t know what they were… I would have loved to see what it looked like when it was being used, I can only imagine, my knowledge of glass making is slim.

(on-line photo, 1989)

    Trees and shrubs have been growing inside these buildings for decades. Thorns were sharp and tears in clothing or skin could easily happen if I wasn’t careful. Somehow an old Jeep had made it onto the second floor, it’s partially dismantled carcass sat beside the fallen roof. The stacks and chimneys pushed up from the debris into the blue sky above, not wanting to yield to the forces of nature and gravity. Eventually they will fall, whether by time or man is yet to be known. It is extremely doubtful that anything could ever be salvaged from these ruins other than scrap steel and bricks.

    We returned to the car, our cameras cards and heads filled with memories. While wandering around, gazing at the architecture and the buildings remnants, once again we couldn’t help but wonder; how did it operate? Who were the people who worked here and are any of them still alive? 

    These places give us a glimpse into the past, they are simple, non-technical time machines. They show us how things were, 10, 20 or 100 years ago. This is why it is important that they are preserved, or at least documented. Seeing these sites is insightful, especially when you mate what you see with facts garnered from the internet. Not everyone can see them, that’s all the more reason to record them while they still stand!

In the overall view of time, our lives here on earth are but a brief flash, and like us, these remains will soon be gone…and forgotten.