I drove by this place lots of times before I finally visited.
I thought there wouldn't be much inside, but it was a very pleasant surprise.
This warehouse, and the house which is closer to the road on the same property, is the former headquarters of a publishing company for books and academic journals of psychology and psychotherapy. It operated here from 1944 to 2003 when they went under for no apparent reason, leaving this entire warehouse full of books to rot and be burned by vandals. But for being abandoned 17 years, it's in pretty good shape.
01: Ext. WarehouseI took this later in daylight.
02: Books!When I entered, I was surprised to find the place completely full of boxes and books. After looking through a window and seeing the front room completely empty, I didn't expect to find anything at all inside.
At first I didn't stop long to look- The electric meter outside looked active, so I went straight away looking for the alarm panel, fortunately found it completely dead.
03: Spiral StaircaseSpiral staircases will never not be cool.
04: WalkthroughLighting this large space with a mini-maglite was the first time I'd gotten to test my camera's high ISO ranges.
05: BurnedAt one point, the place was more open than it is now, and vandals burned some books. Book-burning for any purpose is disgusting and disturbing.
06: Lonely SilhouetteThey burned the lonely chair, too.
07: Pages 08: Anna 09: Climb 10: PortraitThe rest of the building was totally empty.
Some time later, I went back for the house that held the publishers' and editors' offices.
This building was really close to the busy road, in sight of some houses, and was covered in big windows. This didn't give me much freedom to use a flashlight. Instead, I tried to work with only the natural light.
Unlike the warehouse, it's almost completely empty inside and without a trace of vandalism.
Bizarrely, 17 years later somebody is still paying to keep the power on. It felt strange to explore an abandoned house that blinked and hummed. It's not the first time I explored a place with active power, but in this house it seemed so out of place.
10: Front RoomMotion detectors winked angrily at me. I found the alarm panel, which told me it was disarmed. I'd guessed it would be when I saw an alarmed door in the basement standing wide open. The date on the alarm battery said '00.
11: Wiggly LightStreetlights filtering in through old glass windows made really neat patterns.
12: Please Keep Door Closed 13: Crapper with a ViewThis bathroom was carpeted... why would you ever?
14: Letters to Simon3-minute exposure, my first test of this camera above 30".
15: Snowing Paint 16: ExteriorI went back in daytime to take more exterior photos.
This was an unexpectedly cool little place, hiding in plain sight on the main road. I'm amazed there wasn't more vandalism.