Hi everyone.
Just curious as to how some of you got into this.
My first exploration was at Dixmont State Hospital just outside of Pittsburgh.
That was over a decade ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
We piled into a van and parked about a mile away to walk through the woods, avoiding the security.
There was a dirt mound concealing an entrance but we climbed over it and entered the underground tunnels. It was dank and littered with conduit strapped to walls. Scattered throughout the tunnel were tiny alcoves big enough for two people. It was probably my imagination but, two of us hid from the rest of the group in one of the alcoves. I could hear my friend breathing because we were literally face to face with our backs against opposite walls. After the group passed us, we were going to scare them and before we jumped out, I asked Nate if he was ready. I could still hear him breathing but I couldn't see him because it was so dark. I reached my hand out to touch him, but he wasn't there. It was the first time as an adult that I was truly spooked. I caught up with the group and we walked for about ten minutes and eventually came upon some stairs that led us directly into the main lobby. The rest of the night we explored the entire property until sunrise. Every single time I go exploring, I reflect back on that night.
Cheers
Nightmare Man

I guess my first was the local Libby-Owens Ford Glass Plant here in town. I was HUGE, see the below pic. They were demo'ing it and my little brother and I entered the opposite end from the demo and looked around for quite a while. It was very spooky because the sounds from the demo, about a 1/4 mile away in the same building were very loud! We then totally got busted when we left by the foreman (who was with his young son) he was yelling at us but it was all I could do to not laugh as he sounded just like the "high talker" from Seinfeld!

About a decade ago I went to middle school on a semi-abandoned military base. Two friends and I were walking by one of the abandoned buildings that had it's door wide open for whatever reason, and we decided to go in for the hell of it.

It was really dusty, some of the paint was flaking, and relatively untouched with a cool spiral staircase. I didn't get to see the entire place, but iirc, we booked it out of there when we heard someone in the building doing stuff.

The place was quiet and serene, and had that beautiful "trapped in time" aesthetic. Probably the best first explore I could have hoped for to become interested in urbex.

The building was unfortunately turned into commercial property a year or two later.

Holy massive photo batman

My first was Hellingly Asylum near the south coast of England in June 2009, and to this day it remains one of my favourite locations I've ever done with decay like nowhere else I've seen.







Sadly from around November 2009 through 2010 95% of the site was demolished, all that stands today is one single strip of ward block, the swimming pool which is still in use and the old infectious disease block which was converted into a nursery when the site closed in 1994.

I remember Hellingily Mookster visited it in 2007, was nice to see way back then

For me my first explore was Bangour village hospital(Scotland). My mother was a nurse there from 1976 till she died in 1999. So seen it when it was a active hospital and visited when i began exploring 8 years later. Due to those memories its still there just getting Sad and lonely as the years go by which it was reused as the buildings where traditionally Scottish.











been a while since i went up to Annoy the private security firm who took over from the Porters who where nice guys

My very first explore was a drain system in my hometown when I was eleven. But for buildings, it was an old, abandoned cabin up near my own cabin. Part of it had burned, but the main portion of the cabin along with the garage (which housed a gorgeous old Cadillac) still remained. I was probably twelve.

My first explore was just a farm house. One night me and a few friends were bored and were driving by it, we decided to stop and explore it. I was hooked ever since.

Although we were inexperienced and stupid. We literally parked right in the driveway of this house, which also happened to be the spot state troopers sit at to speed trap cars. We didn't get caught but there was a very good chance we could have.

Good ol' Don Valley Brick Works.

My first was an abandoned swimming pool in February 2012. I was researching the more historical buildings at my university and discovered that one had an abandoned natatorium in the basement that hadn't been used in almost a decade. Of course I had to go find it. It took awhile because it's pretty well hidden and some parts of the building don't connect to each other on the inside but eventually I found it and I've been hooked ever since.

I was 12, and a house had burned down behind my friends house maybe a week before. We just walked through the woods and into the back door. Totally furnished still. Bright yellow walls. Pictures still on the walls. Ceilings internally on the verge of collapse when we got there, though. My friend was really upset when I tried to go into the rooms with the ceilings collapsing, and so I missed out on that.
Here's what it looks like now.

When i was in middle school, a couple friends and i would adventure into some boring RCPs under a local golf course. After a few trips, we even rigged drainboards out of skateboards, boogie boards and duct tape to make exploring them easier. It was neat back then. I don't even want to imagine how my back would feel if i tried that now.

You know I should have a better memory of my first location but I've always been one to explore. I really remember my first draining experience as I got a concussion while traveling halfway across town in a storm drain. I remember one of my first houses is this old farm house that is collapsing that had some cars out back and buses across the road (Pic to come), My first building exploration was probably actually the abandoned parts of my high school.

The Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry when I was 14 years old, back in 1983.

Ahhh- my first Explore was sooooo long ago, i Think around 1966- an old, abandoned house, most windows gone, full of stinky moldy clothes and all the drywall on floor- it was razed about 1969, but we had a TON of fun in it before that happened, its a wonder we all haven't died from asbestos, Black mold etc...

My family bought a time share in 1984, (arrow)this place was next to a defunct ho-jo 2 level motel (circled area) that had 24 or so 1-2-3 bedroom bungalows. I dont know how long it had been closed as I was about 12. I have some post cards and a bottle opener from there still.


destin by cdevon1200, on Flickr

I've always been really interested in the old and abandoned. Since I was a kid, I've looked around old abandoned houses and stuff, but I think my first real location was this big old estate on an old farm.

My mom works for an environmental agency and they own the property so getting there wasn't really a big problem at all, and when I was about ten or eleven I found a key in one the bushes that unlocked the front door - I still have it in my room... somewhere

But any way, the place was really big, like three floors and a basement, and it sits on a huge farm property overlooking the bay and had a pool in the back yard as well. I wish I had taken pictures in or of it - at least ones that I still had

1. Here is an image I found of the place when people still lived there and tended to the farm and all. It looked a lot prettier then than it does now - neat to see what time can do to a place like this

My first was the American Furniture factory in Martinsville, VA.

In the 90s and early 2000s, part of the old factory was used as a sort of ramshackle warehouse for an independent textile distributor. I worked there during that time, mostly loading and unloading trucks and dragging pallets around. When I was alone and had a little free time, I would explore the rest of the decaying factory.

Growing up in a place that had been built on furniture and textile manufacturing, I was surrounded by a lot of abandonments resulting from the offshoring of those industries and the collapse of the local economy. Folks were just poor and there were just old buildings around. It was just normal life, and those places didn't seem like anything special to me. But working in the old American factory really opened my eyes to how fascinating these places are and the many reasons that it's important to remember them - and discover them anew.

Unfortunately, American burned down last year. When I went back to Martinsville to visit, I took a few pictures of the rubble and got a little misty.

click to view

It was the old rug mill that sat abandoned in the middle of my town throughout my entire childhood. I think it sat abandoned for about 30 years. Demolished just 10 or 15 years ago.

The old prison that was once in North Caldwell, NJ. I really miss this place.


Essex County Jail Annex by EsseXploreR, on Flickr

Sometime around 8th or 9th grade, my childhood elementary school, built in the 1950's, was abandoned and its students/faculty moved to a huge district-wide school they had just built. My friend and I broke a rear window and used that entrance for a number of return trips. I got a kick out of looking at all the old documents, papers, schoolbooks, finding adults that I knew in the countless old yearbooks that we found. So many weird old vinyl records of kids music. circa-1980's macintosh computers, just so much stuff, much of it clearly had been in storage dating back to the 50's-70's.

Of course I had to hit the faculty room and all these other places we weren't allowed to go. Found a tunnel in the sunken boiler room that led to a (at that time) terrifying secondary basement, but neither of us had to go in.

The building, and our sister elementary school which I never visited, had this bizarre layout which was apparently a construction trend at the time. A huge H-shape, with the cafe-gym-atorium in the center as the crosspiece, along with admin rooms, nurse's office, etc. Then the classrooms and libraries were strung end on end, with shared bathrooms connecting them, as the long parts of the H. Wouldn't be so weird had their entrances not led to an outdoor walkway. Got pretty hairy in the wintertime, I remember.

Just revisiting a place like that, that I was so familiar with but in such a transformed state was wild. We couldn't get enough of it, and searched our town high and low, with varying success, for other abandonments. At the time they were numerous but most of the weird little secret spots have since left been destroyed, filled in, etc. It's a bummer. But after that first time, I was hooked!

Last time I visited the school, it was two huge piles of rubble. I found the top of a desk with stuff scratched in it. Never realized how small they actually were.



That kid started acting crazy and killing cats and shit so I bailed. Didn't have good exploring partners again until college when I met hip photojournalist kids.