Hello! I am newish to Urbex and very new to UER. Excited to meet all of you!
This location was a high school in my region - despite being abandoned for 30 years, it was relatively well-preserved. It's located in a pretty dead town off the beaten path, which likely contributed to the lack of wear and tear. Some information (names, dates) in the post has been altered slightly or removed in order to help keep it that way.
The school was halfway between a much larger town and a Native American reservation, and most students were from one of those two places. Nominally, the school was closed down due to asbestos. However, locals cite racial tension between the white students and Native students as the true reason. After the closure, new schools were built both in the large town and on the reservation, separating the students for good. I'm no professional photographer - these were taken on an iPhone - but I think they turned out okay.
The first thing you encounter when you enter is the school's gymnasium.
Perhaps my favorite photo was a long shot of the gymnasium. The roof was broken over the stage, giving the eerie impression of stage lights. A small breeze flowed through the area, making the curtains flutter slightly as I approached. The only thing on the back wall was a "Class of XXX" graduation sign, commemorating the last thing that ever happened in that gym. The exact year of graduation has been blacked out in order to help preserve the location.
The gym also had a wildly cool old scoreboard. I thought my friend took photos of it, so I didn't bother. Turns out he didn't. Enjoy this decrepit ironing board that was in there for some reason as a consolation prize.
Nothing much was left of the school's former kitchen, except for collapsed pieces of roof and several lights hanging on by a thread.
The rusted remnants of the central heating system were also located here.
I have no idea what the next room over was supposed to be. It was full of twisted pipes and what I think was moldy insulation all over the floor. Probably included asbestos or other toxic crap. I didn't linger.
Stepping out of the room, I encountered a collapsing hallway. The roofing and flooring throughout much of the school were starting to give and a few areas were inaccessible.
Towards the end, it was lined with lockers that had accumulated 30 years worth of rust.
We'd found a couple of classrooms by this point that was mostly empty of chairs, tables, and other equipment. For some reason, many of them had been deposited in the library.
The library desk was still intact, though it had seen better days.
Also in the library was an honest-to-God typewriter. And my buddy's foot.
Otherwise, the place was empty. The bookshelves with no books were somewhat depressing.
Past the library was a door to the basement. This was the first time we'd had to take out a flashlight - it was dark as the pits of hell down there.
The bottom of the basement was under a layer of standing water. I hadn't brought boots, so my ability to comfortably poke around down there was highly limited. It also included more chairs and tables that presumably had previously inhabited the classrooms.
That said, I got a reasonably good photo of the boiler and associated structures.
Next up was the locker room. The school had been constructed before Title IX, and it was clear that they had simply inserted a wall halfway through the locker room to bisect it for each gender. The walls were coated with the school's logo and the ridiculous motivational sayings that often adorn athletic facilities.
The coaches had offices inside the locker room, another thing that would likely never be allowed in a school built today. Elderly pieces of masking tape proudly proclaimed the purposes of various shelves.
The showers were completely intact. It was hard not to wonder how many scrawny teenagers had been bullied here.
This room may have been a teacher's lounge or something at one point. Or the property of a squatter who had clearly been gone for decades. As I stepped inside, the floor creaked alarmingly and lowered a full six inches into the ground. In the interest of keeping my legs, I left the area uninvestigated.
We found an exit to what had once been the fields surrounding the school. Everything was long since covered in bushes, but student murals adorned the outer walls. This one broke my heart a little bit. Part of me wonders if they're still best friends.
Further revealing the school's mixed cultural environment, plenty of the art was clearly Native-made or at least inspired. It was interspersed evenly with the other art and led to an awesome display
But my favorite mural was created by Harry. I have not the foggiest what it means or why teachers and administrators allowed it to go up, but I won't ask too many questions.
Indoors, the art was even more striking. A gigantic oil painting of a ship was erected in the hallway. I hope whichever dingbat wrote on it finds legos in their shoes for the rest of his or her life.
Immediately contrasted with extraordinarily detailed Native art.
As we came to the end of the adventure, we finally found a classroom that had some semblance of furniture remaining.
A "Counseling Center" that looked more like a portal to hell.
Some ancient batteries that were filled with toxic sludge
And an exit sign that had long since lost relevance.
If you made it this far, you're awesome. Please don't provide or ask for further information on the location or reuse any of these photos without my knowledge. I'm happy to talk further about those things in DMs!
Happy exploring!
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