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UER Store
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sweet UER decals:
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | One Sunday Afternoon... < on 8/13/2007 8:17 PM >
| | | My daughter and I went out Sunday of two weeks ago and got a few pictures of buildings and things around Big Spring. The city was once fairly active because of the Air Force Base that had been here since WWII, oil, the VA and State Hospital. The latter two are still here but the air base left in 1977 and the oil boom went bust in '81-82, and Big Spring has never quite recovered. The opening scene in Midnight Cowboy with Jon Voight was shot here, as was the critically-acclaimed Hangar 18 [Sarcasm]. I've lived here since 1979, married, all that good stuff and decided to go out and get some pictures of some of the many abandoned and empty places around town. There are few interior shots and I apologize for that, but having osteoporosis of the spine tends to limit my ability to sneak into places anymore. But whining aside, let's begin. This is an old store on Main Street downtown, once an Office supply place.
No one seems quite sure how long it's been abandoned, but I would guess a few years. Or decades.
(Sorry about the glare)
I wonder if anyone's called...?
Old Furniture store on the next block over, Runnels Street. Below the unreadable green and white sign, it says 'Edison Phonographs'.
A bit closer shot.
The alley beside the furniture store. Every single building down to the dumpster is abandoned.
Looking south from the furniture store (It's on the right), at the old Settles Hotel, empty since 1979, I think.
Same alley as above, looking east this time.
Back to the block of buildings where the old office supply place is located; what have we here, other than a Smurf tag?
The remains of an old electrical meter...
And an open door. How nice.
No going in here; the ceiling (floor) of the upstairs room is coming down.
A very old typewriter, just one of many.
More typewriters and adding machines. One last picture for now, this is outside Big Spring on Center Point Road, about 5-6 miles out.
An old International Harvester combine for cotton, or so it appears. [last edit 8/13/2007 8:19 PM by Ablamar - edited 1 times]
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Wiccan
Location: Hamilton Ontario Gender: Female
| | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 1 on 8/13/2007 9:24 PM >
| | | Very neat,I'd love to see more!
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Happiedaze
Location: Galveston Area, TX Gender: Female
| | | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 2 on 8/13/2007 10:03 PM >
| | | Nice pictures...
It must be cool to live near such awesome abandonments. It's sad that the town has basically turned to a ghost town, but some of the buildings are very nice.
Some friends and I went there not too long ago. Here are some pictures I got while on our way through:
In a storefront window:
Also in a storefront window:
The place was pretty much deserted:
Shot through one of the windows of a certain building:
'Our plans are all laid out, take all these unmarked roads, we blaze the trails to places no one goes, yeah!' -Rise Against |
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 3 on 8/14/2007 1:27 AM >
| | |
Nice pictures...
It must be cool to live near such awesome abandonments. It's sad that the town has basically turned to a ghost town, but some of the buildings are very nice.
Some friends and I went there not too long ago. Here are some pictures I got while on our way through: |
The place is nice and quiet, which the wife and I like, but our offspring think it bites big time. The second and third pictures you've got are what was once the New York Style Hotdogs restaurant, and the owner was an ex-NYPD officer. The reason for all the signs is that our HUA City Council passed a no-smoking ban in all the dining establishments instead of leaving it up to the business to decide as had been originally debated. He closed the restaurant and put those signs up to show how much he loved the council. (ahem)
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 4 on 8/14/2007 2:36 AM >
| | | A few more pics, I plan on getting more later, before school starts up on the 27th. This is the inside of the J&W Fisher Building, built in 1905 and stayed open until 1941. Other businesses came and went, and the city has tried to liven downtown up by painting the old places in original(?) colors in an attempt to lure merchants, who aren't that desperate.
This is the northern face of the building, showing the brickwork that's been exposed after all these decades.
Now let's go across the street and slightly south to peer inside a place not far from the NY-Style Hotdogs place.
Notice the banister at the back for the upstairs floor and the gaping hole there (the back wall, basically). No one seemed to know much about this place, either, but I intend to check with the Heritage Museum.
The same building from the northern window. I'll get some interior shots on my next sojourn. Next is the place next door that's only been empty a year or so after going through being a computer store, computer/comic book store, pet grooming and finally a designer jewelry store. Here you can see the upstairs floor at the back much better. (Yes, the window was broken and no, I didn't do it)
A quick jaunt north and we find a printing business that, well, you can probably guess how long it's been closed. Yes, dot matrix printers. I remember them well.
Another shot through a different window.
Turning around, this is the J&W Fisher building, (the red and yellow eyesore) with its companion that identifies itself with the sign 'Little Canton'. Your guess is as good as mine.
A quick jog up the row of storefronts and we find these old doors between Big Spring Hardware (closed) and the Downtown Barber Shop (not closed).
Taking a quick peek through the bars reveals a patio-like area, long overgrown. The tree kind of gives the time passed away.
A last shot through the bars for the 'artistic' effect.
Another shot of 'Little Canton' and the Fisher building. To the right of them is Bean's Cafe, a hip coffee shoppe in a boxcar and caboose. Tres chic. The red Grand Am is mine. To the left is the old drivethru windows of the State National Bank.
Okay, enough of downtown proper; this is a warehouse beside the switchyard (Big Spring was a railroad town), with the obligatory tags.
Next door we have an abandoned grain elevator, which is the next two pics.
Silos...
And offices. I had a guy from the train yard giving me the eye, so I didn't get closer. Another time, I promise. More abandonment goodness... this is the remains of a Nursing Home, set ablaze by homeless people (The city is supposed to demolish it soon).
This is the end opposite from the burned area... I was fresh out of hunting rifles so I didn't wade into those weeds. Besides, some of them looked hungry.
This is the laundry room (right), and the upper section at the back.
A better view of the upper section, also torched by homeless folk. The wood must impart a special fragrance to food...
One last picture to tantalize... Hall-Bennet Hospital, the front. I'll put some more up later.
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Wiccan
Location: Hamilton Ontario Gender: Female
| | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 5 on 8/14/2007 3:29 AM >
| | | Tantalizing indeed,what a gold mine of locations you have there! I like reading your descriptions too,can't wait to see more!
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 6 on 8/14/2007 3:54 AM >
| | | Tantalizing indeed,what a gold mine of locations you have there! I like reading your descriptions too,can't wait to see more! |
This isn't even half of the empty places in town (The population has actually dropped far enough Big Spring lost its city status). There's an abandoned carbon black plant east of the city near the refinery, an old bank that's nothing but the walls and the vault (I'm looking for that one), warehouses, the county airport, part of the old airbase... it just goes on and on. If any of you come through, email me ahead of time and I'll show you around. [last edit 8/14/2007 4:00 AM by Ablamar - edited 1 times]
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | More, OMG... <Reply # 7 on 8/14/2007 4:27 AM >
| | | Sorry for the omg thing... Looking through my pics, I found a few I left out (around 90 or so), so this is just a few random shots...
The old viaduct across the tracks... it actually has bricks for the road surface, and note the metal shield to protect people above from the exhaust on steam locomotives...
Odd storefront, I've never seen beer bottle glass in that size...
The window above the storefront, with some lonely books, one of which looks like a Reader's Digest Condensed Book.
Bad vandals, bad, bad!
However, it did let me get a shot of the interior, without the amber coloring.
Weathered and beaten sign for a moving company no longer here.
A little further away and you can see the old viaduct (that's what everyone here calls it) just to the left of the green street sign, and the grain elevator behind the fuel tanks on the far left.
West side of Hall-Bennet Hospital, which is supposedly haunted by several entities, including one that feels like you've walked into a freezer.
Back (north) of the hospital. Notice the top window second from the right of the drain with the white curtains? People have sworn seeing someone looking out through them at times, day and night.
Utterly random pic... place used to be a bar called The Top, was empty for some years, then became a tattoo/body piercing parlor, and is now empty again. The house to the left in the trees has been empty for over ten years that I know of... more pictures soon.
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | More? <Reply # 8 on 8/14/2007 7:10 AM >
| | | Yes, indeed. More random abandonment crunchiness.
Ray's Body Shop, where everyone takes their cars.
Palmer House Restaurant and Hotel; in it's last years it served as a halfway house for recovering addicts and alcoholics.
Another halfway house, in much worse shape than the Palmer, it's caving-in on itself.
To the left, the old State National Bank Building. I was told that a private individual had purchased it to convert into something (exact words), but the person telling me this would have been given a breathalyzer test by any passing cop. The six-story place in the back is the Petroleum Building.
Another shot of the bank, once used by the city to store the streetlight Christmas decorations.
Westex Printing again, showing their holiday spirit... (Notice how nicely I tied that in with the one-time use of the bank)
Sorry, it's Bean's World café... not abandoned, just included because of it's location. So there.
Another warehouse once used by a moving company. This side of the building was the loading/unloading dock for the rail spur that ran alongside the side. The tracks are long gone, but they were in the area of grass below the palette and barrels.
Abandoned boxcar...
The bank again. The less-than-sober person who was weaving around the place offered critique and opinions on how to shoot photos, yet had never heard of a digital camera. Go figure.
Pressed tin roof. They don't make them like this anymore...
Steel shutters, sealed with concrete. Wonder what's behind them?
Sign to the 'modern' deposit window, added in the early seventies, and closed not long after. Moving along...
...The deposit window itself. Guess someone couldn't work the little drawer dohickey.
Aah! It burns! Stupid auto-flash. Interior through the hole... is that walnut?
Slightly back from the hole, showing the cable that was lit in the last photo, it was probably for a microphone.
Looking up from the deposit window, an old transformer squats, kind of like a gargoyle. No, it didn't seem to be operating that I could tell, but my daughter refused to climb up there and touch her tongue to it. Aren't children supposed to obey their parent?
Dashing (hobbling for me) around the side, we find an odd door that looked to be the entrance to the drive-thru window. How much brown-nosing did they have to do to get their own entrance? The mind boggles.
I'll leave you with this art-deco yumminess of the Petroleum Building and bid everyone adieu for the night.
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Arch-Image
Location: DFW Gender: Male
"This gene pool could use a little chlorine."
| | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 9 on 8/14/2007 5:19 PM >
| | | WOW! Looks like weeks worth of exploring could be done here! Love to get into that old hotel!
"Your kid may be an honor student but YOU'RE still an IDIOT!" |
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 10 on 8/14/2007 7:17 PM >
| | |
WOW! Looks like weeks worth of exploring could be done here! Love to get into that old hotel! |
Oh yeah. I just wish I was in better shape health-wise, but my daughter has offered to go in my place; I may let her.
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Ablamar
Location: Big Spring, Tx Gender: Male
| | | Why? <Reply # 11 on 8/14/2007 8:25 PM >
| | | Yet more photos from the bowels of my Canon.
The old Junior High, now used for storage by the School District. They built the new school on what had once been a landfill, so the brand-new building is slowly sinking a few inches a year. The intellect here is unmatched.
A closer shot of the sign. The reason for building the new Junior High was that it would cost too much to bring Runnels up to code, access for handicapped students and so on, but they're spending that saved money now to keep the new school level. (Snort)
Some of the gorgeous stonework on the old Junior High. It's infamous for the ghost of a little girl that wanders the halls and the shooter incident exercise the Police conduct here; my son got to play the shooter. I didn't know whether to be proud or frightened...
The photo. Yes, that's a real shotgun he's holding. Note the kids on their knees, pleading for mercy.
The stonework above the name plaque of the State National Bank. Except for rare exceptions, tagging and graffiti is rare on the old buildings. The kids are comatose from boredom.
The south entrance to the Petroleum Building and its art-deco crunchy goodness. Built and owned by Fina, this was their offices until the early 80's. Another company tried to convert into a prison, but the city shot that plan down real fast.
Above the entrance.
The archway around the entrance.
Up to the top of the building. There are three of those recesses on the south side and three more to the west, each with a different Aztec warrior inside, looking out over the city.
Another shot of the lamps outside the south entrance. They need repair because they haven't worked in years.
Inside. Old-style drop mailbox, with the chute that extends up to every floor. Yes, that's marble.
For some unknown reason, the lamps at the west entrance are painted black, but you can see the original yellow in places.
Fire escape at the back, or north side, and yellow to match the rest of the metal decor.
Exhaust vents for the AC/heater, I guess.
Looking straight up the wall, fire escape above. Eek; I don't do heights well.
One last pic to leave you with, the tag on the old Ray's Body Shop.
Where are we going, and why am I in this basket? |
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Wiccan
Location: Hamilton Ontario Gender: Female
| | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 12 on 8/14/2007 9:53 PM >
| | | Very cool,the more of these I see,the more it kinda reminds me of a setting for a Stephen King movie. Amazing stuff you got there,I'd love to explore those places. Great work!
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Explorer Zero
| | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 13 on 8/14/2007 10:02 PM >
| | | whats even cooler is if you use the gallery tag and dont string these photos out over 7 pages
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Mellon_Collie
Location: Utah'ish Gender: Male
Chingblot.
| | | | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 14 on 8/15/2007 12:30 AM >
| | | Posted by 2Xplorations whats even cooler is if you use the gallery tag and dont string these photos out over 7 pages
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Very nice pictures and info yeah, but 2X does have a point If you need to know how to use the gallery tag, it is in the 'Quick Tip' box at the bottom of the box you type every post in.
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CaryW
Gender: Male
| | Re: One Sunday Afternoon... <Reply # 15 on 8/15/2007 8:09 PM >
| | | Little Canton: I would guess that it was an antique store using the name of Canton, home of First Monday, to whip crazed little old ladies into an antique buying frenzy.
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