Infiltration

The Grey Ghost location: Jacksonville, FL Gender: Male The Best Explorers You'll Never Meet \|	Jacksonville Scouting Report (Post Super Bowl) < on 8/9/2005 12:26 AM >

	I noticed that the Jacksonville portion of the database is kind of bare. One of the main reason I joined this site is to alleviate that problem. However, since I can’t create entries in the database this is the best I can do. What follows is a short but descriptive list of some of the best places in Jacksonville for a little urban exploration now that the city has starting clearing out down town in the wake of Super Sunday. School Four: As posted in an earlier thread School Four is the first place I ever explored. I've been there so many times I am almost as comfortable there as I am in my own home. It used to be a great site for the beginner: plenty of entrances, no bright lights, and decent material condition. My friends and I used it as a testing ground for new equipment (night vision, boots, rope, cameras) back in the day because we knew it so well. Getting into it now is a completely different matter. The stories you've heard are true. There are bright halogen lamps surrounding it now as well as a nice privacy fence. They also boarded up every entrance; I'm talking thick plywood covering reinforced cinder blocks cemented into every opening. The place shows the marks of people trying to get in (and failing) all over, and I haven't heard of anyone gaining access for a while now. When you do get inside it really isn't that interesting. Most of the good artifacts have been removed by the city/developers now, though there is some choice graffiti adorning the walls. There are two floors and a basement to explore, though with it's current state the only way to get into the basement is through a hole in the floor in the library/principal's office which may take some climbing skill to get out of. The cafeteria/auditorium is in bad shape, and is why the place gets the reputation for being unstable. Its roof had been deteriorating for years, and finally it collapsed one night during a storm. The room is a mess now but the rest of the school is stable, other then places where people a busted it up. Other then the cops, there is no need to worry about other people if you do make it inside. It's too hard for the drunk high school crowd to get into now, and there are easier places for the homeless to sleep. The Ambassador Hotel: Another great place to visit, though it’s become pretty difficult to get into as of late. The Ambassador Hotel was converted to low income housing for a few years after it folded. Following that it was closed down all together and became a homeless colony. The hotel is located across the street from the Bell South building and the local fire station downtown. [entrance details removed] The parking lot in the back has a tendency to be well lit, though the lights aren’t halogen and are prone to burning out and leaving it darkened every once in a while. Once inside you’ll find that most of the rooms are cleaned out. There are a few exceptions however. The basement is filled with all sorts of great stuff like old furniture and pictures as well as the remnants of old elevator motors and water heaters. Going up one floor is the lobby which is littered with old room keys, parking passes, as well as the occasional newspaper and also offers a fantastic view of the street through the enormous windows. On the second floor is a room which the homeless converted into a large bunk room. They tore apart furniture from around the hotel and built a series of bunk beds, I was rather impressed by their ingenuity actually. The only other room of interest is on around the sixth floor, where a recent vagrant collected a bunch of his stuff before leaving the place abandoned again. Structurally wise, the building is pretty stable. The only questionable portion is the elevator, though anyone getting in the elevator of a condemned building deserves what they get. As far as security goes, it’s difficult enough to access that encountering angry/cracked out homeless people isn’t an issue. As long as the back lot is dark and you’re smart about using your flashlight, police won’t be a problem either. The only place where there might be an issue is the roof where the occasional helicopter may spotlight you. The Bank: Shame on me for not remembering the name of this old set of towers. It’s a pretty spectacular building, all things considered. The site consists of two separate towers joined together by a common bank lobby/basement. It’s located across the street from the (newly renovated) Roosevelt Hotel. It’s lot is mostly empty which means that there are no places to hide while trying to get in, though it’s mostly unlit which works to your advantage. [entrance details removed] The two towers are completely separate other then sharing the common lobby, so exploring both will take a long time (they’re pretty tall). Both towers have the same layout, so finding your way around won’t be that tough. The basement has a tendency to flood slightly if it’s rained recently, which makes it difficult to explore certain portions. The bank lobby is pretty impressive, done in the old style of marble and hardwoods. The light filtering in through the windows makes it incredibly easy to get around in the lobby, and allows you to examine the area with ease; however it also makes it easy to get spotted if you aren’t careful. Once you pick a tower you’ll find floor upon floor of old office equipment and bank records. If you really wanted to know the account history of any of the bank’s customers you can find it because all of the records are still there in boxes strewn amongst the offices. The roof of each tower has a nice penthouse looking office filled with busted up office furniture and not much else. The roofs offer spectacular views of the city streets and aren’t as exposed as the roof of the Ambassador Hotel. The building itself seems pretty stable. The higher you go, the sketchier it gets, especially the railings on the stairwells but all in all it’s not too dangerous. The bank is easy to get into and the building shows signs of gunfire on some floors. I have never encountered anyone on my ventures to the bank, but it is very possible. As far as police go, as long as you can make it through the lobby without being spotted you should be home free. Be aware of your surroundings while you’re exploring the towers. The city likes to work on the roads downtown in the late night/early morning hours and if the site gets surrounded by construction workers there is no way to sneak out of the building, you’ll have to wait until they move on. It happened to my group once and we had to wait almost two hours for the streets to clear. That’s it for right now. Those are the big three now that the Roosevelt is off limits to our group because of its recent renovation (though it would be great to spend a night there legitimately). Eventually I’ll post pictures after I find a scanner. If you have any further questions or need more detailed directions feel free to ask. [Please do not disclose methods of entry into locations. - The Mgmt] [last edit 8/9/2005 2:57 PM by Servo - edited 1 times] The Hellians: The Premier In Jacksonville Exploration Science and Technology Guru

elbowgeek The needle and the damage done... \|	Re: Jacksonville Scouting Report (Post Super Bowl) <Reply # 1 on 8/9/2005 2:57 AM >

	Hi, First, it's great to see a Jax native reporting on Jax structures. I lived there for a year in 2001, and remember seeing all those structures. An odd town, as it was my first exposure to the extreme vacating of a city in favour of the suburbs; I live in Bermuda where that's not a known concept. I remember many of those buildings from seeing them and wondering what they were like inside. Particularly the school - such a grand looking structure and so alone and forlorn. Please do post your pictures as soon as you scan them, as your type of exploration is exactly what I dream about. Cheers. PS. You may want to remove references to access in your descriptions, as this has two undesirable side effects: It tells potentially undesirable types how to access the site. It tells the authorities exactly how to protect the site.

Infiltration Forums > Archived US: Southeast > Jacksonville Scouting Report (Post Super Bowl) (Viewed 203 times)