Abandoned

Danvers State Hospital 
Danvers, Massachusetts 

Danvers State Hospital has been abandoned since 1992. During the 1920’s-30’s the hospital used controversial treatments such as shock therapy, various drugs, and frontal lobotomies. It may have even been the birthplace of the frontal lobotomy. 

In 2006, some structures were demolished and apartment buildings were built in its place; in April 2007, the buildings and several construction trailers went up in flames. Any efforts at renovation since then have been avoided.

Holy Land USA
Waterbury, Connecticut 

Holy Land USA was once an 18 acre Bible-themed park located in Waterbury, Connecticut. The park had about 40,000 visitors a year until it closed in 1984 for renovations. Holy Land USA never opened back up again due to the death of owner John Greco in 1986. It has been abandoned ever since. The abandoned acres of the theme park have been watched over by groups of nuns for decades, but the place keeps getting more and more creepy as the park continues to deteriorate. 

On top of the vandalism and eeriness the park gives off, a teenager was murdered on these abandoned grounds in 2010. Since then police records have shown that the amount of trespassers have been decreasing which just means abandoned Holy Land USA is as creepy and deserted as ever.

Old Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Park LA, CA

The Old Los Angeles Zoo was opened in 1913. It was doomed from the start. There was simply not enough money to build cages, so most animals were kept in stockades. In 1916 the lions had to be put down because they all had a contagious disease (this was diagnosed by the Health department because the zoo didn’t have a vet of it’s own). Then the Health Department tried to shut it down because it’s sewage was draining into the LA River. WWI called for rations so the zoo was no longer allowed to feed its carnivores meat. The zoo officials tried to substitute horse meat instead of beef, but most of the animals grew sick and died. The zoo was eventually shut down. (Another zoo was opened nearby some time later). 

The zoo has been a scene of several movies including Anchorman. 

sources:

http://laist.com/2012/06/19/photos_exploring_the_eerie_old_la_z.php#photo-1

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/zoo.html

North Brother Island, East River NY

North Brother Island wasn’t discovered until the 1850s when a smallpox hospital was opened there to isolate those with the disease. The hospital eventually expanded to housing other victims of contagious diseases and eventually housed the notorious Typhoid Mary. The hospital closed around 1938ish. 

In the 1950s the island was reopened to be a drug rehabilitation center. The treatment was to lock addicts in a room until they were clean. This closed down in the 1960s. 

There was also a shipwreck of General Slocum, a steamship that caught on fire. 1,000 people either died from the fire or drown. A picture above shows dead bodies washing ashore.

The island is now a bird sanctuary and is off limits to the public. 

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brother_Island,_East_River

http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2011/nov/15/how-get-north-brother-island/

Gary City Methodist Church

Takakanonuma Greenland
Japan 

Pictures of Takakanonuma Greenland and its spotty, mysterious back-story has attracted the attention of urban explorers around the world. The amusement park opened in the mid 1970’s and quickly closed down in the next year or two. Rumor was that it closed down so it could be improved and attract more people. In 1986, the park tried to open up again after being closed for about 10 years but it was closed again in 1999 and abandoned. In the following years, the park’s amusements became rusty and overgrown by plants. According to most sources, it is not recognized on any maps of Japan and is as remote as it is unknown to cartographers. The creepiest part of Takakanonuma was that the place is almost always covered in a heavy fog. 

Unfortunately, there are no recent pictures of the amusement park. It lies in a hazard zone due to the recent nuclear meltdown in Fukushima (2011). Although it is tempting to visit, Fukushima still keeps a prohibitive level of radiation in the area.

Abandoned houses in Detroit, Michigan 

(Source: google.com)

Traverse City State Hospital
Traverse City, Michigan

 Transverse City State Hospital for the insane opened in 1885 and closed in 1989.

Manchac Swamp
New Orleans, Louisiana 

Manchac Swamp, which looks like any ordinary swamp in Louisiana, is supposedly haunted. Legend says that there are far more creepier things than just alligators hiding in this swamp. Manchac Swamp is supposedly home to the blood sucking Rougarou, the Cajun version of a werewolf. 

Not only is there Rougarou to fear, but also the ghost of Julie White, a voodoo princess. Legend has it that White used to sit on her front porch and predict the destruction of close towns and sing, “One day I’m gonna die, and I’m gonna take all of you with me”. On the day of her funeral in 1915, a hurricane struck the area and wiped out three towns. The swamp is now a tourist sanctuary and a tourist haven thanks to the occasional body that floats up. Night tours are offered regularly to check out the mass graves and the red eyed crocodiles staring at the boat slowly go by.

Tugboat Graveyard
Staten Island, New York

Tugboats have long been referred to as tough, powerful vessels of nautical hope. Not the ones in this abandoned, neglected port known as Tugboat Graveyard. It is located in New York City’s Staten Island and is filled with rusting hulks, rescue vessels, tugboats, old ferries, and more each sinking since the 20th century. 

(Source: creepyabandonedplaces)

Bhangarh, India

Bhangarh is commonly referred to as India’s most haunted place. Today it is known for its ruins but no one dares to stay after sunset. The locals say that the sudden abandonment centuries ago was due to a curse. According to the story, if the town was ever rediscovered the township would not be found, but only temples would show up. Oddly, only temples remain on the landscape and even on the mountains only shrines can be seen. It is said that nobody returns from there who stays after dark. The Government of India requires that there has to be an office of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) beside ever historical structure in India. But even government officials did not dare to set up an office there. An office was opened about 1/2 a mile (1 km) away from the ruins of Bhangarah and even next to a temple because of the myth. ASI has put a sign in  Bhangarah stating “Staying after sunset is strictly prohibited in this area”. Tourists that visit the area say that they feel some sort of strange feeling in the atmosphere.

The story of the curse goes as the following: The princess of Bhangarah was said to be matchless. When she was eighteen, she started getting wedding offers from other states. In the same area there lived a tantrik, a magician who used black magic, named Singhia who was desperately in love with the princess. Singhia knew that the king would never allow him see the princess, so one day when he saw the princess’s maid buying her scented oil from the market, he came up with a wicked idea. He put a spell on the oil which would hypnotize the princess when she touched the oil and she would immediately walk towards Singhia to satisfy him sexually. But as soon as the princess received the oil, she immediately threw it on the block of a stone because she saw Singhia eyeing it up. As soon as the oil touched the stone, the stone started rolling towards Singhia and crushed him. While dying, Singhia cursed the entire palace and there would be an incident where everyone in the entire palace would die and their souls would forever stay without rebirth. The very next year there was a battle between Bhangarah and Ajabgarh and no one survived the battle nor in the palace, including the princess. The prime minister also cursed Bhangarh that no one would ever settle there again and if they dared, they would die as well. It is said by locals that whenever a house is built there, the roof collapses. It seems to be true because inside of the houses in Bhangarh, none of them have a roof and even the closest village where people reside, still have roofs made out of straw and not bricks.

(Source: creepyabandonedplaces)

Marlboro Hospital in New Jersey

Opened in 1931, many patients were abused and mistreated:

• At least four patients died of food poisoning
• A woman disappeared (48 hours before the hospital noticed) and was found outside- she froze to death
• A woman with an eating disorder was denied liquid food and forced to eat a sandwich upon which she choked and died
• A woman had a sodium deficiency (which was noted by the nurses) but nothing was done and 6 weeks later she died of brain swelling
• A man was strapped to a bed for 80 hours (which is about 5 days) and he died from the blood clots caused by the restraints

The hospital was closed in 1998 and in 2011 the hospital was supposedly supposed to be used for recreational use- but it still lays abandoned!

(Source: creepyabandonedplaces)

Abandoned AmTrak in NJ

Abandoned building, St George, Georgia by Brad Wilson