Abandoned America

The morning we snuck into Taunton State Hospital before dawn was like something out of a dream. It's one of those profound experiences that haunts you for the rest of your life, something you try to explain to others but can never quite find the words to express. Join Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America for a 22-minute exploration of what Taunton State Hospital's story was, why anyone would go to such great lengths to see it before it was destroyed, why it still matters today, and how even in the darkest places there still is beauty if you look for it.

Show Notes: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/taunton-state-hospital-nothing-ever

Taunton State Hospital photo gallery/podcast text on Abandoned America: ⁠https://www.abandonedamerica.us/taunton-state-hospital

Support the podcast on Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

The Randall Park Mall in North Randall, Ohio was, for a brief moment, the largest mall in the world. Less than 40 years later it was in ruins. In this episode we'll cover the mall's extravagant opening, tumultuous lifespan, why it finally closed, and what it was like visiting it in the aftermath. For a shopping center, it has some pretty shocking crimes in its past, and its story is more haunting than you might think. Come join Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America for a quick primer on the life and death of a megamall, once a mighty symbol of both the dreams and nightmares of American consumerism that now is no more. 

Show Notes: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/randall-park-mall-everything-must

Randall Park Mall photo gallery/podcast text on Abandoned America: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/randall-park-mall

Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

Gary, Indiana was once a thriving metropolis, but now it's a city of ruins. In this episode we'll discuss Gary's founding as a steel town, its economic collapse, and what still remains - including the abandoned City Methodist Church, the Gary Public Schools Memorial Auditorium, and the Palace Theatre. How did a city go from being called the "City of the Century" to having roughly a third of its buildings vacant, and what is it like going there today? 

Amusement parks are a happy part of many people's family memories - so it's hard to imagine a theme park of over 200 acres sitting abandoned for nearly 20 years. That is just what happened with the massive Six Flags New Orleans, however: left to rot after Hurricane Katrina submerged it for weeks, it has been vacant for over three times as long as it was open. Why wasn't the park reopened or redeveloped? Today I'm joined by Jake Williams, writer and director of the recent documentary about Six Flags New Orleans Closed For Storm, and we'll discuss the story of what happened, what the impact of the park's closure and abandonment has been, and what it's like exploring the remains, which are now inhabited primarily by alligators and snakes. 

Check out Closed For Storm and Bright Sun Films

View the Six Flags gallery on Abandoned America: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/six-flags-new-orleans

Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

Show Notes: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/abandoned-amusement-parks-six-flags

In this episode we cover the demolition of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in West Philadelphia, a beautiful and historic church that could have easily been saved and repurposed but like so many others was torn down under questionable circumstances. We'll talk with Christopher Daniels, a teacher who found himself thrust into the role of a community activist trying to save a building whose fate seemed already sealed to find out what he did and what can be learned from the community's efforts to prevent the shocking destruction of a building many in the area knew and loved.

View the photo gallery of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament on Abandoned America: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/our-lady-of-the-rosary

Chris Daniels' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillyreligiousarts

Donate to Chris' GoFundMe for classroom supplies: https://gofund.me/ee96de6a

Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

Show Notes: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-destruction-of-our-lady

Today's episode is about an abandoned garden - but not just any garden, this one was created by America's first female landscape architect, Beatrix Farrand. Farrand is remarkable for many reasons - she designed the innovative and revolutionary landscapes for some of America's wealthiest families and most prominent universities and even landscaped the White House. However, much of her work today is lost. I'm joined by Karen Waltuch, Horticulturist at the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association, and David Hayes, Natural Resource Program Manager at Roosevelt Vanderbilt Van Buren National Historic Sites in Hyde Park, NY and we're going to discuss Farrand's legacy, her forgotten Wild Garden at Bellefield Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, and the amazing efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers to restore it and share it with the public. 

Support the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association: https://www.beatrixfarrandgardenhydepark.org/

Show Notes and Links: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-lost-garden-of-beatrix

Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

In this episode we talk with Dr. Cristina Visperas about her new book "Skin Theory: Visual Culture and the Postwar Prison Laboratory", which explores the shocking past of the now-abandoned Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. For decades Dr. Albert Kligman conducted unethical and harrowing medical experiments on Holmesburg's inmates - in this episode we explore what those experiments were, how they formed the basis of the modern dermatology industry, and what happened in their aftermath.

Read Cristina's New Book "Skin Theory: Visual Culture and the Postwar Prison Laboratory": https://amzn.to/3VOaMZX

Show Notes and Links: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-skin-experiments-at-holmesburg

Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

View the photo gallery on Abandoned America: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/holmesburg-prison

The documentation and exploration of ruins may have existed for centuries, but the history of the subject in the internet age is still a relatively short one. In the last episode we talked about the legacy of Ninjalicious, who helped turn people on to the subject, and in this episode we're going to take a look at the best known and most popular website on the subject before the advent of social media: Urban  Exploration Resource, or UER.ca. I'm joined by Avatar X, the founder of UER, and we'll take a look at  the cultural impact of the website, which recently celebrated its 20th  anniversary. We'll also talk about the ethical debates, the challenges of creating a community for explorers in the shadow of Ninjalicious' death, how UER was founded, and much more. If you don't know much about  the subject of urban exploration, this is the episode that will give you  the context for how it grew to such a prominent subculture today.

Show Notes: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-story-of-urban-exploration

Support the Abandoned America podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

Visit Urban Exploration Rescource: https://uer.ca/

"Urban Exploration" is a term used by many to describe trespassing, primarily in abandoned places, and over the last 20 years it has developed into its own counterculture and art genre. Today we'll talk about Jeff Chapman, also known as Ninjalicious. A Canadian who found his love for going into restricted areas during his struggle with a terminal illness, Ninjalicious would spend the remaining years of his life sharing his passion for trespassing and building the bedrock of the urban exploration movement. My  guest in the episode is Ninjalicious' friend Avatar X, a legend among urban explorers in his own right who created the website UER.ca, the origin point for the community that Ninjalicious advocated for. Together we discuss why Ninjalicious matters so much if you want to really get where the urban exploration started.

Visit Infiltration.org: http://infiltration.org/

Visit Urban Exploration Resource: https://uer.ca/

Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

Show Notes: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-history-of-urban-exploration-ninjalicious

The Retail Apocalypse is upon us, or so we're told: the US has gone from 2,500 malls in the 1980s to about 700 today, and as anchors fold even more are expected to close in years to come. Today I'm joined by guest Alexandra Lange, architectural critic and author of the new book "Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall", to discuss the amazing life and death of the shopping mall. We'll examine how the mall serves as a nostalgic touchstone for so many, their problematic reinforcement of structural inequality, the phenomenon of dead malls, and what might lie in store for shuttered malls in the future!

Buy Alexandra's new book, "Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall": https://amzn.to/3eKViXc

Check out Abandoned America's photo gallery of dead malls: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/dead-malls

Support the Abandoned America podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AbandonedAmerica

Show Notes and Links: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-life-and-death-of