Category: Abandoned Places

THE DECATUR WATERWORKS WAS ORIGINALLY built in 1907 and supplied water to the city of Decatur until the 1940s, but had been utilized as a public park since the 1930s, when many amenities like benches, grills, and a stone bridge that crosses over Burnt Fork Creek were added. This same bridge is now part of the trail that connects Medlock Park and Mason Mill Park.

By 1939, the waterworks contained two storage tanks, an office building, two aeration and solid removal tanks, and two dams, one on Burnt Fork Creek and the other on South Peachtree Creek. By 1941 the city had outgrown the water capacity of the waterworks, so the property was leased out to Dekalb County. Dekalb continued to operate the facility and sold water to Decatur. Using the revenue from this venture, they funded a county-wide water treatment plant in Dunwoody, which is currently called the Scott Candler Plant.

The waterworks supplied the Naval Air Station (now Peachtree Dekalb Airport) during World War II. During this time absolutely no recreational use was allowed. When the war ended the waterworks was given back to the city of Decatur and acted as a backup for their new system. While the waterworks were in use, the park was not being maintained or publicly used.

By the early 1950s, the waterworks fell into a state of disrepair due to lack of use. Residents of nearby neighborhoods in the mid-1960s complained of flooding, and in response both dams were broken and the reservoirs were destroyed.

The Decatur Waterworks was declared a historic site in 2006 and shortly after this, the construction of a trail began in 2008. This trail has received funding from the PATH Foundation and has since been completed.

DRIVE NORTH ON NARROW HOUSTON Street in the northeastern section of Greenville, Texas, and you will see a mix of houses and industrial buildings. But at a seemingly random intersection, you will find an old entry gate and a historical marker, which is all that remains of Majors Stadium.

Greenville is located about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. The stadium was home to high school football, followed by a minor league baseball team named the Majors starting in 1946. The stadium and the team were named after World War II hero Truett Majors.

In 1949, the team played an exhibition game against the New York Yankees and won 4-3. Playing in center field was Joe DiMaggio. Pitcher Monty Stratton played in this stadium in 1950 for the Majors. He was portrayed by Jimmy Stewart in the movie The Stratton Story.

THE LANDO SCHOOLHOUSE WAS BUILT in 1904-5 in the Italian Renaissance revival style for the employees of the Manetta Mill. The school was built in an unusually opulent style for a mill town, which is indicative of the prosperity of the area at the time.

The ruins of the Manetta Mills are very near the Lando schoolhouse along Fishing Creek. The town itself is a shadow of its former self since the closing of the mill in 1992, with only a few residents remaining. The schoolhouse itself was closed down in 1955.

The first floor of the schoolhouse contained classrooms, and the second floor was combination classroom and auditorium. The third floor is just balcony seating which overlooks the stage on the second floor below. Today the school sits abandoned and decaying at the end of Schoolhouse Road.

JUST SOUTHWEST OF CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, the ruins of a colonial open-pit iron ore mine are located on the hillsides of Nanny’s Mountain. The mine was operational from approximately 1760 to 1820. Prior to the Revolutionary War, the iron mine fueled early industry in the area and was used to make pots, kettles, and other household items. During the war, the mine supplied ore for cannonballs, round shot, swords, cannons, and other weaponry.

The area around the mine saw several important Revolutionary War battles, including the pivotal battle of King’s Mountain, where American colonists soundly defeated British forces on October 7, 1780. It’s possible that iron from this mine was used to make necessary supplies for the battle and may have made an important contribution to early American history. After the Revolution, some historians believe that this site was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The mine pits can be viewed and explored along the short trail within the Nanny’s Mountain Historic Site Park. Pictures do not do justice to the size or depth of the pits. Keep in mind that these pits can be a safety hazard, so explore carefully.

THIS ABANDONED MINIATURE GOLF COURSE was built in the 1970s. Sir Goonys Gold Castle was a company from Tennessee with multiple courses in the southeast. There is still one open in Nashville.

To find the abandoned site drive southwest on Elma G Miles Pkwy in Hinesville, Georgia until you get to Liberty Animal Clinic off Beatie Blvd. Turn right onto Beatie Blvd and find parking near the fence. You’ll see old the putt putt course to the left of the building and fence.

FIRST BUILT BY THE DIAMOND Match Co. in 1861, this coal power plant was later acquired by the B.F. Goodrich Tire Co. in the booming rubber city of Akron in 1870.

An integral, yet abandoned part of the Akron skyline that is often overlooked. Much of the city’s history in rubber can be tied back to this structure and the few remaining buildings of the Goodrich factory complex.

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UNDERNEATH THE LOFTON HENDERSON MEMORIAL Bridge on the banks of the Black River outside of Cleveland, lies a bit of a nautical mystery for the residents of Lorain, Ohio. Slowly sinking into the muddy water along the shore and listing to one side, rusting away a little more each season, is the “ghost ship,” a 90-foot long Canadian automobile ferry that mysteriously appeared docked under the bridge sometime around 2003.

Though rumors abound, no one in the city government has been able to locate the person who owns this beautiful piece of history, and so, for the last 20 years, the ship has remained where it dropped anchor all those years ago.

In peeling white paint across the ship’s bow, one can still read the name “Upper Canada,” and records exist of the ship being active from her construction in 1949 (under the name the “Romeo and Annette”) to the late 1990s in various ports in Canada. But no one has been able to locate her final owner.

When the ship first appeared sometime around 2003, the Coast Guard inspected the ship to make sure that it did not pose any environmental issues, such as ensuring it wasn’t leaking oil or other hazardous chemicals.  Since that initial inspection back in the early 2000s, the boat has begun taking on water, which has led to gasoline and oil seeping into the Black River.

In January 2023, the Coast Guard put floating booms around the decrepit vessel to ensure that nothing floated out of the sinking hull to contaminate the river.

No one knows what will happen to the ship. But, for now, it serves as a decaying piece of maritime history that is well worth the walk to the top of the bridge in Lorain to view!

COKE IS A NEARLY PURE carbon product made from coal that is critical in many industrial processes, steel-making in particular. It is made by carefully heating coal in an oxygen-poor environment to drive off volatiles, all while not igniting the carbon. Typically the coal is placed in an enclosed chamber, a so-called coke oven, to smolder for about a day. Then the finished coke is doused with cold water to stop any further combustion, at which point it can then be shipped to the ultimate market.

These ovens were built in 1899 by Colorado Fuel and Iron to process high-quality, almost ash-free coal that was ideal for coke manufacture. The deposit was in Coal Basin, some 2,200 feet higher, and the raw coal was brought down by a narrow gauge railroad, while the finished coke was shipped out by standard gauge.  The adjacent Crystal River provided abundant cold water for quenching the hot coke.

Some 249 ovens were built and peak production briefly reached 6 million tons annually in the first years of the 20th century. In fact, some 10 percent of workers in Colorado at that time worked here. The large scale of operation was very short-lived, however; the company had financial problems by 1904, and then transportation to the intended end-use at the mill in Pueblo proved to be too expensive. The operation completely shut down in 1908.

The abandoned ovens immediately began to deteriorate, and their deterioration was worsened by pillaging for materials. The steel supports were also salvaged in the scrap drives of World War II, which further hastened the destruction.

Not till 1990 were the coke ovens belatedly recognized as a historic site. At present 90 ovens survive reasonably intact, and in recent years several have been restored.