Update: The packing plant was demolished in the spring of 2016.

I went and checked in on that little bit of purgatory, that portion of National City that runs into East St. Louis on the north side of I-64/55. Things are not good. While the Armour Meat Packing Plant still sits in isolation in thick underbrush, other buildings are disappearing.

We all had hope for the old Garner School, but it was not to be. Despite showing evidence of (sloppy) rehabbing attempts over the years with new windows and fresh plywood, as I drove by, it became obvious that it is being torn down.

These old shotgun houses, many of which I remember being occupied just a couple of years ago, are slipping away. Abandonment has to be recent, because these old frame houses sure as heck don’t last long when no one is looking.

But some people hold on, as this occupied house attests. Do they like the solitude, or are they just stuck? Or do they not think much about it? I would ask, but I never see anyone, just signs of life like properly registered cars sitting in driveways.

Update: I photographed the house below again in November of 2017 and December of 2018.

But then there’s a house like this below; what kind of things would someone find it its abandoned confines?