See my earlier posts on the intersection of Jefferson and Hebert.
Tag: Deserted
The Sun is Setting on St. Louis Place
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Lamentations 5:20 Update: All the buildings below were torn down for the new NGA, whose giant campus swallowed a large portion of the southwestern St. Louis Place neighborhood.
Pleasant Prairie Church and Cemetery, North of Bethel
On a quiet country road, an old abandoned church sits, surrounded by a cemetery. The cemetery is well maintained, and still visited, but the church is no longer needed, so it sits abandoned, and open to the elements.
Vernon Avenue West of Shaare Zedek
Update: I went back and looked at the north side of the street in February of 2022. This is definitely not an April Fools’ Day post. Heading west from the old synagogue, we were shocked at the severe state of desolation and abandonment along Vernon Avenue. It was really, really sad to see this. This…
Looking Back at Pleasantview Road, Washington Township, Tazewell County, Illinois
Update: I went back to Pleasantview Road in August of 2019. I’m eternally fascinated by the relatively isolated Pleasantview Road, with its beautiful barns and farmhouses. The rubble up above used to be a corn crib, I believe. Pleasantview School, slowly converted to storage lockers, seems to have stalled out. That beautiful Italianate farmhouse continues…
Southern Old North, Revisited Again
Updated: The following image was added in December of 2019.
Checking in on National City
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…
Abandoned Farmhouse, August 2015
Update: The house was destroyed sometime in the first half of 2019. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the old farmhouse is still standing, in largely the same condition as the last time we had seen it. I realized that the bull’s eyes on the corners of the window frames still possess a bit…
Peoria State Hospital, Bartonville Outbuildings and Cemetery
Around the corner from the main administration building, there are your standard institutional buildings that I’ve seen at other hospitals around Illinois. I’m not sure what they were used for originally; were they dorms, or work spaces? I think they might be the residences prescribed by Dr. George Zeller. They’ve been taken over by various…
Academy Avenue in the West End
Update: Text updated in September of 2025. I was coming back from photographing Oak Grove Cemetery when I decided on a lark to turn down Academy, an irregular trapezoid shaped piece of land between Page and MLK west of Kingshighway where the streets fan out unlike anywhere else in the city. I came across this…