Abandoned…

February 3, 2013 by My Spoken Heart - Andrea Crowell 13 Comments

West Park Hospital UK

I have a Pinterest account. Yea I know pretty much everybody has a Pinterest account. I am not avid about it. I do not use it every day,not even every week. I have actually gone weeks on end without even looking at it. I am not really into the whole do-it-yourself (DIY) thing, I’m not a recipe fanatic (although I do occasionally pin pictures of super yummy looking things that I know I will never make). I do not find a huge amount of appeal in pinning make-up or beauty related things. Not even big on clothes although I do have a ‘my style’ board and it is mainly for pinning the things I have always wanted to be bold enough to wear – but am too poor and too ‘fat’. I am definitely not an avid animal rights person with boards full of cute little kitties and puppies , but again I have a board with random animals, one that highlights dragonflies, one just for birds – primarily crows and ravens,  and one for Friesians and Gypsy Vanners (horses). So what is it then that I actually use Pinterest for? I have a board dedicated to entrance-ways/doors, I find them fascinating and have quite a collection of doors from around the world. I would love to see some of these doors one day. However of all my boards, all 38 of them, there is only one board that I have taken the time to do a write up for; it is entitled “Abandoned”.

For me there is a sad beauty to be found in things abandoned. When I see them I catch whispers of their pasts. I can almost smell the musty smell and feel their dampness in my bones…

There are abandoned churches. One has to wonder how a church becomes abandoned. Of course there are farm houses, hotels, castles, manors and estates. Even more intriguing is that entire cities have been left deserted never to be lived in again, but why?

Butter Church, Built in 1870, this abandoned old stone church on native land in Cowichan Bay, BC – Vancouver Island

Old City Hall NYC subway stop (closed in 1945)

But the buildings I find the most fascinating and yet terribly sad are the ones  that were once asylums. They are amazingly designed beautiful buildings and yet they have a very ominous and sadistic past. Often there are wheelchairs still out in the open. A strong eeriness hangs in the corridors of these places. The decay goes beyond the peeling paint, and rotting boards. It has permeated them to their core. Perhaps that is why they are abandoned, never to be refurbished and put back into use despite their great beauty. They reek of their history, mold and mildew, yet hints of cleaners, bleach, disinfectant. These are the buildings that carry echoes. These buildings cry and moan sometimes they even scream…

Asylum, UK

MT Psychiatric Center, NY

Hellingly Mental Hospital, East Sussex, England (1903 – 1994)

abandoned state hospital for the developmentally disabled