Abandoned Homes: Part Two

Another abandoned home that I discovered in Clarksville is hidden on the edge of a main road due to the number of trees surrounding it. It is so overgrown that the thorns make it almost impossible to reach. The inside of the house is completely destroyed and the ceiling is caving in in certain parts. The furniture is gone, but some appliances such as the stove and washing machine still remain and are extremely rusted.

Upstairs when I ventured into one of the bedrooms, I heard a creaking noise coming from the closet and thought that it might be a small squirrel. Before I knew it, a giant turkey vulture half the size of myself strutted out and stared me straight in the eye. Startled, I began to back out of the room, but the bird quickly flew out the shattered window, jagged with broken glass. I snapped a quick photo as it flew away and headed to the shed outside with my heart pounding.

The shed was a mystery, containing cages and a mystery object that may have been an old, antique oven or radio. A stick and a broken paper bag hung on the wall inside, which looked fairly new and made me feel uneasy, so I left soon after.

The history of this house and its previous owners remains a mystery to me as well.

When I returned home, I researched to find out what type of bird it was and discovered that it was a turkey vulture. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, "For unknown reasons, black vultures sometimes litter their nest areas with bright bits of trash, such as bottle caps and broken glass". This vulture's nest may have been in the closet of the house.

According to this news story from NBC, giant turkey vultures invaded a community in Columbia, Maryland in 2006. The article also stated that the birds don't attack or kill (luckily for me).

-All photos taken by me: Allison Nagy

Urban Exploring Outside of MD

Although this blog focuses on abandoned places in Maryland, I would like to acknowledge places outside of the state. These places exists throughout the country and even across the world.

I came across a movie title at the store the other day that struck my interest, "Session 9". Upon viewing the film, I discovered that it was a fictional tale of horror filmed at the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts. It was interesting to watch the extra features that showed more of the large, fascinating property.

This Boston.com news article discussed how the popularity of the hospital may have increased after the movie was released. Because it is private property, "Since 2000, police have made 120 arrests for trespassing at the 500-acre site of the former Danvers State mental hospital".


I also mentioned in an earlier blog that I visited The Farm Colony in New York. This Historic Preservation website states that the colony was a poor farm. The nearby Seaview Hospital treated tuberculosis patients. This was one of my favorite places that I have ever visited, as it was so unique. The Farm Colony contains many buildings with beautiful archways and even a skeleton greenhouse structure.

-All photos taken by me: Allison Nagy

Urban Exploration: What is it?

Although people have been exploring forever, the idea of defining the term "urban exploration" is fairly new, and has different meanings to many people. The first time that I entered an abandoned hospital, I wasn't thinking, "Yes, let us go urban exploring". I was thinking, "Wow, look at this amazing building! We have to go inside"! This first trip, on a cold fall night, inspired a curiosity inside me and I had to see more. I had to know everything about the building. When I went home, I researched everything I could about the place and even found a map of the property. During my research, it was then that I saw the term: urban exploration. This led to a number of intriguing websites, created by people who loved the same thing as me.

Recently, I went to The Farm Colony, scattered with abandoned buildings in the woods of New York. I came across several other people taking pictures and asked them if they called this urban exploring, or if they were familiar with the term. One of the girls simply stated: "I call it fun". She told me about her plans to access an abandoned Staten Island shipyard in the near future.

I felt the exact same way, but I do feel that defining the term has helped others such as myself to find new places to explore.

This New York Times article discusses urban exploration, bringing the seemingly underground topic to light and acknowledging some of the websites.

Abandoned Homes

There are many abandoned homes scattered throughout the world. They sit empty and often isolated, leaving the questions of who lived here and what happened?

I have visited two abandoned homes in Maryland, one in Columbia and one in Clarksville, although I have driven by many more. The first home was boarded up completely except for a couple windows on the second floor. Graffiti covered the inside of the windows and the walls of the house, as I later discovered. All of the furniture was gone, but the basement contained remnants of old tools and other dusty objects. The living room had beautiful chandeliers and hardwood floors. The house is not too deteriorated, but the graffiti has ruined the walls. In the closet I found an old mouse trap with an illustration that appeared to be from around the 1960s. The attic contained a mattress and a family of rats who inhabited it.

I tried to find out who owned the property online, whose mailbox is surrounded by weeds that overtake the yard, but could uncover the information.

According to this Baltimore Housing website, abandoned homes are quite common and "The city has 16,000 abandoned homes and thousands more in need of improvement. "

-All photos taken by me: Allison Nagy

Chestnut Lodge

Chestnut Lodge was a sanitarium in Rockville, Maryland that was built in 1866 and closed in 2001. It was run by a generation of psychiatrists in the Bullard family for a number of years and had many notable and renowned staff members during its time, as stated by this website. According to this New York Times article, Chestnut Lodge started out small and soon became one of the country's leading psychiatric hospitals. Many of the patients at the Lodge were severely disturbed and the primary form of treatment was psychoanalysis.

I interviewed Patricia Woodward who was the head nurse at the Lodge for many years. She looks back on her job fondly, and holds very strong opinions on treatment. Today she says that most doctors only give patients medicine, but that she has seen that medicine a long with necessary therapy works. Many of the staff members of the Lodge are even having a reunion soon.

The Lodge closed down due to a lack of funding and many of the patients were transferred. Woodward recalled that some of the patients continued to see their private doctors and lead normal lives in Rockville.

When questioned about possible hauntings at the Lodge, Woodward did not dismiss the idea as silly. She said that because of the Lodge's history, the imprints of the people were very strong and most likely still remain. Her husband and herself plan to move into the condominiums that are being built on the property and she wants to live on the floor that she worked on. She says that she may see some ghosts, but would not be afraid if she did, and she plans to relive many memories from her time spent there.

St. Mary's College/"Hell House"

St. Mary's College was a religious preparatory school for young men entering the seminary. It was founded in 1866 in Ilchester, MD and closed down in 1972 due to a lack of men entering the order. Upon closing, the school soon became a place of interest for vandals and curious young people. Many rumors circulated about the school such as "there was a psychotic caretaker who would release his man-eating dogs on trespassers, satanic cults were performing strange rituals on the grounds, people had been murdered, there were ghosts of former students haunting the building" as stated by this website on the history of the school. None of the rumors have ever been proven, although there was a caretaker on the grounds for awhile. In 1997, many of the buildings crumbled in a fire whose cause is still unknown. The site posted this Baltimore Sun article that reported on the fire. It stated that "Investigators with the state fire marshal's office are calling the blaze suspicious because the building has been vacant since the 1970s, according to Allen L. Ward, deputy chief state fire marshal." The caretaker was actually charged in shooting one of the trespasser's of the property as stated in this article from The Sun in Howard in 1996. I read and saw photos of the buildings being bulldozed in 2006 so it seems that not much is left at the site. I have never been to "Hell House" because I heard of it being torn down as soon as I learned of it. It is one of the most interesting buildings I have researched yet in terms of the history and myths surrounding it and I wish I had had a chance to explore it myself.

In other news, I visited the Enchanted Forest that I wrote about in an earlier post and it was a very neat experience. The park is completely overgrown and many structures lay in ruins. One of the most interesting things was a lake with a mountain structure built in the middle. A slide runs down the side that children used to use, but the steps leading up to it were destroyed. Graffiti covers many of the buildings left unfortunately and some of the steps in one of the castles were dangerously crumbling under my weight. The old turnstiles still stand and some are so covered in twisted vines that they won't budge.

-Building photo is from http://ellicottcity.net/.

-Newspaper clipping photo is from http://ellicottcity.net/.

Patapsco Female Institute

This was a school for young women in the 19th century in Ellicott City, MD that closed down in 1891. It was turned into several things over the years such as a hotel, a theatre and a nursing home. Currently, it serves as a historical site and the ruins have been preserved and stabilized. Tours and lectures are given as well. In the 1870s, it is interesting to note that the headmistress was Sarah Randolph, granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson according to the school's website. An article from WUSA9 discusses the property and the ghost stories surrounding it. One of the stories is that a student named Anna VanDerLot attended the school and hated it. She died on the grounds of pneumonia while waiting for her parents to come retrieve her and it is said that her spirit haunts the grounds. A Baltimore Sun article discusses the same story. Jacqueline Galke , executive director of the Institute's historic park, dismisses all rumors, while ghost hunters claim to have snapped photos of ghostly orbs and figures.

-The photo is from The Howard County Library website.