EDIT: Concrete City has apparently changed hands within the local government, and it seems to be patrolled more heavily these days. We've heard a few reports of urbexers being fined there, so proceed at your own risk.
When most people think of PA's ghost towns, they think Centralia, Cashtown or maybe Frick's Lock. For some reason, few people talk about Concrete City.
The name is only half true: every part of every building is made of concrete, but there are only about 16 of them.
Concrete City was built in 1911 by Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Coal to house some of its workers. Two main problems left the town abandoned in 1924: the company did not want to install a sewer system, and the concrete held in cold and dampness. They tried demolishing one of the buildings, but dynamite had little effect on the poured concrete.
The central courtyard used to have a playground, tennis courts, even a baseball field. Now it has paintball accoutrements.
Granted, it's not the ideal ghost town: the locals frequently use it for paintball games, and kids take beers up there once in a while and get drunk (and you'll see plenty of paint balls and beer cans throughout the city). But if you time your trip right -- a Sunday, weekday, or some time in winter is best -- you can have hours of fun at Concrete City.
Once Brian and I finally found our way through Nanticoke, we headed off on the gravel path to Concrete City. There were a few dead ends along the way, but it was so serene and pretty that we didn't mind.
Naturally, this was everyone's favorite when this post hit Digg's front page, haha.
There's more info on Concrete City, including a few pics of the town before it was abandoned. Check out Web Urbanist for an excellent article on ghost towns around the world.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Concrete City
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38 comments:
Great image set and narrative - my only disagreement is that I find the graffiti gives the place even more life, but to each his own ;) Thanks for sharing these great photos!
Hehe, I just meant that particular "boobies are cool" bit. There was some pretty impressive stuff there, and what better place for it?
You could slightly crop the picture to just read "boo.. a.. co.." and then it doesn't say anything specific, but rather is just 'graffiti'
but boobies are cool......
Hey there,
Surfed in through Digg. Where is this place? I grew up in NE PA, Schuylkill Co. and I've never heard of it.
I grew up in Scranton, which is 1/2 hour or so north of Nanticoke, and I've never heard of this place either.
Yes, boobies are indeed cool.
Damned kids with their spray paint and free time and love of boobies.
haha i like all the exclamation points you used.
Nice set of pictures. It's interesting to see abandoned places like this.
hey anonymous, who doesn't know where Scranton is? Seriously?
Imagine being there at night. Now that's creepy, especially if a record player clicked on and started playing old timey music
i think the graffiti is the only thing making the last picture from being a boring picture
where exactly is this place?
It's just a few minutes outside of Wilkes-Barre. You'll find a dead end of a road that was, then go on a nice hike through some quad trails to find it. I must say, this was my favorite site until today. More on that to come later!
This was great, nice images. I'd love to photograph someone there.
great presentation.i dugg
Weird picture interesting video articles
This is a great place... i'm from the area and I play paintball here every few weeks... Its the best place that I have played paintball at.
Great pictures. Concrete city looks a lot better in the summer.
Just to let you know, there were actually 22 buildings when it was first created. Now there are 20.
Concrete city is an amazing place.
I was just there earlier today. Used to play paintball there a couple years ago. It was good to go back and see it again. Its nice in the summer but you can see more in the winter when all the plants are dead.
As I kid living in Nanticoke I my Dad took my bro and I with a metal detector around the area, before most of the graffiti and garbage was around. Found some cool stuff, too! My Grandfather actually helped build the tennis courts in the middle of the buildings as a kid. Used to be a very cool place from what I can remember.
Anon (Jan 15), thanks so much for the comment. This is my favorite part of running this blog -- hearing from people who are connected to these places as you are. Concrete City must've been a gem before all the trash and vandalism.
the way i found it was, go to google earth, or mapquest. put in Phillip Street Nanticoke, Pa. closer to the top right corner u will notice what looks like a dotted square thats it
My friends and I go here a lot to take really nice scenery pictures. We tend to climb up to the roof of one specific building that's still pretty stable to take most of them. (We're all photography majors) I love this place. And I must say, it's so much prettier in the winter.
+It is actually very easy to find.. although you must walk through the woods to get to it. If you want to find it from wilkes barre i suggest you search bliss st. of hanover section of nanticoke. if you turn onto bliss street and drive straight untill you hit the woods, you can just park right there and walk to it. The neighbors are used to people parking there to go to concrete city, so thats a plus. The only thing is you can't see it from any of it's ways of getting there from civilization. So if you see a kid or adult around, you should probably ask for directions from a main road or street. theres only 2 turns to make in the woods so its not that ahrd to find =]
ps if you cant tell Concrete City is my playground <33
concrete city is huge with many of the kids and paintball fans in the area, I live about an hour 1/2 away from concrete city but make regular trips to paintball there, its always a favorite spot for air soft teams as well. The place is amazing. Thanks for that bit of history about city. tourists be ready to dodge small colored projectiles while visiting, enjoy!
I just visited concrete city yesterday...I think the best part is the awkward feeling you get after walking into a slanted building..I love to look at the actual artistic graffiti not the random words...Its a great place to explore. My friends got caught playing paintball up there like two months ago and they were arrested for trespassing and terroristic training though the second charges were dropped...Its was up for sale I'm not so sure if anyone bought it yet.
Trespassing? Seriously? I thought for sure that it was open to the public, and it sounds (and looks) like people play paintball there all the time. I've never heard of anyone having any legal trouble going there, weird.
...But, now that I read some more recent stuff, I see it's passed to control of the Nanticoke General Municipal Authority, meaning visitors are probably screwed now.
I really do get pissed at PA, and the nation in general at times. Millions get dumped into all sorts of worthless programs, billions into needless military equipment, while our history gets parceled off and sold to developers. This used to be a worry-free place to visit. Who knows what's next?
I just want to say, this is an amazing site. Thanks for your work Brian and Al.
I run a local investigation group in Lima Ohio, and we have an ancient TB Hospital thats been abandoned for nearly 40 years.
Keep up the amazing work!
i live 10 minets away from here. this place is amazing for paintball or airsoft, house to house tactic is a very fun game ( just have 1 team in each house next to eachother than have a war) and there is a speedball place there in the center mainly for paintball. airsoft isnt as common as paintball there. i perfer airsoft.
wat days do they play paintball and wat seasons?
i live right by here...its nothing big...its not a set day they play airsoft...its just a bunch of friends who decide they want to go shoot each other for the day...its kinda dirty...well...its really dirty.. and falling apart...but i guess its our towns little landmark..and its fun..:)
Concrete City is privately owned by an Airsoft team, I've been invited down there to play a few times. Haven't been there yet, but no supprise its set for Airsoft, considering its used as a field
This place is not the greatest place to play paintball. I heard it about and went down there with six buddies and was not impressed at all with the paintball play. Much better local places around Scranton. I wouldnt suggest anyone to go here to play paintball
This is not owner privately by a Airsoft team or a Paintball team. The township owns it I believe and it might have been sold. Eventually it will be torn down and developed from what I remember in the paper last year. A shame that will be. It is really an interesting place and some of the graffiti is amazing!! Alot of people play paintball here tho. It also looks like a war went on here once. ALOT of bullet holes everywhere.
no it was actually up for sale last year but the historical society is bound to take hold of it...and we use it for airsoft maybe once or twice a week.
My Name is Lenny. I grew up in Hanover Section, lived on Wells St. My friends and I hung out down there all the time in the 70's and early 80's. It was like a second home. The National Guard used to train down there and so did the fire department. When we used to take a building and clean up a room and made it our clubhouse. We used to play tag down there and we'd jump from rooftop to rooftop if there was a tree in the middle. We'd jump into the tree and swing onto the rooftop. We used to party down there all the time. Sometimes strange things happeded at night. I now live in OK, and one day I'll take my kids to see it. It was a good thing to have growing up. Lot's of memories.
I've live in WB my entire life and only just learned of Concrete City in the past year. Still haven't gotten a chance to visit - from the looks of things I may have to soon!
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