One of Pennsylvania's least-known abandonments is also one of its most interesting (and enormous). A great guy named Shawn emailed me about this site in November, and Brian and I only got to it two weeks ago.
Part of the Ironton Rail Trail, the Whitehall Parkway is the site of some of America's earliest cement plants, and has dozens of stone and concrete ruins in varying states of decay -- in some, only a wall or two remain.
Easily the best part of this abandonment is that it's legal to visit. The surrounding townships turned the site into a hiking trail, and we saw at least a dozen people biking, jogging (and snapping photos) on a frosty January day.
This would've been nice and eerie if my jeans weren't so damn blue.
ForgottenPA's Fan Box
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Whitehall Parkway
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
UrbEx Sites We Like
Other Good Stuff
About ForgottenPA
Tags
- abandoned (10)
- ghost town (3)
- centralia (2)
- historical (2)
- industrial (2)
- railroad (2)
- abandoned pa turnpike (1)
- blackwell (1)
- coal breaker (1)
- concrete city (1)
- fricks lock (1)
- galeton (1)
- iron (1)
- linfield (1)
- linfield industrial park (1)
- mine fire (1)
- mining (1)
- night (1)
- not abandoned (1)
- pine creek valley (1)
- pizza world (1)
- restaurant (1)
- roads (1)
- tioga county (1)
7 comments:
Great photos. A lot of these places are totally overlooked or ignored and will soon be forgotten to time. Thanks for documenting all these places. I had emailed you a while back about Michter's Distillery and visiting that. Any luck on getting a name of an owner? I've been digging around online and haven't found much. Nearby is Cornwall, PA and, while the historical iron furnaces have been preserved as a state site, the massive open pit and a few other more modern building remain unused and abandoned.
Hey Blue,
No luck on Michter's yet. Our work schedules, plus the cruelly short winter days, have kept us from exploring too much, as you can probably tell. We're going to try going up there and talking to the locals as soon as possible though -- never know what might turn up. That said, if you have any photos of Michter's (or anything around Cornwall) we'd be glad to host 'em and post 'em.
I have 3 pictures I had taken last summer of Michter's from the road but they are on traditional film and I don't have a way to scan them in unfortunately. The website I had sent you had some pictures from 2005 on it, and it really hasn't changed at all since then. It seems like someone keeps after it a little bit. The shrubs and grass seem to get really high and overgrown and then someone cuts it once or twice a year. The buildings are really starting to be in poor shape. The one storage house collapsed some years ago, but all of the main structures are still standing. Another website I came across:
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/ybfowler/legacy.htm
More info and some newspaper clippings, but again, no current owner identified.
I can understand doing less exploring in the winter. It can get really cold and windy, especially in January and February.
As for Cornwall, it's been some time since I have gotten up there, but my wife has never been there so we plan on doing an early spring trip up there and I should have my camera along with me then.
Ok, I think I may have stumbled upon a name! I forgot until now that Michter's was the business's name, the actual name of the distillery is Bomberger's Distillery. After doing a little searching, I found a possible owner's name. According to an uncited source on Wikipedia the owner is Dwight Hostetter and he is a one man restoration crew. Here is the link to that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomberger's_Distillery
Unknown if the info is true, but it does jive with the small bits of work going on occasionally up there.
Awesome work, Blue! If Hostetter is indeed the owner (and I'll try to verify that), and if he's working on it for personal reasons, as your discoveries suggest, he might be more open to giving us a tour of the facility than a developer would.
I'll hit the phone books this weekend -- hopefully there aren't too many Dwight Hostetters in Schaefferstown.
The only Dwight Hostetter that is a woodworker that comes up with a google search is a guy in Alabama. Kinda doubt that's the guy. Only thing I worry about is the Wikipedia article is uncited where the name is listed. That would be great if you could find the guy and get an interior tour. There are a lot of people around this area that are wondering what's going on up there and what is left inside. If the article is correct and this guy is a preservationist, getting a little exposure of the historic property may be the motivation he needs to really clean it up. It may also yield some helping hands for him. I'd be willing to help him clean up the place. I hate to see little bits of history disappear.
pennsylvania is for dykes ans sissies.what a craphole state you live in.
Post a Comment