K.C.'s Garage

So apparently there's a Ghost Town nearby!

Metropolitan Industrial: The "Metro" is a large warehouse space divided into three main partitioned areas. The first area has an enclosed space occupying roughly 60% of the width of the space. That enclosed area has a couple of single-office sized rooms (one of which is psychadelic painted with glow-in-the-dark stars) and a bathroom with a working shower in it. The second partitioned area has a kitchen built in it, complete with counter space, a kitchen sink, a range, a dishwasher, and an "island" counter with electrical power and storage space. At the back of the second partition is another enclosed space with two small office-style rooms, another closed-sized bathroom, and a weird small unfinished alcove-like room (not photographed). The third partitioned area is open warehouse space, with a small semi-wall dividing it from the two large roll-up garage doors in the back. My photos do not include the front area's enclosed rooms because they had dark...

A coworker turned me on to this decaying textile mill in the middle of this West-side Atlanta Suburb.  I called up TK and we headed out there and took some photos.  Man, this place is decayed!  The main plant is (was?) two stories, but in many places the water damage from the leaking roof has caused both the roof and second floor to collapse onto the first. The office section has a couple of rooms that are no longer indoors.   Anyhow, enjoy the photos!

Several months ago I visited a decomissioned milk packaging plant that I once worked in as an IT engineer.  Unfortunatly, by the time I dropped by most of the interesting stuff had been removed. Though it looks like the Kool-Aid Man had gone on a rampage just before I got there!

Just an empty warehouse in an industrial area of Atlanta.  This place has apparently been empty for about a decade, and has been well decorated with graffiti.  Oddly, around some corners and off an empty showroom is a small room with two immaculate, untouched shower models.

For sale: One former car battery manufacturing plant. Some cleanup required.

So several months back I posted some exterior shots of an abandoned winery that I discovered on the South side of Atlanta. Well, some time later as I was driving by I noticed the place was wide open - doors and all - so I stopped by and snapped some photos of the inside.

If you are attending DEFCON this year (or just want to see my slides), the final incarnation of my slides are available here: http://phreakmonkey.com/dc16-ue.zip The slides on the DEFCON CD are out-of-date. Also, thanks to everyone who came out to the EFF party last night! My talk is on Saturday at 3:00pm, track 5. :-) EDIT 2008.08.12: Another year, another DEFCON gone by.  A quick THANK YOU to everyone who makes DEFCON possible (if you attended that includes you!), and thanks to everyone who attended my talk or walked up to me at some point during the con to share your personal Urban Exploration experiences!  It was a lot of fun.  See you next year!

In South Central Atlanta, in the shadow of the freeway, sits this forgotten structure. The shape and layout indicates it was once a shipping / distribution center, but the most recent paperwork laying around shows that it's last purpose was as a towing and impound lot. It looks to have been closed and abandoned sometime in the mid 90's. There was a fire in the office section, judging from the smell and damage it was fairly recent.

The metro-Atlanta town of Hapeville, GA lays claim to being the home of Jeff Foxworthy, Chick-Fil-A, and an automobile plant of a well known auto-maker. The "Atlanta Assembly" plant, located in Hapeville between Interstate 75, the Atlanta Airport, and the railroad tracks, was opened in December, 1947 and ceased operations in October, 2006. The plant was bought by a local developer last month and is being demolished to make way for commercial structures. The developer was kind enough to allow myself and a couple of fellow explorer/photographers in to shoot the factory just prior to the deconstruction.

It's late. Storms are in the area, but it has just stopped raining. On the way home from visiting some old friends I decide on a lark to drive by Pullman and see what's brewing. The Georgia Power substation development on the North side of the property appears to now be independently secured and fenced off. The open holes in the chain-link fence along the West side of the Pullman property have recently been replaced with new sections of fence. The property itself seem to have been cleaned up quite a bit with the addition of their new neighbor. It's as if the State of Georgia decided to clean up their house now that they are having company over. I wandered in to see what else had changed - sans flashlight, camera, or even appropriate clothing. Once inside the main central rail building I wandered into the darkest corner I could find and just stood in absolute nothingness for a while to let my eyes adjust. Abandoned buildings have a life their own to them. Anyo...

East Atlanta is home to yet another abandoned school. John C. Bordon school was built in 1922 and closed in 1995. I read somewhere that a developer bought it in 1997 to convert to condos but ran into problems and never started on the project. Thirteen years after it is closed it sits in ruin, surrounded by a now bustling community.

Last spring a Budget Inn in a South Atlanta suburb caught fire. According to the news reports, the fire started on a stack of discarded mattresses behind the building, near a gas meter. Arson is suspected. Most of the occupants of this Budget Inn were residents. No fire sprinklers were installed. A family of five was trapped in a second floor room and failed to be rescued in time. It is stunning to me that in the city that lays claim to the deadliest hotel fire in US history (the Winecoff, December 1946) we still allow hotels to operate without adequate fire protection. These pictures were taken after the fire investigation ended and before the demolition crew arrived. My heart goes out to the family and friends of those who died. I support efforts to require commercial residences and hotels to have adequate fire suppression equipment, and be maintained and inspected properly and regularly. I hope these pictures help drive that point home.

Funny what you can find laying around in the North Atlanta suburbs! Enough pool chlorine for the entire state of Nevada, for instance...

West side ATL, the cornerstone for this school was laid in 1923. According to reports I've read the school was last occupied in 1970, but there are records boxes in the basement dating to 1994. (It's possible, even likely, that the school board was just using the basement for storage.) This is the most deteriorated interior of a building I have ever seen. I wish I had brought a video camera to capture the sounds and movement of the water, which was raining in everywhere throughout the building. Water was dripping from ceilings and pouring down walls. The building was full of the sound of echoing water off concrete walls, like a concrete rainforest. A "resident" of the building graciously gave us a tour and told stories of his life there, including his encounters with demons, the ghost of a small boy who returns at night, and occasionally the local sheriff.

I ran across this while finding an alternate route home from work one day. It appears to be an old winery. TK and I returned and photographed the outside and the facilities room. The rest of it is locked up, and it appears someone is in the process of moving stuff out of it. According to the weather reports a tornado came through the area while we were photographing. We ended up seeking shelter in that fairly questionable aluminum structure. For some reason, the fantastically awful movie "Twister" came to mind. Yeah. We do urbex during tornadoes. We're hard core like that. Word. :)

Revisiting the site with some friends as it was getting dark, I decided to linger and shoot some exposures as they explored.

I know what you're thinking. "Another Glidden photo shoot? Don't you get tired of that place?" In a word, yes. It's played out. But I was meeting some new people and visiting it with another explorer who hadn't been there yet. And, while we were there we ran into a guy doing a porn-fetish shoot. I'm going to withhold comments on that, but if you really want to see his work it's up on flickr. Maybe I'll post a link later. So anyhow, I took some new photos since I was wandering around anyhow. No pr0n though, sorry. ;) Flickr link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/phreakmonkey/sets/72157655063885001

A couple of weeks ago I ran across this old "Seal & Stamp Company" factory while wandering the proposed Atlanta Beltline. The company made rubber stamps, embossing seals, and those painted metal license plates that say things like "I ♥ Atlanta" and stuff like that. They operated at this location from 1969 until December 2006, when it seems they realized that the land they were on was worth more to a developer than it was to them. I returned with fellow explorer tk0667 and some camera equipment. Enjoy! Flickr link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/phreakmonkey/sets/72157654999889046

Due East of downtown Atlanta on Ponce de Leon Ave sits the massive 2 million square foot complex that was once a Sears distribution center. Built in 1926 on the former site of Ponce de Leon Park, it is currently owned by the city of Atlanta and home to "City Hall East" and the Atlanta Police Department. The developer who is renovating and converting this massive structure into a much more usable and beneficial space was gracious enough to allow a group of us explorers a tour of the facility.