What was this place?

  Abandoned buildings and ghost towns have always fascinated me.  Perhaps it was growing up in Bucks County in Pennsylvania.  Bucks County is along the Delaware River next to Philadelphia.  Most of the towns date back to the 1700’s and have some great historic significance.  I remember the excitement I would feel when some woods were cleared and you could see the old abandoned farmhouses you never knew existed along a road you traveled on everyday.  

Industrial buildings were secluded in their own abandoned little communities and I loved seeing the painted walls or the name of a company that has long since vanished and wondering how many people went through those doors everyday to make their living.  You could almost hear the buildings telling their stories of once being alive with hopes, dreams or despair. 

Growing up in Lower Bucks County meant I was also near the Philadelphia State Hospital also known as Byberry.    I remember hearing about the place on the news and passing the huge old buildings going through Northeast Philadelphia going to visit my Grandparents. It was a great spooky looking place even when it was in use.  I can remember asking my relatives who drove by what that place was and receiving the response of, “That’s where they put all of the crazy people.”   That was enough to make my 5 year old head explode with images of any type of monsters (mostly Freddy Krueger) all together in the same place. 

As I got older I was still fascinated by the abandoned asylums and other places that were creepy and off the beaten path.  I researched Byberry and other “urban explorer” type websites.  I really wanted to go in and explore and convinced my wife we should check out these places.  We went to Byberry, but were impressed by the heavy security presence.  We weren’t about to go in under the cover of darkness because that would be way too spooky. 

I was content with living vicariously through the web photos I found until I heard of a place called “Nuke Town”.  I was told that this place was almost park like and people would walk their dogs through this ghost town.   I was immediately interested in finding it.  The information was a bit sketchy, I think all we had at the time was, “it’s near the Limerick Nuclear towers.”, but my wife and I set out to find it anyway.  The first attempt ended in failure, since you can see those nuclear towers for miles and the odd thing is that people have constructed houses really close to them.   Not to be turned away we asked many others about “Nuke Town”, finally getting a location for a place actually called Frick’s Lock. 

Frick’s Lock was simply a small village that was bought up when the Limerick power plant was built.  The houses were still standing and in good abandoned condition.  Frick’s lock led to Pennhurst Asylum and then on to Centralia, we hope to add some more creepy places as we get to them.  For now please enjoy the galleries we do have.  It will be nice to have people live vicariously through us for a change.  Please be careful if you venture out to these places, many times you will be trespassing and these places aren’t really meant for you to go into anymore.  If you want to explore safely check out Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.  It’s a ruin you are allowed to go through.  

We'd love to go more places.... help if you can.