Gallery: Exploring the Creepiest, Craziest Abandoned Spaces of NYC
<a href="https://instagram.com/nepalphotoproject">Nepal Photo Project</a>01The Gowanus Batcave
The Gowanus "Batcave" was the home of a thriving squatter community in the early 2000s. Today it's being renovated into artists' studios and an exhibition space.
<a href="https://instagram.com/sumitdayal/">@sumitdayal</a>/<a href="https://instagram.com/nepalphotoproject">Nepal Photo Project</a>02The Harlem Renaissance Ballroom
The Harlem Renaissance Ballroom was a notable meeting place for movers and shakers in the 1920s. It once hosted the greatest jazz performers of the age, as well as the nation's first all-black professional basketball team.
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A coat check on the ground floor of the Harlem Renaissance Ballroom was the first stop on the way to the dance floor. The structure was recently approved for demolition.
Will Ellis04Pigeon poop covers abandoned Queens mental hospital
Charges of abuse and neglect plagued the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in the 1970s in Queens. Today, the fourth floor of its Building 25 is covered with decades' worth of pigeon droppings.
Will Ellis05Tables, chairs, and kitchen appliances remain in the cafeteria.
Tables, chairs, and kitchen appliances remain in the cafeteria of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center's Building 25.
Will Ellis06Staten Island Farm Colony
Though the Staten Island Farm Colony is designated as a landmark historic district, many of its oldest structures are in ruins. This was the last room standing in a collapsed dormitory now slated for demolition.
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The now-demolished raw sugar warehouse of Williamsburg's Domino Sugar Refinery. The factory operated on the Brooklyn waterfront for nearly 150 years before shutting down in the early 2000s.
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Much of the Domino Sugar Refinery has been demolished to clear the way for a controversial development. It was once the largest refinery in the world.
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The Post Hospital at Fort Totten was abandoned long before the base was decomissioned in the 1970s.
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Like many ex-military sites in New York City, Fort Totten functions as a public park, but lacks the funding to adequately maintain the structures left behind at the base.
Will Ellis11Much of the interior of the hospital has collapsed.
Much of the interior of the hospital has collapsed.
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A staircase retains some elegant wrought-iron details at the long-abandoned P.S. 186 school in Harlem. After 40 years of neglect, saplings sprout from the upper floors.
Will Ellis13North Brother Island
North Brother Island in the Bronx was the site of a historic hospital for contagious diseases. Today, it's designated as a wildlife preserve by the parks department after being abandoned for half a century.
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Walls reduced to a pulp in a hallway of the nurses' residence. The most notable resident of North Brother Island was "Typhoid Mary" Mallon, identified as the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever in 1907.
Will Ellis15The creepiest abandoned places in New York City
The Freedom Tunnel under Riverside Park once held a vast homeless encampment known as "the mole people." Amtrak evicted the residents and reactivated the line in the 1990s, but the tunnel remains a mecca for graffiti artists.
