New England Oddities

Exploring the Forgotten

There’s something about a forgotten space that holds a definite appeal for many people, be it the look into the lives of those who have gone before us, the raw emotion evoked by an abandoned locale, or simply just the thrill of the forbidden, of being somewhere one really should not be.

The word “urbex”, which is a shortened form of the phrase urban exploration, is defined by Wikipedia as the “examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities”.  In the face of the myriad dangers native to urban exploration, such as asbestos inhalation, tetanus, falling through floors compromised by flooding and rot, transient encounters, and in some cases a ticket for trespassing, there is a growing segment of photographers and other artists who can’t resist the siren song of abandoned spaces.   They see the beauty in the way the light from a broken window hits a rusting  hinge or a strip of peeling paint and they find art in a solitary chair in an empty room.   They see the symbolism in grass sprouting up through the cracks of a forgotten highway or in the way the forest quickly begins to reclaim the stones of an abandoned foundation.

I have always been one such photographer.

As we consider ourselves to be journalists as well as explorers here at New England Oddities, we have not trespassed or otherwise compromised our principles to get these photos.  We have always obtained permission where necessary.  We bring these photos to you with the recommendation that you not compromise yours, whatever they may be.

An Abandoned Factory – Easthampton, Massachusetts:

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An Abandoned Train Station – Holyoke, Massachusetts:

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The Hudson-Chester Quarry – Becket, Massachusetts:

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Sideling Hill Tunnel on an Abandoned Stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Ok, so this isn’t actually in New England, but I’m going to share it anyway!  If  you find yourself in central PA someday, definitely check this out.

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Post Apolcalyptic Suburbia – Somewhere in Western Massachusetts

(This location is rare, as it is not just one abandoned house, but 13! This is an entire development in varying stages of completion, just left to rot. I’ve not had any luck discovering the exact reason why, and no, I’m not going to tell you exactly where it is. But I’m sure you can find further information elsewhere on the internet.)

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This Week’s Best Photos – Special Edition

Welcome to a special edition of This Week’s Best Photos!  Chris and I have been extra-busy lately trying to launch our new paranormal research group (more details to come on that later), so we haven’t been keeping up with the photos here.  But we are going to make it up to you with one massive photo post, encompassing all the photo sessions we haven’t yet published. This edition of This Weeks Best Photos includes all our best from the last two months.

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Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts

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This Week’s Best Photos

Below is a selection of our best photos taken over the past week. Click to open full size. Beneath the photos you will find links to our full Flickr sets for these locations.

Dark clouds spell an impending storm over Simsbury Cemetery in Simsbury, Connecticut.

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Dana, Ghosts Of A Lost Town

Our trip to Dana, Massachusetts took place on a rainy morning in May. The vibrations of this small community’s final days seemed to resonate through every dark cloud and sporadic shower we encountered. Though the skies seemed ready to open up at any second, we were determined to see it through, lured by the stories we’ve heard of Dana’s ghosts. This is an account of our first paranormal investigation at the discontinued township.

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This Week’s Best Photos

Below is a selection of our best photos taken over the past week. Click to open full size. Beneath the photos you will find links to our full Flickr sets for these locations.

The gate at Woodland Cemetery in Granville, Massachusetts.

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Tunnel Vision

The damming of the Nashua River to create the Wachusett Reservoir at the turn of the 20th century changed the face of Clinton, a mill town in central Massachusetts, forever.

Thousands of workers were employed during the construction of the largest hand-dug dam in history, which is still considered to be a remarkable feat of engineering. Businesses, homes and churches needed to be moved when the valley was flooded, as well as the 4,000 bodies in the local cemetery. A new railroad trestle and tunnel needed to be built to accommodate the relocation of the Central Massachusetts Railroad line.

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This Week’s Best Photos

Below is a selection of our best photos taken over the past week. Click to open full size. Beneath the photos you will find links to our full Flickr sets for these locations.

The tip of a random crane in Clinton, Massachusetts.

Continue reading This Week’s Best Photos…

This Week’s Best Photos

Below is a selection of our best photos taken over the past week. Right-click to open full size. Beneath the photos you will find links to our full Flickr sets for these locations.

The Smith monument at Quabbin Park Cemetery. Quabbin Park is a very large, scenic park-style cemetery in Ware, MA, and is the new home of many of the grave sites that had to be moved when the Quabbin Reservoir was commissioned.

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Becket’s Abandoned Quarry

The solitary entry read simply this: “Two hundred men lost their lives while the quarry was in operation from 1850 to 1960. And a lone hiker claims to have been chased away by a angry spirit”. An abandoned quarry located in the small town of Becket, MA? Having grown up less than 30 miles away, I was surprised never to have heard of it, and more than a little intrigued.

With a little bit more digging, I came upon a very informative web page, published by The Becket Land Trust. Although there is no information in the land trust’s page corroborating or denying claims of so many deaths or any mention of paranormal activity, I was pleasantly surprised to find maps and photos of the area with a brief history of the quarry’s operation. Still I must say that the hopes of gathering some kind of evidence of paranormal activity were high. The claims that approximately two hundred workers had met their demise there, and that a hiker was chased away from the location sparked my curiosity. So, the very next day we left to explore the living museum with hopes of finding memories of the dead.

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A Potter’s Field In Springfield

Burial grounds in New England boast a wide variety of markers, from traditional stones, to crosses, to flat plaques, benches, raised tables and even obelisks. But what of a graveyard with no visible markers whatsoever?

Bay Path Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts is one such “stoneless” yard. Also called the Almshouse Burial Grounds, Bay Path Cemetery is home to nearly a thousand former residents of the town poorfarm and the old Municipal Hospital. Giving every impression of an empty lot, the small cemetery sits on a corner of Blunt Park by Roosevelt Avenue. It is surrounded by a low chain-link fence with locked gates, and contains a solitary stone marker bearing an inscription from Matthew: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

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