Ash Wednesday! Abandoned America: Why are some people attracted to decaying buildings?

Why are we so attracted to abandoned places? Why does it fascinate use so much? Of course, most people wouldn’t give these places a seconded thought, they’re irrelevant[. T]hey are like an iPhone 4s when you have the iPhone 11. It was a good phone for the time but it's been surpassed by several other models. ​

If you’re like me, though, you still rock the shit out of your 4s sometimes, and if you are like me, you are also hella drawn to abandoned buildings like a magnet. So what the heck is so attractive or alluring about some piece of junk? Like anything in life, why someone likes something is usually very much based on their subjective perspectives, and as always this shits personal. While you may have absolute no interest in visiting a half collapsed building in East Kensington, there are a few select people who live and breathe that stuff. ​

Some things I like about going to abandoned places is that each one is different. I try not to go to the same places more than once or twice, it is very cool to see how these places change and transform over time. Sure the grass maybe more overgrown, or there maybe more tags or graffiti then the last time, but to me these places are suspended in time, but still have so much potential to transform, and change. Like yea[h] it’s clearly left to decay until it’s last dying day, or until there is a government order to bulldoze it, but to me I eat this shit up.

I have even been driving somewhere and pull off just to go into a house, or a mill, or whatever chalk it up to pure unadulterated curiosity.  Many peeps who love to visit these places do so for the pure enjoyment. I always like to imagine who lived here, or is currently living there, why did they leave, what forced them out? I love to figure out how things work, why trains are just left for dead basically if we still use them. What are all those knobs and doo dads for? You know just common questions. ​

I think these places are also in some way eerily beautiful, I am not sure if it is my background in art, and art history that has a much overstated appreciation  for architecture but I just find something so beautiful about the aesthetics of something that looks so broken but still has so much potential. ​

All those kids who were obsessed with haunted houses as a kid, yup, you best believe they are going out all over, and exploring abandoned places in America, or they religiously watch all that drone porn showing off these huge abandoned institutions. I am a sucker for some good spots too, there is this abandoned hospital that has been turned into a park that just begs to be explored in. Some other places, like abandoned hotels in the Poconos with heart tubs, sign me the the fuck up. I've lost count of how many places I have explored, but I value each and everyone of those experiences. ​

I love that there are these places everywhere, anywhere you go there is usually something that has been left behind whether it was due to economic collapse, which I have a feeling if this pandemic is going the way that it is going to, I am gonna be exploring my local abandoned Plant Fitness sometime soon. Some time it was a natural disaster, there was a semi famous restaurant near where I grew up that mysteriously caught fire, I am calling bull on that one, I think it was arson but hey what do I know. ​

Around the world there are many different places all ranging from castles, to hospitals, houses, and hotels, that haunted and macabre are is something that has always insanely fascinated me. They seem to be [encapsulated] in time and as a visual person there is simply no better way to learn about something than being there in person to learn about it in person, yes I am that idiot that stops at every historical plaque I can find sorry not sorry. ​

I just like abandoned shit. See ya next Wednesday! 

-Ash Catcher