LTVSquad

Category: Locations

Exploring location files

  • LaHouse

    LaHouse

    This house is a mystery for which I have clues but no answers.

    History:
    Seemingly abandoned sometime in the last few years, this stately home in a nice neighborhood has  changed owners nearly half a dozen times in the last 15 years. The family that seemed to live here most recently has complete disappeared.
    While the home is currently empty, one could get the distinct impression that something rather horrible befell the family that lived here. Some of the last personal property left in the house (and not dumped out back like so much trash) were family photo albums – showing a seemingly happy couple (though rarely seen in the same photo) with young children. They seemed to live in an apartment nearby before buying this house and only living in it a very short while.
    I found the wife’s /homeowners name via online searches. The only direct hit on her fairly common name was on an NYS.gov website for persons whom the state had received money and were holding should said person or their next of kin come forward. It seems an insurance company had tried to send her a payment but could not get in contact with her.
    I once found the name of a recently deceased relative on this list.
    Perhaps the family defaulted on the mortgage and left the country. Who knows really. The fact that they seemed to have left so much personal property behind – especially the photo albums – is just plain strange.

    Exploring:
    Weird place to be, really. At the time, all of the doors to this house were flapping in the breeze. The house itself is large open and airy. A pleasant place to walk through, though we were on the lookout for squatters. Strangely none had taken up residence here.
    The house itself has seen some severe vandalism. The walls are punched in all over the place, wiring and pipes have all been scrapped out. Graffiti artists have used it as their own gallery.
    Some walls have large cracks – I suspect the building on a whole has some severe structural damage that would make it completely unsellable.
    It’s always strange to visit a house like this in NYC. The property here is worth roughly $1M – and here it is – abandoned. With property values what they are it’s very rare to find a place like this. Assuming this building has a proper owner right now, I can’t imagine it will last long.

  • McCarren Pool 2003/2004

    McCarren Pool 2003/2004

    Wrapping up this week’s series is this set of photos from 2003 and 2004. As you can see, for some bizarre reason the NYC Parks Department wasted a lot of money and paint on priming the entire pool white, and then slapping another coat of deep red paint on the structure. It wasn’t long before people were tagging up here again though…

    Tags in the diving pool, 2004

    Pool Whitening, 2003

    Pool Whitening, 2003

    Mess of barbed wire.

    Pool Whitening, 2003

    Here you can see the lifeguard shack, side window flapping in the breeze.

    2004, already being tagged again.

    Diving pool before it was filled in.

  • McCarren Interiors

    McCarren Interiors

    Aside from the epic graffiti find, the buildings of McCarren pool supplied a huge amount of decay porn. Sadly though nearly everything in these photos is also gone – victim of the rapidly progressing gut rebuild of the pool.

    Basement Hallway under the Arch
    Basement under the arch

    Bashed old frig in the lifeguard shack.
    Old refrigerator in the ruined concessions stand in the back.

    Long Basement Hallway
    Basement hallway

    Huge pile of rusted out pipes piled near the old dumbwaiter shaft.
    Rusted pipes being hauled out.

    Rusted out Boiler showing flood damage. This room was underwater.
    The ancient coal fired boiler under the arch – this was used to provide hot water to the locker rooms. The muddy waterline shows how deeply it was submerged in rain water while the pool was abandoned.

    Original Pool Sign.
    Ancient sign.

    Rotted out electrical boxes
    Damaged electrical panel.

  • McCarren Pool Graffiti 2001

    McCarren Pool Graffiti 2001

    Even though the buildings at McCarren pool were sealed shut, the exterior walls became a whole new canvas for the next generation of graffiti writers. This is how the pool looked in 2001.
    North side fencing, resembling that of a prison.

    Pump/Filtration house tagged up tight.

    Decaying overview

    Ghetto tree grows in the corner.

    The Diving Pool

    On top of the arch, Hobo Bits.

    Another day another mattress.

    SleepyTime

    Looking West towards the church.

    Home Sweet Home

    Facing east, towards the Greenpoint Fuel Tanks (which were later imploded)

    Down at the north mini arch.

  • McCarren Pool Tunnel Graffiti

    McCarren Pool Tunnel Graffiti

    Deep below McCarren Pool, where only the most insane insomniac isotopic explorers dare wander, we came across still another batch of graffiti. These tags are much fewer than those of the locker room area, as these tunnels were likely pitch black in the 1980s when these guys hit this place.

    This post is dedicated to the Ninja Team of the 80s. Deam, Mint, Finez, Gem, Ivette. If any of you are out there and want to relive your youth, give me a call!

    Jim - obviously very old but definitely not from 1924, since that was 12 years before this place was built. Anyone have any other guess what the numbers mean? (Maybe there's a hatch down here with some guy named Desmond in it?)

    Deam (1980s)

    SP (1980s)

    Finez, Gem (1980s)

    Deam (1980s)

    Barely visible pencil drawing of... ? Rat? Bunny? Definitely older than the 80s

    Ivette, Mint 1980s

    Theme, late 80s early 90s (very well known Greenpoint king)

    EXILE UF/TRK - late 80s early 90s graffiti.

    Skil 1985

    NINJAS!!! (1980s)

  • McCarren Pool Tunnels

    McCarren Pool Tunnels

    Unknown to most, McCarren Pool contains a tunnel system. This tunnel system is a ring that starts under the main arch entrance and runs just under the edge of the pool in a large square. The rear side opens up to what was (and will be) the pool’s filtration room.  Additionally there is a side tunnel that runs below the rim of what was once the diving pool (filled in and set to become a volleyball court).

    Instead of hogging all the photo glory of having roamed through this place, I now turn this post over to the flavorful lens action of one Mr. ProZak, who accompanied me on this latest pool excursion.

    Stay tuned for our next McCarren Xpose tomorrow, detailing the graffiti found in these tunnels.

  • McCarren Pool 1980s Graffiti Exposed

    McCarren Pool 1980s Graffiti Exposed

    One of them Hot 80s cars you always wanted.

    When we first entered the former locker room areas of McCarren Pool, I was most pleased at this discovery. It is and was probably the most impressive graffiti discovery of 2010, period. While I know that is a huge, huge statement to make, you really must understand what we have here in these photos to truly appreciate the extent of the situation.

    All of these photos were taken in 2010. All of the graffiti you see here (well, with one or two exceptions) was done inside the locker rooms of the pool during the 1980s. The date range of these tags runs from 1983 to approximately 1987. It is rather easy to conclude that during the years immediately after the pool was closed, the entire site was completely abandoned – doors left open, and vandals taking full advantage. At some point in the late 80s the buildings were sealed up with concrete and reinforced iron. From that point on, even while the exterior of the building became an illegal graffiti haven, no other graffiti artists gained access to the locker rooms.

    Drips was apparently here first. Just like all exploring, the taggers get their first.

    Yeap, those are DOORS lyrics in there.

    Resk (90s) with 80's graff.

    F5, Utah, Ether (90s Graff in the lifeguard shack)

    NelleNel, Dic, Eagle

    This is most likely the last graffiti find of this variety in NYC to have survived until 2010. I can say this with a high regard of authority, having been in nearly every abandoned building within NYC over the last 20 years. The stock of abandoned buildings here was decimated during this time. Out of hundreds of such buildings the only intact walls of pure 1980s graffiti I ever found was the Graffiti Room in Greenpoint Terminal Market.

    Pin

    Speedo, JB, WH

    Yes that is a Twisted Sister logo. I WANNA ROCK!

    Tags on Tags

    These photos represent a small portion of the dozens I took of this amazing graffiti find. Sadly, as of this last month, the locker rooms at McCarren Pool have been completely gutted. No trace remains of nearly all of this graffiti. These photos are the only proof it ever survived this long. I am of course, most pleased to be able to present them to you. Enjoy.

    Stay tuned for tomorrows episode, where we go deep into the tunnels (!!!) and expose even more amazing finds.

  • Luv Tunnel 2: The Cows Come Home?

    Luv Tunnel 2: The Cows Come Home?

    Yesterday’s fuss about the west side ‘Cow Tunnel’ really got me wondering if perhaps the ‘Luv Tunnel’ was known by another name decades ago. Afterall, They are located not far from each other and urban legends, particularly concerning the NYC underground, are often wildly exaggerated. Stories about hidden abandoned subway stations still with pianos in them, CHUDs, etc are sadly pervasive.  Thus it’s not much of a stretch to assume that rumors of a possible tunnel built at 34th street could actually be an actual, existing tunnel at 41st.

    Before we go further, if you haven’t already, check out the original post on this topic over at Edible Geography. It’s a most interesting read…

    The Luv tunnel has always been a bit of a mystery to me. It’s a short tunnel that dead ends at a solid concrete wall. According to some older graffiti artists/explorers, this tunnel once dead ended at the Hudson river. I never got around to doing homework on it until now (10 years after discovery of it)

    There are very few references to what function this tunnel previously held online. Approximately located below W41st street, ‘the luv tunnel’  served 2 functions:

    1) As a wye (used to turn railroad cars and engines around – sort of like making a 3 point Uturn, only on tracks), and
    2) To service stock yards previous located above these tracks.

    My only current reference for this second part is this obscure web page – with the relevant quote:  “At 41st Street there was a wye as well as a stub track to several slaughter houses”.

    This is however backed up by the location of a stock yard and slaughter houses on this old 1920s map.

    As you can see, there was a rail line (denoted by the solid line with the slashes through it) running up the south side of W41st street to service the stock yards (where one can assume cows were delivered for the slaughterhouses). When these tracks were later placed below grade, my theory is a basement level loading dock was built to connect to the tunnel. It’s not very far fetched when you consider how many businesses modified their buildings to receive rail service from the (then new) High Line.

    Underground tunnel + Slaughterhouses = “Cow Tunnel” ?

    If you have a better theory and more information, please step forward with it in the comments. I’ll gladly update this & give cred where it’s due.

    Until then, enjoy these modern day photos of the Luv (maybe Cow) Tunnel.

    Junction of the ‘Wye’.

    One of 2 Wye tracks, facing south (and yes, it’s Utah’s world, we just visit it)

    End of the line facing 12th ave. Miru Kim & Ben Gibberd are the mysterious characters in the background – we were down there for his excellent NY Times story.

    (Hey since I’m so plug-happy today, how about that Utah plug one more time? Utah, Bitches!)

  • High Rise Construction Site

    High Rise Construction Site

    So we went into this high rise construction site and found absolutely nothing worth seeing. Really!

    (well, it’s either that or I’m foreshadowing another post again)

  • Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital Nurses Quarters

    Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital Nurses Quarters

    The Brooklyn Navy Yard Nurses Quarters (Building RG) is one of the most overlooked abandoned buildings in NYC.

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