Category Archives: architecture
What happens when high schools die
According to this site, the school in Pettit has been closed since the 1960s, when it merged with the school in the nearby town of Levelland. Closing the school is generally the dying gasp of a town; of course the declines don’t start with a school closure, but seem be exacerbated by them.
Nowadays, the old school buildings are fenced and cattle and goats wander freely around what’s left of the place.
I can’t explain the wrecked pickup.
Pettit, Texas
photographed 2.16.2014
Not built to last
The town’s original name was Ledwig, but the post office rejected that name. So it somehow became Pep.
There’s almost nothing left.
But once upon a time, there was a roadside business in Pep. In current lingo, its business model was not sustainable. Neither was that travel trailer….
Pep, Texas
photographed 2.16.2014
Night light
You may recall that I sort of like shooting in Santa Rosa. For someone like me, who looks for beauty in decay, it is a very beautiful location.
This grand old building is now abandoned by everything except pigeons. And possibly rodents. (That reminds me – I once heard someone say that pigeons were just rats with wings.)
But anyway. It’s lovely by day – here’s a shot of the same building by my pal Donna Catterick. And at night, it’s even better. If you ask me. Which I realize you did not.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 8.31.2012
The ghost of what once was
This wall beside a parking lot tells a story about what used to be here, before asphalt rectangles with space numbers painted in yellow were more valuable than buildings.
Speaking of rectangles: kind of a lot of them here, aren’t there?
Austin, Texas
photographed 5.11.2013
White on white, 15
The backs of things.
Sometimes they are better than the side, or the front, as these views of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church show.
(It wasn’t just this church: here’s the back of St. Mary of the Assumption Church, in Megargel, Texas.)
Petrolia, California
photographed 7.30.2012
One Day | One Image 