Blog Archives
Auditorium
This was one of the first times I’d been brave enough to walk into an abandoned building to take some pictures. But I am glad I did: this place is boarded up now.
This place has an interesting history that involves millionaires, Postum, and planned communities. Wikipedia has this to say:
The rare motorist that happens to pass through the remote small town of Close City today may be unaware that, at the turn of the century, the town site was chosen as the original location of Post City, a model community and grand social experiment conceived by C. W. Post, an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer. In the early 1890s, Post developed a popular caffeine-free coffee substitute called Postum and later made a fortune on breakfast cereals such as Grape Nuts and Post Toasties. As Post’s wealth grew, his interests began to expand into other areas. One project that had always intrigued him was the creation of a planned community of model homes and industry. His success in the prepared foods industry provided the financial resources to make this dream a reality.
The Close City schoolhouse is two stories high; this auditorium is on the second floor. The building was in use from 1919 to 1965, when the school closed and students went to nearby Post, Texas, for school.
Close City School
Garza County, Texas
photographed 5.31.2010
Keep out
Two things here:
– The KEEP OUT painted on the wall, because the state of the yard made the sign unnecessary.
– The way the leaves of the plant make that lovely radial pattern which is such a nice counterpoint to the hard rectangles of the window openings.
Of course I had to stop.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
PS – For those of you keeping score, this is the 13th post taken on August 16. Yes – a good day.
Ice plant
Yesterday’s post might have caused some confusion between Vanishing Point* and a vanishing point, and I apologize for that. I really do.
But, here I am again, with a title that might have led readers in certain coastal regions to think I was referring to the ice plant**, when what I obviously meant was an ice plant.
I’ll try to be more clear in the future.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
*Only $9.98 at Amazon. I bet that’s a good deal.
**Also known as pigface. FYI.
The dregs of dreams, 2
More dregs, more dreams.
The walls of this structure are slowly returning to the hard earth from which they came. Literally: the walls are made from adobe, an ancient building method that’s still in use. It’s sustainable – the ingredients are clay, sand, dirt, water, and some sort of organic material (straw, usually.) It doesn’t require any specialized tools. Adobe walls are load-bearing a,nd have good thermal properties. With the proper covering (plaster, or whitewash) adobe walls can last a long time.
Adobe won’t last once that outer covering is gone, and melts away.
In a desert that takes a while, but it still happens.
Terlingua, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
The dregs of dreams, 1
The road from Alpine to Terlingua goes through mountains, past a border patrol checkpoint, and across a wide plain. And then, just as the mountains of Big Bend National Park loom off to the left, there are a few scattered and abandoned buildings: evaporated dreams.
But the dregs of these dreams are stunningly beautiful.
along Highway 118
Brewster County, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
One Day | One Image 