Creepy abandoned places around the US
America has its own stretch of genuinely abandoned places, no passport required, each one left standing exactly as the last person walked away from it.
Here are a few of them for your pre-Halloween delight.
Bodie, California
A gold rush boomtown that hollowed out slowly over forty years before the last mine finally closed in 1942. California State Parks took it over in 1962 and froze the whole site in what curators call “arrested decay”, roughly 110 buildings preserved exactly as found, no restoration, no staging, just maintained against total collapse.
Six Flags New Orleans
The park closed for what everyone assumed would be a routine week before Hurricane Katrina hit. Then the storm submerged it under four to seven feet of water, and it never reopened. Rusted coasters sat untouched for nearly two decades before demolition crews finally began tearing the park down in 2024.
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Construction on this West Virginia psychiatric hospital began before the Civil War interrupted it, and the facility operated for over a century, from 1864 until 1994. One of the largest hand-cut stone structures in the entire country, its empty wards now draw ghost tours rather than patients.
Eastern State Penitentiary
Harsh conditions and repeated reform failures eventually closed this Philadelphia landmark in 1971, ending a long run as one of the country’s most influential prison designs. The cellblocks remain largely intact, hollow stone corridors that once held some of the era’s most notorious inmates.
City Hall subway station
Closed since 1945, this ornate New York City station still sits directly beneath the streets, completely sealed off from regular riders. Skylights and vaulted tile ceilings built for a much grander era of subway design remain exactly where they were installed, visible only to the rare official tour.
The bottom line
None of these places needed an invented ghost story to feel unsettling. Real history did all the work, and each one is still standing, mostly untouched, for anyone curious enough to go looking.
Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!
Related:
- Historical “discoveries” that turned out to be elaborate hoaxes
- Some of the most surprising record deals in music history
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was syndicated by MediaFeed.co.
