Day 49: This was a catch up day. A little extra sleep. Some casual wandering around. Both of us had some regular emails to write and sundry other mini-chores to take care of. So, we hung out with Susan's cousin Sandy, her gang of three and the never satisfied please throw my ball please throw my ball please throw my ball chocolate lab, Duke. The evening dinner was a full on glutton festival with a local flair. We had Maryland blue crabs. There were "crab pickin" lessons. Susan was like some sort of old salt as she picked, cracked and separated the guts from the delicacies with the best of them. Rodney needed a shower; what a mess. It was a night of great eats and conversation as part of celebrating Theodore's 22nd birthday.
Day 50: There were two main goals. Our second objective was a very large cemetery that is reported to have many unique sculptural monuments and some very old grave sites. Alas it closed to the public at 4:00pm (yeah that's what we said....4:00 sheesh!)
Fortunately our first target was so amazing that nothing could dampen our Oddasee enthusiasm. After some serious wandering and confusion with a dose of "where the heck is this place." The quest was to find Henryton Hospital. It has long since closed and thusly all roads and access have been obliterated. We eventually found enough visual hints to send us off down a not so beaten path. Still not sure if we were going the right direction, it was a relief to see a few buildings up on a heavily forested hill.
Well there we were standing before huge abandoned structures that had easy access and privacy. There were at least eight buildings just waiting for our adrenaline pumped cravings and our twitching cameras. Obviously we were not the first explorers of these dark hallways, enigmatic rooms and crumbling stairways. The highly motivated youth of the area had long ago thrashed every room and window in the entire facility. The completely uninteresting graffiti was everywhere. Holes were kicked into every wall. We did our best to accept this reality and be open to seeing the beauty in spite of the remnants left behind by the druggie spray canned armed paint-ballers.
Our shutter fingers were aflame from the unavoidable photo-thon. Wow! I was glad I had taken the Nikon and the tripod along in anticipation of some dark and spooky angles. No disappointments to be found. It was incredible. One unexpected treat was that many of the rooms had once been embellished with a full spectrum of bright colors. The ruins were impressive. Below you will see a tiny portion of our photo repertoire.
Note: The Henryton Hospital was built 1921-23 with yearly expansion to serve African Americans (they had a rate four times that of whites) with tuberculosis. Over time the need was diminished with more effective medical treatments. There were as many as 400 patients living at the facility in both the old and new buildings. After a time when it was almost empty and with some upgrades, it reopened as a treatment center for the "ambulatory retarded". Over time this method of treatment also fell out of favor and it closed for good in 1984. There have been numerous groups trying to buy it and revive the campus.
Love and shutterbugs,
Rodney and Susan
No comments:
Post a Comment