Abandoned Junk Yard / Interstate Fairgrounds

Abandoned Junk Yard / Interstate Fairgrounds
Originally uploaded by Louis Q

My friend Andy and I were able to gain access to the old Max Cohens junk yard buidings in East Athens, PA. During the late 1800's and early 1900's the facilities and land were used by the Interstate Fairgrounds with harness racing and other community activities. Max Cohen purchased this area in the 1930's and turned it into a monster junkyard that operated well into the 1970's. In this picture you can see where the grandstands once were with the diagonal line on the upper right side of the building that had been built over with the addition of the current building you see here. The left side of the building is actually a more recent addition. It is funny that this is the part of the building that is in the most dire of standing and is falling down. It goes to show how well older buidings were made. Andy and I spent about 3 hours this past Saturday exploring the old buildings and structures. There is not much left inside except for a rstray chair here and there, an old cart, some tags and yards and yards of rows of shelves and storage units that once held millions of auto parts from Model A's, Studebakers, Chevys, Dodges, and Fords. So many makes and models it is was hard to believe. Another cool thing we came across was the old "crusher" used to crush autos to oblivion. The area was filled with green, slimy toxic sludge along with so many shards of glass and metal we thought the ground was made of this. Andy met a killer "badger" that ran across his path back into this building. There were several animal tracks in the 1/4 " dust on the floor of this building. I am definately sure this place is extremely spooky at night as it sure had a spooky feeling during the mid day hours. I am thankful to the owner for letting us have free reign of this place as well. I had learned who he was and contacted him only an hour before when were granted access. Look for more archaic art shots comiing soon of this place and others.