Justin T. Rivera: May 2016

Hey, Wassup everybody? How you doing? Yes, it has been awhile since I made another blog post. But this time I got an amazing story.

This one is about my urbex mission into a unique abandoned structure. Urbex stands for Urban Exploration which is "the exploration of man-made structures, usually abandoned ruins or not usually seen components of the man-made environment. -wiki" Urban Exploration to me is seeing old structures lost in time with a unique history to the location. Being secluded to the rest of the world where the only thing I can focus on is the environment that I am in. Standing in the middle of a large, broken, decaying room as part of the larger abandoned building in which nature is trying to take over, over 50 years later. Looking around me I see graffiti, holes in the wall and things hanging from the ceiling. As I walk from room to room thinking to myself what this room could've been used for. With nothing left but dust and sand, I leave clueless. Except of course the public bathrooms with old fashion urinals and stalls, as well as dormitories with a private bathroom. The most fascinating part of all this is the fact that this was once a place of functionality. Many people onced lived and worked here, and now it's left with an insignificant reminder of what it once was.

This abandoned place was the New York Farm Colony. Not really a farm though as much as it is part of a hospital comprised of multiple buildings. It served as a residency for the poor. Not sure if there was any farming going on, but there was a great dining hall. The dining hall is actually one of the more interesting buildings due to its bridge into the entrance. Inside were a couple of rooms with a select few set of stairs. The stairs to the bottom level were in pretty good condition. The stairs to upper levels, not so much. The stairs had rusted so much that they cracked a had fallen off leaving nothing but the beam that held it up as well as the railing. There was no way to get to the higher levels. In one building the rooms of each floor collapsed leaving nothing but the walls the Stairway to each floor. I can walk up the flight of stairs, look into the room and see there was no floor. I could look down and see the floor below me, I could look up and see the sky. Interestingly enough there was an elevator shaft where was the elevator stuck in between the floors and water collected at the bottom of the shaft. In another building the entire floor collapsed with the roof leaving only the exterior walls. Pearing into a broken window I could see the wooden support beams and other large splinters of wood. And in probably my favorite building there were what looks like a hospital wing where small dividers were held up to keep privacy from the next bed over, although there were no beds actually there. In this building however, there was roof access which felt amazing because I was on top of the highest point of this colony and I could see all of it and the forest that encases it. And the last building of significance was the dormitory building. It was very unique as each room looked like a studio apartment with a private bath but not much else, just an empty room. Back to my point that I find it fascinating that this is a place where people onced lived. Now I'm here just casually walking through thinking of them.

Now the day started like normal. I woke up, ate, showered, ate again, packed things up, got ready, left. I hopped onto the train wearing all black so I can get onto the ferry to Staten Island. Once off the boat, I got get on a bus that will take me straight there. I got off the bus and started walking towards the gate at the end of a residential road that had the opening to get into. I tried to do it as casually as possible but not sure how well I did while pointing a camera at myself. Once in I already knew where to head off into. I had been there before with friends but it was late at night and we didn't stay long. We never completely explored it. I wanted to go back to explore it more myself during daylight so that way I could film the experience. I ended up doing my own background research about the place. (Good websites were untappedcities and abandonednyc) All was going well until I entered one of the buildings and heard voices behind me. For second I panicked but realize that they were only other kids. I thought he was just a better idea that I would make my presence known instead of them finding me inside and freaking out. So I turn around walk back outside and say hey. The look on each and every one of their faces. It was a group of about six Mexican teenagers who all stood and looked at me as if they were seeing a ghost come to life. After the brief awkward incident we all went inside and went our own ways into the ruinous complex. Another unique experience besides the whole abandoned exploration was the random encounter with two wild deer. They were just standing in the middle of the road standing still no more then 50ft away. I stood just as still and we had an epic stare down before they realized I was no threat and just walked away as did I. Now that I think about it, why did I not film that encounter. It would have been great to show the rural-ness of the location, I was just so mesmerized but the animal before me. There was also a backhoe bulldozer thing that was never there before, so I decided to seize the opportunity and climb inside. No biggie. I ended up leaving at 8 o'clock when the sun finally went down.

I had a mission that day. A goal simple in standards, but difficult to execute. Explore the land in its entirety to your own fulfilment. I didn't expect to stay for the amount of time that I did. And I certainly didn't expect the video turn out as long as it did.

You also find the photos I took at this location on my Instagram. I would really appreciate it if you'd liked and followed my page.

Here is a list of references to learn more about this location.

Justin T. Rivera

Friday, May 13, 2016

Going into Abandoned Places