Abandoned Baton Rouge

Huey P. Long Fieldhouse Pool

 

The Huey P. Long Fieldhouse was completed on the LSU campus in 1932. Hearsay says that Huey Long intended it to be the biggest pool around, longer than any run-of-the-mill Olympic-sized pool. It was designed by Dreyfus and Seiferth, the same firm that designed the castle-like Old State Capitol (for better or worse, depending how you feel about that building--right, Mark Twain?). Until the 1970s, it was required that every LSU student take a swim class, but by then the pool was already in decline. It has been closed since approximately 1999 and has been silently crumbling ever since, relatively unnoticed amidst the thriving campus.

In early June, I was allowed access to the condemned structure housing the pool *with police escort.* Gotta say, I love having a police escort. They can escort my scared ass any time around abandoned buildings.

Abandoned Multifamily House

Apologies for my absence from blogging; I've started a new job and am getting married in less than a month, both factors which are taking up energy I normally direct toward prowling around abandoned buildings like a weirdo. But I've been working on the facilities people at LSU to gain access to the historic condemned Huey P. Long Fieldhouse (if anyone can pull any strings, please do), and I got back to my prowling roots this weekend.

I don't know how I never noticed this huge empty house on the corner of Government and 22nd before, but it took biking right past it to finally notice.

 

Downtown Hodgepodge

I spent a late afternoon wandering around downtown last week because I decided to go through with my proposed idea, Main Street, Exiled: Disappearing Downtowns, on a new blog Disappearing Downtowns. I will only be here in Louisiana about one more year, so this new blog is a way to keep up the ABR-style photography wherever I roam.

Ahoy hoy

I just entered a photography contest to win $50K to go shoot anything I want anywhere. Guess what I chose? Morbid Americana! If you like what I do here, please click to vote for my idea. You do have to sign in to prove you're not a robot, but it only takes a moment. 

I entered very late in the contest-- it ends Friday, April 3, so I really need to get the vote out. (Just click on PIC IT.) Please share this with anyone else who will help, via Twitter, Facebook, message boards, whatever. Thanks!

Endless Buffet of Leftovers

And now, a bunch of sites I've been meaning to post from two recent excursions, but they were trumped by the showing and telling of the time I saw coffins and the time I could have ended up in a coffin.

First, yet another car repair joint, this one on Florida and more colorful than most. Note the sinkhole in the repair floor, below. 

 

ABR Inspires Bizarre Art

You're about to see the second video (first linked here) made with photos from Abandoned Baton Rouge. In this case, the video was made with one photo from my visit to the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College dorm, and it's one that has always been a hit with the kids (I believe there's a framed version of this photo somewhere in Jackson, MI).

After the jump, the song and video for "If You Like Pina Coladas, Kiss My Black Ass."

Rough Xing: W T F ? !

This sign sums up Sunday's adventures, as co-explorer Kara observed. There was some rough crossing over train tracks going in every direction as we biked around an industrial area of Choctaw (further west than the last excursions on that road), and judging from a terrifying incident we witnessed, some rough double-crossing as well.

Our first stop was this former office.

From across the street, I saw the word ODDITY in the window.

Mom's Country Kitchen, Sleepy Hollow and more

Here are a few more stops from the same day as the last post.

Roller rink, Barq's plant, and more

I originally spotted Leo's Roller Rink on North a few months ago to my delight, but then found this website for a Leo's rink, called it to hear a human answer, and mistakenly thought the one pictured here was still open despite all appearances. Turns out that website was for a different Leo's location, duh.

An Afternoon on Florida Road

My fiance had to check out some abandoned sites on Florida for a school project, so he brought his in-house abandonment aficionado, yours truly. It was a fast run from site to site, but we managed to get a few good shots in, and discovered one of the most morbid sites yet.