3,698 Comments Posted by Motts

I know the administration building was cleaned up to be used for the attraction, but I'm not sure if any other buildings are presently used.

Yup, there's a slot where it retracts into the wall... nice catch, I hadn't noticed that!

It's been closed a long time, and 30-odd years of Michigan weather can do some damage. Still, the floors were pretty solid and it's got plenty of potential for re-use.



There are many, many, many abandoned buildings like this in Detroit, lots of houses. About 3,300 homes were demolished in the past two years (in fact I can hear them tearing one down as I type this), made possible by government funding, and there's plenty more.

Yeah they're really heavy, and scrap cast iron goes for about five cents a pound. Moving a four-hundred pound radiator down 15 flights (or even chucking it out the window) for $20 just isn't worth it.

That would be the Detroit Athletic Club, built in 1915, and still contains the area's oldest indoor swimming pool.

Yeah, many of the radium dial painters suffered horrific radioactive-induced deaths from working at watch factories. A lawsuit finally ended the practice, filed by women who worked at a plant in NJ, known as the Radium Girls, though they were testifying on their death beds. Pretty crazy stuff.

That tall handsome building back there is the Book Tower built in 1916, and it's just covered in 100 years worth of soot. Yup it was abandoned, but like many buildings downtown it was purchased by Dan Gilbert and will likely be renovated soon.

They're painted over; I think the entire facade became covered in graffiti.

I believe those are corrugated panes of plastic material; lets more natural light into the interior spaces.

You're welcome; it's quite possible those records are in this piles! Many hospitals and other large institutions that have downsized often use surplus building for the storage of bulky paperwork. Unfortunately these buildings aren't usually maintained, and the records, sometimes long forgotten by administrative staff, eventually get destroyed through neglect and vandalism as evidenced above.

Thanks! I jumped into the Broderick real quick without my camera back when it was abandoned... I remember the climb to get in was kind of dicey and no one I was with wanted to go for it without a rope. Didn't get a chance to make it back there.

I'm not sure exactly, but given the age of the building it's quite likely that Otis was the manufacturer.

These are the ball returns; a person near the pins would roll them back up the gutters and the ball would come to rest on the bumper at the end of the wooden lane.

I was wondering what that vial was for, cool thanks!

I doubt people lived in the 'pen after it closed; Caldwell NJ just doesn't have a homeless population like Newark does.