Rough beauty: Abandoned houses in northern Virginia


After years of being a history buff, degrees in history and archaeology, and spending countless hours roaming around places that should have been condemned in the US and Europe, I discovered there's an actual job that goes along with it: architectural historian. It's fancy way of saying I love old buildings but it doesn't quite encapsulate the lure of what secrets are tucked away within their walls so I'm going to explore and see what I find in my tiny corner of Virginia.

I especially love decrepit buildings though maturity and a healthy fear of tetanus shots have stopped me from scrambling around dangerous places -- for the most part. Photographs only tell part of the story -- I want it all. There has to be a good ghost story in there somewhere, eh?

Have a building near you that is falling apart? Is it an eyesore or a rough beauty?







Want to see more? Follow my Rough Beauty board on Pinterest!

4 comments:

  1. Beauty. Definitely. Then again, you know me. If the floor boards aren't falling through, just give me a hammer and a Home Depot credit card and I'm jumping in with both feet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think there's a lot here to explore, the residue never rubs off of these places.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember one that was in a village near where I grew up. The story went, of course, as usually goes with shuttered buildings like that, that it was haunted. I'm not sure I could find it back....

    ReplyDelete