Product Description

We've all seen them but might have been too scared to enter: the house on the hill with its boarded-up windows; the darkened factory on the outskirts of town; the old amusement park with its rickety skeleton of a rollercoaster. These are the ruins of America, filled with the echoes of the voices and footfalls of our grandparents, or their parents, or our own youth. Where once these structures were teeming with life—commuters, workers, vacationers—now they are disused and dilapidated. Ghostly Ruins shows the life and death of thirty such structures, from transportation depots, factories, and jails to amusement parks, mansions, hotels, and entire towns. Author Harry Skrdla gives a guided tour of these marvelous structures at their peak of popularity juxtaposed with their current state of haunted decrepitude. Like a seasoned teller of ghost stories, Skrdla's words and images reveal what lies beyond the gates and beneath the floorboards. There are the infamous Eastern State Penitentiary and Bethlehem Steel factory in Pennsylvania, the Packard Motors Plant and Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit, and Philip Johnson's New York State Pavilion from the 1964/65 World's Fair. There is the entire town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a trash fire set inside an old mine in 1962 morphed into an underground inferno that incinerated the town from underneath; more than forty years later, the subterranean fire still rages. The town is empty now, just as the many other abandoned places in this chronicle. Ghostly Ruins is a record of the souls of yesteryear and a chronicle of America's haunted past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17407 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
(Skrdla) is investigating the architecture of 'forgetting,' in the present tense, confronting us with the 'ruins' our way of life seems bound to produce. . . . There's a wonderful photograph shot from an upper floor of the abandoned Hudson's building, before it was imploded--a view that none but 'ghosts' will ever look out upon again. The effect is meditative and fine; the book will appeal to anybody acquainted with the pleasures of the unseen. -- Metro Times, November 2006

An obituary to some of the grandest, oddest and unluckiest building ventures in the country. . . Ghostly Ruins prompts the question: Which of today's buildings, towns, department stores or factories will be the last one standing? -- Traditional Building, April 2007

Curl up in front of a roaring fire with Ghostly Ruins, eerie, black-and-white photographs of dozens of gorgeous old ruins. -- Detroit News, Nov. 4, 2006

The effect is meditative and fine; the book will appeal to anybody acquainted with the pleasures of the unseen. -- Metro Times, Nov. 28, 2006

These inventories of fallen monuments to our ambition as a nation are unsettling for what they say about our culture. -- T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Fall 2006

About the Author
Harry Skrdla is an engineer and a historic-preservation consultant based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has contributed to the preservation and restoration of a number of noteworthy structures, including the ornate 1920s movie palace the Fox Theatre in Detroit, one of the last of its kind in America.

Customer Reviews

Spectral visions
A fantastic and haunting look at some once grand and beautiful buildings. An excellent commentary with history, that creates a mood thick with the cobwebs of time. The best I have seen that deals with the wealth of archietectural gems we have lost over the years. After reading, one is so much more aware of the crumbling buildings that surround us all over the nation, and maybe will be moved to save future ruins from total destruction.

Disappearing fast
A very impressive photo documentary of buildings and places that have been left to uncertainty, the elements, or destroyed. The brief histories given for each place makes for some interesting reading. The photographs are magnificent, I wish I could step into them and see all the photographer saw at the time the places were photographed. It is sad to think some of these places will be left alone to fall apart or destroyed. This book really brings to mind how precious and unique these places are.

Expands your perspective on the world of architecture.
Author Skrdla presents his unique vision of the world of abandoned buildings across the USA. Lavishly illustrated in compelling black and white images, the book opens your eyes to the beauty and sadness of the deserted cast-offs of our "throw-away" age.

The book is organized in a series of types of building, from residential to industrial. Skrdla has an ironic and tight writing style which clearly expresses his love for these often dramatic examples of man's ego and confidence. He also makes the reader take stock of the increasingly homogenized, sterile, and industrially functional buildings our society is willing to accept. He makes the stong point that we are losing the pride in civic architecture which is the foundation of lasting meaning and beauty.