I gotta admit, when I see a pair of worn iron gates… …what looks like an abandoned property in the distance… …and the side entrance slightly ajar… …ancient, rusted-over NO TRESPASSING signs might as well say ENTER HERE. What I didn’t realize is that these gates surround a massive, 600 acre insane asylum from the…
The 8th Avenue Post Office is extremely film friendly – shoot me an email for details at nycscout@gmail.com! On October 9th & 10th, 2010, over 350 sites, tours, and events were made available to the public FREE for the annual Open House New York program. Open House New York is…well, an open house of New…
Update 9/11/2013 – Been meaning to update for a while. 5 Beekman is NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR FILMING, EVENTS, OR ANY OTHER RENTAL PURPOSE due to ongoing construction. 5 Beekman Street has a secret. You’ve probably passed it a million times in your travels through downtown Manhattan. Certainly anyone who has ever visited J&R Row…
This is Greenpoint’s beautiful St. Elias Church, located on shady Kent Street. And yes, that’s a FOR RENT sign on the front. Once serving the community as both a church and Sunday school for more than 140 years, St. Elias is now completely empty, and has been since 2007, when the property was purchased by…
From the ground, you’d never know there was anything special about the building at 409 East 60th Street… …but, as anyone who’s ever walked across the Queensboro Bridge knows, it has a pretty great rooftop secret… An abandoned rooftop greenhouse! And sadly, it won’t be around for much longer… The now-ruined skeleton covers the entire…
Over the past three days, we’ve taken a look at the grounds of Hempstead House, the opulence of its first floor, and the decay of its basement. Today, I’m finishing off the series by taking you to the upper floors and beyond. We start by heading to the second floor via the master staircase… Though…
We’ve taken a look at the exterior of Hempstead House, as well as the beautifully restored rooms of the first floor. Heading down the hallway at the south end of the mansion, it’s time to go a little deeper… At first, you come to a series of more generic rooms: A parlor in the south-east…
This is Hempstead House today: In comparison, the below picture was taken in 1940, shortly after Hempstead became a home for refugee children from England, who had been sent to the US because of World World II. The caption reads: “Huntsmen three play safari in the jungle that once composed the formal garden. Pith helmets…
When you own an enormous castle like the one pictured below, and it’s only used to house your servants and horses… …you’re living in a world few of us can imagine. Castle Gould, based on Kilkenny Castle in Ireland, is located in Sands Point, NY (about 45 minutes from the city), on property once owned…
This is the third-floor hallway of an abandoned orphanage. Opened in 1940 to house English children orphaned because of World War II, it continued operating until the mid-1960’s. Now, bedrooms that once housed dozens of orphans at a time, pictured above and below, are empty and forgotten, and have been for over 40 years. The…