Tags: Religion, Roadside Oddity, West Virginia

Definitely one of the more unusual places I’ve seen – a Hindu temple and palace dedicated to Srila Prabhupada – in the mountains of West Virginia? The drive to it was a quest in itself – miles of winding, crumbling road, with few houses along the way. I’ve driven on some pretty bad roads, especially in the Pine Barrens, and I can easily say none come close to this one.

After going down the walkway, the palace is the first building you see. Behind it is a decent sized rose garden.
I was disappointed to learn photography isn’t allowed inside the palace. Of course, this wasn’t mentioned until after I paid for the tour.

For more information about the palace or the story of Srila Prabhupada, check out the Palace of Gold’s website, as well as the community of New Vrindaban’s site.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Tags: Historical, Museum, Prison, West Virginia

I. Hate. Group. Tours.
I was expecting another Eastern State romp – getting a map, signing a waiver, and going off on my merry little way.

Wrong.
…well, it really isn’t a fair comparison, since Eastern is older and in worse condition.

The tour lasts roughly an hour, and unfortunately it’s a guided group tour. Nothing against the tour guide…I just can’t stand group tours. She told us of the 1986 riots, the Aryan Brotherhood members in solitary cells, and several other stories. You also get locked in a cell, which is kind of cool.

The prison ran from 1866 to 1995. It was closed because the conditions and cell sizes were deemed cruel and unusual punishment. The prison is also said to be haunted.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: Cemetery, Ohio

We found this completely by chance. I was hunting for a geocache in Enon, Ohio. A bit up the road from it we saw a sign for the cemetery, which was strange, considering we were behind some sort of corporate office buildings. After I found the cache, I decided to find whatever the sign was pointing to. We came across 2 more signs:

Yup. There was a graveyard behind the office buildings. A pretty old and somewhat beat up one at that; reminded me of the Quaker cemetery I found some time ago, due to its condition and also its proximity to a main road – in this case I-70.
Many stones were in pieces, while others lay at the bases of others. It looked like someone had randomly piled stones on top of each other. Someone is caring for the place, since the grass was recently cut. Still, this cemetery is in sad shape.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: Indiana, Roadside Oddity, Ruins, WTF

A pyramid in Indiana? Sort of. Back in the 50’s, a 1/5 scale Great Pyramid and a portion of the Great Wall were to have been built for a new development. Long story short, the funding stopped, and the development never came to be.

Old Highway 37 just….stops. A gate guards the entrance to the doomed development, with a small pyramid on either side. The road isn’t in too great of shape either.

The pyramid, never completed, still stands, slowly being reclaimed by nature. Behind the pyramid is a large field of limestone blocks; it reminded me of Ringing Rocks in PA. Whether these were to have been part of the pyramid or the wall, I don’t know.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Tags: Caverns, Indiana

Excuse the dark pictures; as I learned at both Howe & Secret Caverns, digital cameras are horrible in low/no light situations.

Bluespring Caverns differs from most other cavern tours because the entire tour is by boat. For about an hour, you are on a small metal boat, going through both large rooms and narrow passages. Bluespring does have some formations, but not as many as other caverns I’ve visited.

Just a few decades ago, the cave entrance was a farmer’s pond. When the farmer woke up the day after a very bad storm, he discovered his pond was gone. It had drained into the cave system below. You can still see the outline of the pond.
There’s a steep walkway down to the cave entrance. Not far inside is the dock.

Albino crayfish. There are also eyeless albino fish in the caverns.

Returning to the dock.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Tags: Abandoned, Destroyed/Demolished, Monmouth County

I’ve received several emails about this house over the past few years.  I’ve been forgetting for quite a while to make note of this here, but it was completely demolished a few years back.

All gone.  No more.  Please stop asking for directions.

Lots of pictures to load; go walk your dog.

A friend has known about this place for years, and she was nice enough to take me to see it. Not only is the house huge (with 4 floors including the basement), but there are 2 houses: the mansion itself and a carriage house.

Information about the house, along with a gallery of Liz’s photos, will be added at a later date. Liz is quite the historian on this place.

We first checked out the carriage house and the small shed not far from it. The ground floor wasn’t overly impressive. Someone has written silly things on the walls – your generic “Save me”, “Help me” drivel. Surprisingly there was no Satanic crap; I would find that in the main house.

The floor at the base of the stairs wasn’t very safe; half of it was rotted away, and the rest can’t hold any weight.
Good thing I’m nimble.

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I was amazed at the size of the main house. I was told beforehand the house had a servant’s side. That would become evident once we entered. One half of the place was very spacious and extravagant – large rooms, fancy curved doorways, very nice main room, an elevator, etc. You wouldn’t believe how many drawers and closets there are….or the amount of bathrooms. I was wondering if the place was a bed & breakfast.
The other side of the house was quite plain – regular ol’ doorways, regular staircase, smaller rooms….

We poked around the first floor a bit, then headed down to the basement. After that we headed to the second floor and finally the attic.

There are rumors of a second basement. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but there is a section of the basement floor filled in with dirt, which no doubt started that story.
…oh, and there were mushrooms growing out of the floor and walls down there too.

After the basement romp, it was time to head up to the top 2 levels. We noticed ketchup on the railing of the grand staircase; someone had spread it there and on random spots of the floor throughout the house. Guess they were trying to make it look like blood. I will admit it looked good on the stairs.

The house has its own elevator. The elevator door has been taken off and is now propped up across from the grand staircase, as seen below.

Rounded doors & doorways.

Some rooms were nearly intact…

…and some weren’t.

…honestly, what good did this closet do?

The attic was the end of our expedition. At one point, birds were living in it. We found a large nest and lots of crap. Liz said there used to be a very large unhatched egg. We found it smashed.

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A couple more outside pics and we were off.

Popularity: 18% [?]