Cleveland’s former aquarium – built in 1954. This space, formerly full of family fun now remains empty, sat quietly, hillside to a park directly off of East 72nd street. Driving along I-90, you may not even notice this once well-visited structure, even though it practically towers at the freeway’s edge. From what I have noticed through conversation, most people around do not even know that Cleveland once held another aquarium. Once again, another grim reminder of how quickly and easily we toss our creations aside, simply forgetting them.

I wanted to post this here, before more lies begin to surface across the face of the Internet. There’s a difference between having a little bit of fun, telling a story and just purely blasting a bunch of lies to people who are actually interested in LEARNING about our history. Why would you want to give a false history? Isn’t the point of documenting these places to bring a bit of attention to the matter at hand of all that we have left behind?

The Abandoned Geauga Lake pre-demolition

Hopes remain strong of sharing its legacy for years to come, bringing attention to the importance of why we must save this staple of Ohio’s history.

You could call it a winter wonderland, though I feel that would not be doing it proper justice; it was much more than that. Constantly shifting weight from so much snow after years of neglect had weakened the glass of skylights above, causing ceilings to bust open overhead. It was as if clouds had fallen from the sky, filling this normally dark and desolate destruction with a brand new, much brighter life.

So today marks the 50th birthday of the famous UNIROYAL tire in Allen Park, Michigan. While many are busy, celebrating such a momentous occasion, I can’t help but shake some images from my head. Things that I have seen inside a former UNIROYAL factory will never quite fade from my memories. Don’t get me wrong, the company is amazing as a whole, but you will always have that one bad apple – sometimes a few.

I always do my best to truly see a place for not only what it is, but also what it once was, learning its full story. Sometimes, just as with many books, you can discover a wonderful world hidden inside these structures. So what will become of the places that life has vacated?

Apparently the parapet became weak, turning to basically sand from acidic rain, and due to heavy winds was just pushed, literally, over the edge. The sound was like a bomb going off, as a massive 20 foot section of wall came crashing to the streets.

After being arrested here in 2013 it was nice to make a return trip, thankfully not ending in a $280 fine, to finally photograph the very odd forgotten structure of Mike Tyson’s abandoned 1980s mansion.

A dusty pay phone hangs from its metal cord amongst the massive heap of destruction surrounding it. As I stood centered within this impressive, eerily quiet structure, all I could wonder was “where has all of the life gone?” In 1976 the world’s largest shopping mall would open its doors for the first time to shoppers from around the country.