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In the interest of protecting both civilian and military personnel during World War II, the ground underneath the city of Berlin became rife with secret tunnels and chambers to protect people from air strike weaponry and gas warfare. These underground bunkers were connected to the street level only by small ventilation shafts and a minimal number of staircases or ladders. They ranged from small, cramped spaces to multi-level command centers connected by tunnels - one was even drivable by ...
The origins of this place begin with an overcrowded hospital for children called "Elisabeth-Kinder-Hospital;" as a result of the need for another building arose, the facility was moved into a large structure on Karlhorsterstrasse (today Treskowallee) in southeast Berlin. Departments for the practice of internal medicine and surgery were provided, and the hospital was renamed Königin Elisabeth Hospital upon moving to the new location. It operated as a general hospital until the Soviet army ...
I've just about completed a total overhaul of the website, which was long overdue. Although the site looks pretty similar to the older version, many improvements have been made; some not as noticable as others, but hopefully they will enhance your experience here. Here are some of the new features:
No more huge listing of all the places anymore - they've been broken up into pages. This does make places harder to find though, so I've placed a search box in the top-left corner. Just start typing and the auto-complete feature will help you find what you're looking for. The search box recognizes alternate names for locations (these can be historic terms and abbreviations such as "NSH").
A place where I will be posting some news, recent photos from my travels, some thoughts, etc. I will try my hardest to make them all interesting on some level!
You can now easily share locations, images, or travelogue posts with others using the share button, which looks like a star. A little window will appear, and contain a list of places for you to share to (Facebook, MySpace, Delicious, Reddit, and over a hundred more).
If you haven't subscribed to the RSS feed to stay updated, now is the time! The old feed wasn't so hot, but nowadays new locations, new galleries, news articles, and travelogue posts all being automatically fed into it so you can stay on top of things easily. The URL for the feed is: http://www.opacity.us/feed, or choose a reader by clicking the large feed icon in the sidebar on the right side!
Opacity now runs on a framework, which means faster-loading pages. Also, while you are clicking through images in a gallery, the next image will download in the background, reducing waiting time even more.
I'm sure there will be plenty of bug fixing in the next few days, so bear with me, and let me know of any errors or if something looks funny. Please try to browse the site with a relatively new browser, Internet Explorer 6 just doesn't cut it anymore!
Two decades after the fall of the wall in 1989, life in the German capital’s hinterland continues relatively unchanged The first interchange on the long autobahn that heads south towards Bavaria from the Berliner Ring, the city's orbital answer to the M25, is signposted for Beelitz ...
At the end of the 19th century, tuberculosis had taken hold of many major cities, including Berlin. It is estimated that during this time tuberculosis was the cause of one in three deaths or disability in the city due to overpopulation, overcrowding, and the resulting lack of hygienic living conditions. In an effort to battle this ravaging disease, the city of Berlin started a program to build sanatoria in the dense forests south of Potsdam. The largest site of this program was chosen at ...
This hospital was erected in the early 1900s to treat tuberculosis patients who were otherwise taken care of in former mansions owned by the city. Although plans called for a simplified design to save on construction costs, the building remains elegant to this day with its neo-baroque architecture, mansard roof, and sculpted interior details. The hospital layout resembles a T-shape, with the central kitchen and lounge areas in the center and wards in the wings that ran along the front of ...
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This site is dedicated to documenting various abandoned places through both text and photographs; recording their transformations through time before they are demolished. The abundance of abandoned asylums and psychiatric hospitals in the New England area create the bulk of the locations here; these beautiful state funded structures are vast and complex, giving insight to both the humanity and mistreatment towards the mentally ill over the past two centuries.
In the past few years, there has been a surge of redevelopment projects for these places, and states have been lowering land prices and pushing for bids to buy. Soon, all of these beautiful structures will fall down to meet their fate of becoming golf courses, condos and strip malls.
This project has been collaborated by myself, with help from many others, and all photographs and images are copyright opacity.us unless otherwise noted.
Do not email me for directions or information on how to enter these sites, otherwise your e-mail will be ignored. Comments, both good and bad, are welcome in the comment boxes underneath each photo, but inflammatory and "trolling" remarks will be deleted, and you will be banned from this site. Posting unmentioned location names will also be removed, it kinda defeats the purpose, no? With that all said, enjoy the site!
-Tom (Mr. Motts)
Archived Sites: Adonia State Hospital, Ashley / Huber Breaker (Blue Coal), Bannerman's Arsenal, Barnes Hospital, Beelitz Heilstätten, Belchertown State School, Bennett School for Girls, Berliner Bunkerwelten, Broadacres Hospital, Buffalo Central Terminal, Buffalo State Hospital, Camp Bluefields (Tweed), Central Islip State Hospital, Château de Mesen, Château de Noisy (Miranda), Cherry Knowle Hospital, Citadelle de Namur, Clairvaux Tuberculosis Hospital, Cliffside Mental Hospital, Clinique de la Faisanderie, Coal Brook Breaker Power Station, Continental Rubber Works (Hannover-Limmer), County Jail, County Morgue, Crypt of Barons, Cynthia Lee Memorial Hospital, Dadipark, Danvers State Hospital, Demon's Alley (New City Village), Dever State School, Dixmont State Hospital, Eagle River Power Station, Eastern State Penitentiary, Eden Hall Chapel, Erich Wagner Kindersanatorium, Fort de la Chartreuse, Fort Marabout, Foxboro State Hospital, Franklin Power Plant, Fuller State School and Hospital, Gaebler Children's Center, Glenn Dale Hospital, Gravesend Asylum, Great Barr Colony (St Margaret's Hospital), Green Hill State Hospital, Harperbury Hospital, Hartford Drive-In, Hasard Cheratte (Coal Mine), Haverford State Hospital, Heidelberg Thingplatz, Hellingly Hospital, Hendrik Monastery, Heptner State Hospital, Heusden-Zolder Coal Mine, Hewitt State Hospital and Prison, High Hills Developmental Center, Hinchcliffe Stadium, Hotel Sterling, Hudson Power Plant, Huy Mill, Irrenanstalt Weiler, Isolation Hospital, Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Kingsley Psychiatric Hospital, Kokerei Zollverein, Königin Elisabeth Hospital, Krankenbunker "Breuning", Krankenhaus Eichelberger, La Crypte des Fleurs, Letchworth Village, Linfield Industrial Park, Linton State Hospital, Lungenkrankenhaus Thalberg, Malone Psychiatric Center, Manteno State Hospital, Margate State School, Marquette State Hospital, Mesa State Training School, Metropolitan State Hospital, Middlewood Hospital Chapel, Mount Rose Cemetery, Normansfield Hospital, North Wales Hospital (Denbigh Asylum), Northam Manor Psychiatric Hospital, Northampton State Hospital, Northwood Asylum, Norwich State Hospital, NRL Satellite Facility, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Pennhurst State School, Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry), Pilgrim State Hospital, Plymouth County Hospital, Pratt Greenhouse, Prora KdF Seaside Resort, Renwick Smallpox Hospital, Riverside Hospital (North Brother Island), Riverside State Hospital, Rochester Subway, Rocky Point Amusement Park, Roseville State Prison, Roseville State School, Ryhope Pumping Station, Saint Michaels State Hospital, Saint Remigius Military Hospital, Salesian School, Sanitarium Joseph Lemaire, Säuglings- und Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee, Severalls Hospital, SNCB Train Works, Staten Island Boat Graveyard, Stella Artois Brewery, Studebaker Stamping Plant, The Enchanted Forest, The Ladd School, The Pines Hotel, Thompson Mental Health Center, Université de Dubois, Usine de Senelle, Usine Terres-Rouges, Valmea Convent, Verden Psychiatric Hospital, West Middlesex Hospital, Whittingham Hospital, Worcester State Hospital, York County Prison, York Street Jail, Ypsilanti State Hospital