Saturday, October 30, 2010

Old Farm Building near New Germany, MN

Unlike my other Blog, the photos and locations I post here are very much not in sequential order. I snapped a pic of this building back in April of this year en route to New Germany from Highway 212 near Norwood-Young America. I've driven past it for a few years now on our way to relatives in the area but had never grabbed a picture of it until recently. It's a large building not in the familiar shape of a barn which makes me think it's either something completely different or maybe it's just that much older. Either way it's a neat old building with an ornate cupola on top with it's own four-sided roof. Couldn't say exactly where this building is but my best guess is on County Road 33 somewhere south of New Germany.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Abandoned Schoolhouse 1911 Louisburg, MN

OK, so I almost abandoned this blog itself -but a couple of new followers have inspired me to get my butt back in gear. I have a whole slew of new photos and locations taken this year that I'll try to publish soon. This post features one of the best abandoned building's I've come across to date, due equally to it's size and remote location. In April of this year we took a trip to Ortonville, Minnesota. It was fun to head straight west for a change and we saw some great sights along the way but we were totally unaware of the multitude of small (small) towns in this area. I swear we put on an extra 100 miles exploring flooded back-country roads and we didn't even get to some of the towns on the map. At some point we found ourselves in a town called Louisburg which boasted a population of 26 at the 2000 Census. This town is literally surrounded in all directions by miles and miles of farm fields. Upon entering the town on County Rd. 67 we were awestruck with this massive square, red brick Public School with tall windows and bell tower. We stopped right in our tracks to get out and take pics of this place. Despite many of it's windows being broken or boarded up, the brickwork itself was in great shape. The roof though tattered was still very much intact with even some ornamental woodwork at the peaks. As we walked along the also abandoned playground we could hear the inside full of cooing Pigeons -adding to the haunted feel of the place. Among the birds we heard unfamiliar, unrecognizable sounds that really freaked us out. At the front of the building was a cement portion with a date of 1911 which looked surprisingly new compared to the crumbling front steps. I got the idea that maybe the building had been maintained and well cared for sometime into the 1960's before finally being abandoned. That's just my guess so I'd love to hear from anyone familiar with this place!