I don’t have a big story for you about this place. It is an abandoned and destroyed gas station on Route 66, Conway, Texas. That’s all I got.
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I have no big story…an abandoned gas station and sign near Conway, Texas along Route 66.
What is: The Frisco Pier, North Carolina, Outer Banks.The Frisco pier left to fall apart on its own after hurricane “damage”.
What was: The beloved community landmark was constructed in 1962 and served as a popular fishing spot for years and years. In fact it was home to some big catches, including a 76lb tarpon and cobia, an 8lb albacore and state record 12 lb Spanish mackerel.
At night it was lit up and familes often had picnics on the pier.
Abandoned in 2008, the pier has since been left to the destructs of the ocean, wind and surf.
Despite several hurricanes, somehow years later portions of the the pier still stood. The pier was under private ownership of two native North Carolinians, Angie and Tom Gaskill. They had owned the pier since Hurricane Isable’s destruction in 2003. Gaskill spent $400,000 to buy and rebuild the pier. After Hurrican Earl, estimates to rebuild/repair the pier were about $500,000.00 and because it was privately owned they were not eligible for any grants or loan programs associated with rebuilding.
There were also complications with insurance since the Pier was only “damaged,” and not “destroyed.”
The National Park Service, ultimately took over the property and The Frisco Pier removal project began in December 2017. It was completed in 2019.
What is: Abandoned sharecropping home at the edge of the fields, Money, MS
What was: Typical sharecropper shack was usually located with the crop entirely surrounding the house. After the Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping.
Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities.
In the South, after the Civil War, many black families rented land from white owners and raised cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice. In many cases, the landlords or nearby merchants would lease equipment to the renters, and offer seed, fertilizer, food, and other items on credit until the harvest season. At that time, the tenant and landlord or merchant would settle up, figuring out who owed whom and how much.
High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted. Approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers were white, and one third were black. Source: PBS’s Slavery By Another Name, https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/sharecropping/
What is: This is just around the corner from where Muddy Waters lived on the Stoval Plantation, Abandoned Sharecropping Home at the edge of the fields, Stovall Plantation, MS
What was: Typical sharecropper shack was usually located with the crop entirely surrounding the house. After the Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping.
Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities.
In the South, after the Civil War, many black families rented land from white owners and raised cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice. In many cases, the landlords or nearby merchants would lease equipment to the renters, and offer seed, fertilizer, food, and other items on credit until the harvest season. At that time, the tenant and landlord or merchant would settle up, figuring out who owed whom and how much.
High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted. Approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers were white, and one third were black. Source: PBS’s Slavery By Another Name, https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/sharecropping/
Highway 460, Waverly, Virginia.The abandoned and now destroyed Melody Motel/ Inn. Neighboring Adult Video Store
Its a short story…and in a year since this was taken…It’s gone.
Highway 460, Waverly, Virginia.
The abandoned (and now destroyed) Melody Motel/ Inn.
Neighboring Adult Video Store
What is: the signature orange roof but the weather vane is gone and the building os overgown by vines. Could be anywhere in the USA. This one is at the interchange of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park.
What was: The weather vanes on Howard Johnson orange roof helped patrons immediately identify the Howard Johnson’s restaurants and motels.
Howard Johnson’s was a pioneer of franchising and the nationwide roadside restaurant, replicating everything from its look to its menus. At its zenith, Howard Johnson’s operated more than 1,000 restaurants,
Howard Deering Johnson opened a drugstore and found the soda fountain was a money maker. He soon found a recipe for great ice cream and created his famous and popular 28 flavors of ice cream. That led to beach stands and ultimately to a restaurant serving clams.
The second restaurant was franchised making it one of America’s first franchising agreements. As America entered WW II there were 200 Howard Johnson’s restaurants. Due to the impact of the war, by 1944, there were only 12 Howard Johnson’s restaurants.
Johnson bid for and won exclusive rights to serve drivers at service station turn offs on the newly built turnpike systems in the 1940s and by 1954, there were 400 Howard Johnson’s restaurants in 32 states.
Howard Johnson’s went public in 1961. By 1975, Howard Johnson’s company had more than 1,000 restaurants in 42 states and Canada. By the late 1970s the decline began, partially because of the oil embargo of 1974,which resulted in reduced travel by car, as well as changing competitive marketplace.
What is: Abandoned Buildings, MLK and Yazoo Avenue area, Clarksdale, MS
What was: The neighborhood was known as the New World from the beginning of the twentieth Century. A breeding ground for ragtime, blues and jazz.
Clarksdale was a prosperous Cotton town. African American slaves cultivated and processed cotton, worked as artisans, and cultivated and processed produce and livestock on the plantations. They built the wealth of “King Cotton” in the state. The 1860 U.S. Census data shows Coahoma County, where Clarksdale is located, had a population of 1,521 whites and 5,085 slaves.
By the beginning of the 20th Century, Clarksdale was known as the “Golden Buckle in the Cotton Belt” — a home to a multi-cultural mixture of Lebanese, Italian, Chinese and Jewish immigrant merchants along with African-Americans farm laborers and white plantation owners. Brothels attracted black and white clientele. On Saturday’s the sharecroppers filled the streets shopping, socializing, drinking in the jukes and listening to blues. On Sunday’s a sabbath calm prevailed with everyone filling local churches.
In 1944, the first commercial, machinery produced, cotton crop was produced near here on 28 acres owned by the Hopson Planting Company of Clarksdale. The machinery took over everything from planting to baling, changing the demand for labor and more.
What is: Abandoned House in the fields on the way to Nat Turner’s Cave. Southampton County, Virginia
What was: In 1831, a slave rebellion was led by Nat Turner. The slaves went from farm to farm in Southampton County killing the white slave owners. Scores of blacks were murdered in reprisals throughout the South.
The legacy of the biggest slave revolt in U.S. history still hangs over the sandy soil, blackwater cypress swamps and abandoned homes of the county. Kids grow up in rural Southampton County hearing that the mist creeping across the fields might be something unearthly. Old folks warn them not to sneak into abandoned houses, where rotting floors and walls are said to be stained with blood. This is a haunted landscape. (Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/the-haunted-houses-legacy-of-nat-turners-slave-rebellion-lingers-but-reminders-are-disappearing/2019/04/29/d267d814-5d68-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html
Attacking farmhouses in the darkness and picking up supporters along the way, Turner and his rebels killed some 55 white men, women, and children over two days. They were eventually scattered by militia infantry, and some were rounded up and killed or put on trial. Turner escaped and hid out for two months mostly in a crude “cave” — a hole dug under a pile of wood — before surrendering on Oct. 30, 1831.
Lonnie Bunch, then director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, said, “The Nat Turner rebellion is probably the most significant uprising in American history.”
What is: a Texaco gas station with a white Pontiac out front, the ghost town of Glenrio, TX
What was: The Texaco station was built by Joseph (Joe) Brownlee in 1950 on Route 66 at a time when Glenrio, TX was often bumper to bumper with traffic. Interstate 40 opened in 1973 and by 1975, Glenrio was on its way to becoming a ghost town as everything closed up.
Roxann Bownlee, daughter of Joe, grew up helping her father at the gas station. It was a family enterprise. In 1970, Roxann married Larry Lee Travis. With the decline of business in Glenrio, Larry rented the Standard Service Station near Adrian, Texas and each day drove the 25 miles to Adrian in his white Pontiac.
At the time, a group of gas, shop and service station owners had banded together as a vigilante force to patrol the streets of Vega and Adrian. On March 7th a 23-year-old Texan called Lewis Steven Powell entered the Standard Service Station. No-one knows what happened in those few minutes, whether Larry – proud of his hard work – refused to hand over his takings, but Powell made him kneel down and shot him in the back of the head before robbing the till.
Larry never came home, but his Pontiac Catalina did, and it keeps silent sentinel in Glenrio. Roxann still lives in the house behind with family and dogs, one of the few remaining resident of Glenrio.
