Comments on: Strange Geographies: My Town’s “Aborted Suburb”

By: Lichanos

Lichanos — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:46:43 +0000

Try the entire city of Detroit. It’s gradually reverting to prairie.

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:02:52 +0000

I find these places fascinating as well. We had an abandon half built mansion in east Honolulu (Henry J Kaiser of Kaiser Permente died during the construction) It takes up acres of prime Hawaii real estate on a bay. Has three seperate units, including a cafeteria. The most surreal part is the 60s technological equipment throughout the house. If you ever make it to Hawaii, check it out.

By: googsleuth

googsleuth — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:44:54 +0000

This was a very interesting article, but I’m afraid when you look at this neighbourhood on google maps / street view, it’s the antithesis of “abandoned”. A portion in the lower 1/4 appears to be a bit run down, but I would hardly describe it as deserted. However, if you happen to be looking at it on google maps, zoom out a bit and see the sattelite view which exposes TENS of miles of grid-patterned streets in the surrounding areas which feature only 1 or 2 (sometimes run down) homes each – just crazy.

By: Bicycle Bill

Bicycle Bill — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:27:36 +0000

Isn’t Rotonda’s biggest claim to fame the fact that when it was first being developed, back in the 1970s, it was the site of ABC-TV’s “Superstars” competitions?

And which is the correct spelling? Rotonda or Rotunda?

-”BB”-

By: Rory

Rory — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:24:06 +0000

@Peter “Monuments to our insanity” I LOL’d!

Another Florida ghost town I’ve heard about is Rosewood. Supposedly it was an all-black township supported by a grain mill until one of its residents was accused of raping the (white) sheriff’s daughter. A mob descended on the town, massacred the residents, and set most of the town on fire. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway. Google Maps shows Rosewood as a series of empty lots and streets.

By: Jerry M

Jerry M — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:30:35 +0000

I used to live in the California high desert. A town had been developed there that had alot of the streets placed and named, but with little developement. Known as ‘California City’ it still seems as though there is still plenty of room to grow.

By: Jen C.

Jen C. — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:14:00 +0000

My brother and his wife have lived in Florida for about 10 years now. When I turned 16, I came down to visit them and they took me to one of these abandoned neigborhoods and taught me how to drive! It was perfect. Clear roads, roadsigns, and no one (and nothing) that I could hit. Very cool.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:11:00 +0000

The post WWI Florida Land Boom collapse in the mid twenties was brought about by a series of disasters from which the ‘29 crash made recovery impossible. After WWII, there were still large abandoned areas of street grids, sidewalks, fire hydrants and streetlights. They existed as communities on the maps, but only snakes, weeds and lizards resided at their addresses.

By: Gordon Daily

Gordon Daily — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:22:00 +0000

I used to live in Lancaster, California in the 1990 and 1991. There were several developments like that in Lancaster and Palmdale (5 miles to the south) that were abandoned. One became famous in the movies. Lethal Weapon 3 (Mel Gibson & Danny Glover) burned down one such development in the movie. This was an actual housing development that had gone belly-up and sold out to the production company to be used in the movie.

By: Chester

Chester — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:23:00 +0000

Rotunda is like deja vu. 20 years ago
my parents had a wonderful place in Port
Lucaya in Freeport, Bahamas. I would
typically go down once or twice a year to dive and gamble. On one of the rainy
days, I decided to do a little exploration of our island paradise and
discovered an uninhabited subdivision
with paved streets to nowhere, man-made
canals and even an abandoned low-rise
hotel…it seemed a perfect place to
stage a nether-world “Waiting for Godot”
or “Krapp’s Last Tape”. Now I don’t
even need a passport to discover man’s last refuge from himself.