New York

Genesee County Home

It was a dark and stormy night as we made our way to the haunted asylum in rural New York state. While enjoying a Valentine's get-away, we heard about a ghost hunt at the Rolling Hills Asylum in East Bethany. I read up on the building and its history and immediately decided that, despite my complete skepticism with regard to the existence of ghosts, it was still a great opportunity to explore a historic building with legal permission. These opportunities don't present themselves often. Aside from that, I had never seen a ghost hunt besides those on TV. It would be fun to see first hand.

Manchester Roundhouse

The Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR) was created originally to transport coal from Pennsylvania in 1846, but it soon began carrying passengers as well. To help with its growing needs, a large freight yard in Manchester, NY was constructed and opened in 1892 where the company apparently the company loaded and unloaded more than 100 freight cars per day. The yard was, at the time, was considered the largest in the world, employing over 1000 workers.

Conklin Roundhouse

Nothing on the ground is ever as easy as it appears on Google Earth. This is a rule I keep close in mind, but sometimes my explorations like to make a point of it.

Times Square, New York City

No trip to New York City as a tourist is complete without a visit to Times Square.

Fort Tilden

Fort Tilden was named for Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York and Presidential candidate. It was established in 1917 as part of the emergency fortification for World War I and was intended to defend New York from attack by sea or air.

Floyd Bennett Field

New York City required a municipal airport and several locations for it came up for discussion. The mayor of the time, Fiorello LaGuardia, wanted it placed on Governor's Island. Despite this, the site chosen was Barren Island.

Curtis Wright Buffalo

I drove along the street, looking for the specific building I wanted. There were more run-down industrial buildings along here than I expected, so my head was kind of on a swivel. I love this sh*t!

Buffalo Malting

This building was originally constructed as a drying house in 1894, with a single silo added in 1925 for William E. Kreiner of Kreiner Malting Inc. A second silo was added in 1936, bringing the storage capacity to 180,000 bushels.

Buffalo Central Terminal

Serving a mere 50 years, the Buffalo Central Terminal was built in 1929 by the New York Central Railroad. A single unified rail station had been proposed on this site since 1889, but it wasn't for another 40 years that it would finally happen.

Physical Culture Hotel

Interestingly, the story here begins as far back as 1798. Early settlers apparently heard loud, booming noises coming from the nearby hillside. With that, a new spring had burst forth through the rock and created a freshwater stream that would play a role in the town for a long time to come.

New York