Abandoned
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Lauringburg-maxton Aircraft Boneyard
Location Maxton, North Carolina Built 1942 (WWII airfield) Aircraft Since 1953 (salvage operations) Status Closed to public — active salvage THE STORY When you think of airplane boneyards, you picture the Arizona desert — endless rows of military jets baking under a relentless sun. You don’t picture rural North Carolina. But two hours from Charlotte,
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Old Cahawba
Location Dallas County, Alabama Founded 1819 (State Capital 1820-1826) Abandoned ~1900 (unincorporated 1989) Status Archaeological park — open to visitors THE RISE Before Alabama was even a state, Indigenous people had lived at this spot for over 4,000 years. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto may have passed through a large Indian village here in 1540.
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Market street Power Plant
Location Riverfront, New Orleans Built 1905 Closed 1973 Status Redevelopment planned THE STORY The Market Street Power Plant is a cathedral of industry sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River. Built in 1905 by the New Orleans Railway and Light Company, it was hailed by the Times-Picayune as the largest electrical generating plant in
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Lindy Boggs Medical Center
Location Mid-City, New Orleans Built 1953 (as Mercy Hospital) Abandoned August 2005 Status Abandoned — for sale THE STORY The building started its life as Mercy Hospital in the 1920s, founded by a Roman Catholic order of nuns called the Sisters of Mercy. They’d been operating a hospital on Annunciation Street in the Lower Garden
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The Cash Money Mansion
Location New Orleans East, Louisiana Built 1990 Abandoned 2005 Status Abandoned — privately owned THE STORY Tucked away in a gated subdivision in New Orleans East, this nearly 11,000 square-foot mansion was built in 1990 and originally belonged to NFL linebacker Pat Swilling, who starred for the New Orleans Saints. In 2004, the property was
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The House of Detention
Location 2735 Perdido St, New Orleans Built 1966 Closed 2012 Status Slated for demolition THE STORY The House of Detention rises ten stories above Perdido Street in Mid-City New Orleans — a Brutalist concrete monolith that looks exactly like what it was: a place designed to cage human beings. Completed in 1966 and designed by
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Six Flags New Orleans
Location New Orleans East, Louisiana Built 2000 (as Jazzland) Abandoned August 2005 Status Demolition in progress THE STORY For nearly two decades, the ruins of Six Flags New Orleans stood as one of the most haunting symbols of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation — a 140-acre amusement park frozen in the moment everything went wrong. The park
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Charity Hospital
Location 1532 Tulane Ave, New Orleans Founded 1736 (current building 1939) Closed August 2005 Status Redevelopment planned THE STORY Charity Hospital wasn’t just a building. It was a promise — one that lasted nearly three centuries. Founded in 1736 with a deathbed donation from Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, the hospital was built