1/25/06

I talked yesterday with the facilities manager at Pennhurst. It seems that, with the price of copper going up, it's now worthwhile for some people to sneak into the older buildings to steal copper wiring. This is what accounts for the many "No Trespassing" and "No Hunting" signs all over the grounds. Wonderful. I suppose if the price of granite should go sky-high, cemeteries would have to post guards.

So take a clue and DO NOT go tramping around Pennhurst for your school project or Goth album shoot. The abandoned buildings are dangerous, unsound, and contaminated with lead paint.

1/26/06

Today I had a chance to walk the dog around most of the lower campus. It’s astonishing what a few years can do to these nineteenth century structures. Most of the roofs are caving in on the large buildings. You can’t even see the campus area itself from the river side of the road; it’s that overgrown. Also, it looks like the facilities people have done their part to limit access to the campus itself by blocking most of the walkways and roads into it with trees and brush. The whole place still looks like some post-apocalyptic movie set.

Didn’t see too many of the vultures that are nesting on the grounds. A few of them were flying overhead, but not “venues of vultures”.

1/28/06

Went up to the maintance shed side of the lower campus. There is an access road that leads through this area, so that is not as hard to do as you might imagine. It’s in terrible shape up there. In the former parking lot there is an old school bus on blocks which I assume is what the fire company uses for training. The steel grates are up on the maintance shop, allowing anyone who wishes to walk in and take whatever they want. I’ve decided not to show pictures of obvious examples of vandalism, other than broken windows. But I will mention them, such as the busted-up CRT monitors that litter the front of the maintance shed.

Didn’t see any vultures today, but did spot a black cat bouncing around.