by Cindy Vasko (Author)
Explores Maryland's abandoned sites, from industrial ruins to eerie landmarks, weaving history and decay.
Throughout Maryland, one finds abandoned curiosities in forests and meadows, as well as many hiding in plain sight in urban centers. This collection of Maryland abandonments includes more than a dozen stories. The Lonaconing Silk Mill is a preserved 1957 time capsule, while the National Park Seminary at Forest Glen seems plucked from Grimms' Fairy Tales. Once the lifeblood of a Baltimore neighborhood, the Old Town Mall resembles a set from The Walking Dead, and a few miles away, a shuttered ceramics plant is a reminder of a time when manufacturing was king. Mallows Bay's largest shipwreck in the Western Hemisphere is now a haven for nature, and Baltimore's N.S. Savannah continues to be a billboard for the late Atoms for Peace program. Additional stories about a seminary, the Maryland House of Correction, Fort Washington, Henryton Tuberculosis Sanatorium, a plastics manufacturer, Seneca Quarry, a sanitarium, and a historic coastal cemetery in the Chesapeake Bay region complete the Maryland tale. Discover these forlorn Maryland sites and weave together the threads of history left behind. Step into another world and view images out of the ordinary, and far removed from daily life experiences.