Flaking Paint, Razor Wire, a Chapel not for Weddings

By Bruce Schaefer

Getting to Cresson Sanitorium & Prison outside Altoona PA was a 4-hour effort, so we chose to spend the nite there, along with tour leader Phil Boyer, who also planned visits the next day to the world’s biggest rail U-turn and some old lime kilns.

Cresson was similar in some ways to the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly much visited by camera clubs. Both are in PA, about 4 hours drive, and served as prisons. Beyond that, not much in common. Cresson is surrounded by woods, is spread over 30 buildings, served most of its life as a TB sanitorium. Where Eastern State is built like a fortress, Cresson has a Tudor-style HQ building and is surrounded by open cyclone fence. Topped with razor wire – miles of it.

The 3 of us toured the office buildings, dormitories, cell blocks and chapel, also checked out the gym, classrooms, and kitchen. Some pictures therefrom:

As you can see, the urban decay is pretty advanced. Huge flakes of paint [probably all lead-based] dripping from the walls, floors littered with crud.

Next day we drove out to the site of the biggest U-turn in railroad-dom, where we met up with Joel Rosenfeld. Several trains passed by for us; no one successfully captured the essence of the big bend. This pano is an attempt.

Then we all posed for a selfie taken by another photographer. And then parted ways. We probably won’t make the trip back to Altoona any time soon. But the other photographer told us about a building made of gold, owned by the Hare Krishnas, in West Virginia. THAT will be a trip worth taking. Phil is working on it; stay tuned.