Abandoned Places – East Valley Wander (12 May 07) – Part 1

[jjmaccrimmon]

Due to a number of circumstances, I’m just getting these images posted. In fact, this past Sunday I edited, sized and uploaded nearly 450 abandoned site photos. During this wander my kids, Brenna (persephone1313) and Chris explored a number of sites in and to the east of the cities I live and work in. During the following months badgerphone and I went on several exploring rampages around the Antelope Valley and Mojave. These explorations were some of the happiest and most creative I’ve ever gone on. More on those later...

Many places in the Antelope Valley have receded into nothing more then foundations and memories. One of the first places we found was the remains of the Jet Drive-In Theater.


Screen support bracket



The foundation and remains of the screen pilings

The Jet Drive-In was a 400 car one screen outdoor cinema that closed down in the late 1980’s. The building were pulled down within a year of the closing, but the screen remained standing until at least 2002. The screen can be seen at http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/catjetd. The address they list for the site is completely inaccurate as the site lays off Ave L.


All that remains now are the concrete foundations of the snack bar


No water


The only remains of the wiring for the theater’s speaker system


The graded and angled parking areas are rapidly being overgrown


Reclaimed by nature’s creatures

Next we continued down Sierra Hwy to a site I drive by everyday going to work. Remember that Lancaster and Palmdale used to be farm communities. Right off one of the busiest intersections in the area was another faded memory.


All that remained of this farm was the foundation, a half filled in cold storage cellar and low lying debris.


This was a well to do family’s home as those are kiln fired tiles on the “floor”


I’m still very curious how they nailed the framing material into concrete in the 1920’s or 30’s.



Another fading memory we found much later in the trip was the remains of a corner shop. A parking lot and foundation are all that remains.









Part 2 - Tomorrow

Comments

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

I know powder fasteners were around since at least the early 1950's. It could have been earlier.