In 1913, the Philadelphia School district acquired two properties for $150,000 for the construction of the school. Plans for a four-story 355,372 square foot building were done by J. Horace Cook. Germantown opened in 1915 at the cost of $784,000 with a total capacity of 2,000 students. A basement gymnasium opened a year later in 1916.

Originally opened in 1927 as the George Wolf School, named for the 19th century Pennsylvania governor. In 1829 George Wolf was elected governor of Pennsylvania and won reelection in 1832. In 1834, the awaited Common School Law established the first statewide system of publicly financed education, a top priority for Governor Wolf. The Common School Act, provided basic education to all children of the state, regardless of wealth or social status. Today many schools within Pennsylvania are named after Governor Wolf, father of the free school system.

Conceived in 1968 as part of a new Eastwick Communication Education Complex, the development was to have housed Eastwich High School, Pepper Middle School along with a new parochial school. The education complex was never completed and in the end only saw the construction of Pepper Middle School, a gargantuan concrete monolithic building of brutalism design.

In early December of 2011, Pittsburgh Police along with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Officer removed 19 containers of cremated human remains and 30 animal remains from the abandoned funeral home.

The architect firm of Harbeson, Hough, Livingston, and Larson was hired by the state to design a new psychiatric hospital in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. Built on a spraling 14 acres and standing 12 floors above ground this modernism high-rise now sits looming in the distance and its future unknown.

Originally knows as the ‘White School’ for its resemblance to the White House Mahanoy Township High School was a giant on the hill. In 1938 the school was completely destroyed by fire. Rebuilt in 1940 and in use until 1959.

The first turbogenerator was placed into service in 1947 and operations continued until 1996 when the station was closed. Construction was delayed due to the war, however, demand increased and in 1944, permission was granted, construction was resumed on Southwark.

BOMARC or Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center Base, No. 1 was the New Jersey missile launch complex of 218 acres within the "Range and Impact Area" at the Northeast corner of Fort Dix. The military installation was 1 of 2 Cold War BOMARC bases of the New York Air Defense Sector (cf. Long Island's Suffolk County Missile Annex).

Originally opened as a horse racing track farther up in the center of town in the 1850s as the Northampton County Agricultural Fairgrounds. By the early 1900s, the popularity of the track grew to a point where it was no longer feasible to hold events at this location, and a new half-mile track was constructed at the current location between Routes 191 and 248.

Originally opened in 1962, by the owner of Kramer’s Music Store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Frederick F. Kramer III. Apple Hill was a local ski area about 10 miles northwest of Allentown. Construction costs totaled $450,000, $3,841,346 in today’s money.

In 2009, the congregation of Chisuk Emuna lost their beloved synagogue by a fire that started in the sanctuary days before the Jewish holiday of Passover. Passover marks the exodus of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery.

On today’s exploration, we venture into an abandoned Days Inn. Words cannot explain how bad it was inside, on top of the natural decay of an abandoned building the vandalism was just unreal.

Conflicting information has the school closing in 1990 or 1991, one account says that the upper floor was closed off several years before the final closing of the school.

Founded in 1886, International Boiler Works, moved in 1919 to this location. The railroad provided transportation for some of the company's largest boilers. At its peak, the boiler works employed between 100 and 200 workers.

This place has always had a special meaning to me and I have been fascinated with it for over 20 years. In the 1930s after my family immigrated to the U.S., my grandfather worked for Neuweiler’s in this very location.