I explored many abandoned buildings when i was a teenager, and i did came across a couple of places packed full of TVs and assorted old electronics.

One was a huge early 1900s brickwork kiln, someone stuffed the kiln chamber with old electronics, appliances, bicycles, furniture and other assorted junk, lots of 60s tube B/W sets in there, most were smashed or missing parts so i just took the speakers, knobs and tubes from them, a couple were intact and i saved them along with cool 50s tube phonograph, this was back in 1992, the kiln is still there today but it's completely grown over by bushes and access to it is absolutely impossible.

The other was an old barn on the riverside, there were about ten 50s and 60s TV sets in there, they were all smashed up by vandals and again i took the tubes, knobs and speakers from them.

Today there are still quite a few abandoned building around here, including one fairly large and cool 1920s summer colony, but exploring this place is quite risky due to squatters and junkies living in the buildings, this problem has gotten a lot worse in the last few years, i've done a couple of trips in there on my mule so that i'd be able to get away fast if need to, but of course i can't get to the upper floors, you don't really want to take a chance and ride a half ton beast on a possibly unsafe floor

Excellent thread - great reading! I used to go "roguing" (as we called it) around abandoned houses all the time in my carefree youth. The only time anything strange happened was in this house. (Picture taken at that time; back in the early 80s.)
http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q.../OldHouse2.jpg
Friends of a friend were living in the one story addition on the right side of the house that had been the servants' quarters. They were living rent-free and looking after the property for the owners. They had keys to the main house and told us we were free to explore as long as we were careful not to break anything. It was an amazing house; fully furnished with all its contents undisturbed since the owner had died sometime in the early 60s.

The story we were told was that the owner's children could not agree on what to do with their deceased parents' estate and it had been allowed to just sit for over 20 years. I seem to recall that the family name was something like Lee or one of those other Virginia names that rhyme with history and in this case: money. Apparently the heirs were well off enough to allow what must surely have been, even back in the 80s, a multi-million dollar estate, to just languish.

The room off to the right in the picture below was the library. I still have dreams about this room - good ones, though. It was too dark to take pictures in since I didn't have a flash but it was lined with leather-bound books and drawers full of old maps. There were lots of maps from WW I showing detailed troop positions and trenches somewhere in France that had to have been originals - in English, French and German. There was one of those German helmets with the spike on top, guns, a bugle, flags, and thousands of letters. I feel certain that the deceased owner must have been a high ranking officer in the AEF.

http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q.../OldHouse1.jpg

Most of the furniture was Victorian and very posh looking but there were a few rooms with cheaper looking furnishings from the 40s and 50s. Nothing had been removed - the closets were still full of clothes and the pantry was stocked. My friends and I had lots of fun exploring the first two floors, joking and laughing and trying to play the bugle. It was a cold but bright sunny day, as you can see in the picture.

I was the first one to venture up to the third floor. At the top of the stairs the first door I came to opened on a large room, painted light blue and jumbled with children's furniture. It had a large fireplace which was filled with dead birds. The whole room was full of dead birds. The sun was streaming in through those three smaller windows (on the right side in the photo) but the room was freezing. And the air in the room was impossibly still and just said DEATH.

I wasn't exactly frightened, but I had to get out of that room immediately. I warned my friends but they had to experience it for themselves. I left the house immediately and waited in the yard. We thanked our hosts for the tour and had a very quiet and introspective ride home. It was weeks before we felt like discussing the "room with all the dead birds" but we all had similar reactions.

Thanks again for the great stories, I have been fascinated with this kind of stuff since I was a little kid and strange things started happening when my Dad remodeled the house we just bought. This was back in 1987. He came down the stairs sheet white a couple of times. Here are the pics of the infamous Motorola tv.......
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4303.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4304.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4305.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4306.jpg
Not much to look at but it sure aint stayin' here no more.

Interesting reading. Someone I know recently told me that a friend of his found an abandoned house way out in the woods that was full of old TV's. I told him that I'd like to check it out; but,The more I think about it, I probably should forget about it for many reasons. I did get a CTC38 console and an old Admiral B&W console out of a long vacated house; but, the owner of the property was with me when I got the sets. The house looked ransacked on the inside. I think it was one of those deals where it took years to settle an estate or some crap like that and the owner was cleaning out the house so she could sell it.

You know, in a way, this stuff is kinda fun. I'd go check 'em out if I were you but maybe not bring anything home. May make for some cool pics at least.

Don't just toss it or return it to the abandoned house to rot. In a way it seems it was somehow meant to be discovered and saved from the elements or vandals. I'm sure someone here would take it. Heck, I might be interested..:scratch2:

There are at least 3 HUGE mansions in the Tri-Cities area I know of that were tied up in estate squabbles-Fortunately, 2 of them in Bristol, Virginia, seem to have been resolved, & have been returned to their former glory.

oddly, I'd keep it. Better than letting it rot or get decimated by vandals.

We'll see guys, as strange as I feel around the damn thing, I too feel sorry for it and want to see it saved, that's why I took it in the first place against my better judgement. I'm going out there today with the camera, let's see what happens. If it's "not so bad" this time, I MIGHT keep it. But I'm NOT bringing it in the house.

I too thought of this, and am contemplating. It is rather odd that no one has messed with them, especially the '87 color BPC set. You would figure someone would steal it. Now, if I keep this one, what about the other two I don't want? Let them rot in there?

Sandy G's mention of old phone switchgear reminded me of this.

http://65c02.org/images/ak/tubepabx1.jpg

It's a 25 line pabx with tube tone generators, probably from the mid 60s.

http://65c02.org/images/ak/tubepabx2.jpg

It was found installed in a tiny old house on the site of the Rocla pipe factory in the Springvale. That little house held the offices before the larger building was built in the 70s. It was abandoned until around 2001 after production was stopped in the mid 80s and the research lab closed sometime in the early 90s. It is now a housing estate, but the 70s office building remains and was still occupied when I was last in the area. Most of the production machinery was from the 60s or earlier and most of the control gear was still tube based in some way (well, thyratrons, analog computers and nixie tube displays anyway).

http://65c02.org/images/ak/tubepabx3.jpg

Dr.Ido- Yeah, that's kinda what I remember it lookin' like...Bunches upon bunches of relays, miles & miles of wire...It apparently was a "3-digit" system, which certainly limited growth. And the fact that the whole kit 'n' kaboodle fit in a room that was about half the size of a one car garage...Like everything else over there, though, it was in this solid little brick building that had opening windows, & was finished out as nicely as someone's house..EVERYTHING they built or did over there was done that way, though. I can just remember it when I was a little kid, the whole place had an incredible "manicured" look to it. Even the Trade School, which had suffered mightily from vandalism by '91, still had a hint of being well-taken care of-at least in part of its life.

3-digit system? Not surprised it was left to rot! But it is still an impressive looking machine:yes:

Mark: That's different from the Motorola I was picturing, but in a weird way, this one IS a creepy little bastid! Something about it, and I haven't even felt the odd vibe you have felt around it. Just looks like it was the property of some mean senior citizen who would yell at the kids to "stay off my lawn damnit!".....Someone from a different time; someone who bought the set new and used to watch Camel cigarette ads on network tv back in the day. Perhaps the same cigarettes which led to his demise.

That said, I'd return it for sure. And....watch your back on the drive....a creaky old set in the backseat can never be trusted....

Wow man, I can't wait for the pictures!

I've always been fascinated with this sort of thing too. There's a number of abandoned farms around here, in rural Saskatchewan. We used to drive around looking at them. We never really went inside, but just sorta looked in the windows and everything.
My grandparents used to take my mom and aunt to go see these places when they were kids too. Some of these houses were still fully furnished. One of them even had a 1940s calendar, still hanging in the kitchen (this was in the late 1960s, early '70s).
My grandma used to drive out looking at abandoned farms too. She came across a victrola, and a big pile of 78s, and an old diary in one particular place. She read the diary cover to cover. She left it behind though.

A while ago, me and my friend were hired to clean up all the scrap metal off an abandoned farm. There were a bunch of buildings just FULL of stuff. You name it, it was in there.
The house was still full of stuff too. It was kinda eerie, how all the furnature and everything was still layed out as if they just went out for a pack of smokes or something.
The basement was totally flooded too. Down there, there was shelves full of all kinds of stuff, and furnature and everything, but all under water.
There was also a bunch of old cars in this swampy slewy area. Early '60s era GM's; 2 Pontiac Laurentians, a Pontiac Strato-Chief (Canadian models), a Chevy Bel-Air, and a GMC truck. All sunken right into the ground, with license plates that expired in the '70s and early '80s.
There was also an '80s era Pontiac Parisienne sitting by the house, which was obviously their daily driver, still sitting there, waiting to be driven again.
I did get a souvenier from that place; a ~1969 Road Runner 14" travel trailer, that was destined to be scrapped. But it was still in great shape, and would cost jack shit as scrap, so my friend said I could have it, and he'd help me get it home and everything, in exchange for a day of work.
I'm gonna start restoring it, and my friend's also very excited to see what I'm gonna do with it.
It's a cool little thing. I did have to totally scrub it all out with bleach though, due to the multitude of mouseshits lol

But yea, that's another thing. You gotta be careful at these places, because deer mice (the ones with the big round mickey mouse ears) spread the hantavirus, and that's fatal.

I think this summer I'm gonna go exploring in some abandoned farms, but i'm gonna bring a friend along with me just in case.

Just imagine stories that abandoned houses, cars, etc. can tell.

Tom: Yeah.....I could smell it back there on the way to work. Same creepy smell of that house. Now, it's been back there all day in the sun, my car reeks I'm sure. It's funny that it is now sitting in the middle of Lake Forest Il, one of the most rich communities of the North Shore:). It may or may not go back "home" today. I find myself becoming more and more attached to it. I was afraid of that. Same thing has happened before with weird old creepy stuff I've picked up. Nevertheless, I'm heading out there at 3:30 this afternoon, I'm almost free from work! Pics posted tonight. Video on my youtube channel too, I may upload that tomorrow.
Wilkes: Great story!

Bahh, hantavirus
 

I have never understood the huge fear of Hanta, since Mt started keeping records in 1992 we have had a total of 8 deaths!
8 people in 17 years!

I and many other 'farm folks' here in montana feel that the hanta fear is unwarranted and very rarely take ANY precautions when dealing with "possibly infected" materials because I have a higher likelyhood of being struck by lightning, or a drunk driver than I do contracting Hanta.:sigh:
tal

Here are some of the pics, I'll do a photobucket of all of them soon. I also still have to make a video, I killed the battery on the pics. I'll do it tomorrow. Nothin's hurt me yet, what's one more time gonna do??
North side.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4421.jpg
The set was found in front of the closet on the floor.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4389.jpg
to the right in the same room.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4390.jpg
Zenith in the front room.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4380.jpg
MGA off to the right of the Zenith.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4383.jpg
Living room looking north towards the stairs.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4379.jpg
Looking down the stairs.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4394.jpg
Me in the bathroom mirror, pieces of wall in the reflection.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4412.jpg
More to come later. I'm tired and have to get up at 5.

Did you jump when you saw yourself in the mirror? I worked in some old hangers at the K.I. Sawyer AFB and there was an upstairs that was no longer used. It was a locker room with showers. I went snooping looking for cool stuff. It was really dark because the lights were burned out. I turned a corner and I saw something move. Alas it was just my reflection in a mirror. Boy did I jump!

If I would have thought about it sooner I would have went snooping around the old airbase sooner. By the time I thought about it there was too many people around. Now if I was teen I could have gotten away with snooping around. If caught people would just tell you to get the hell out of here. the perfect time would have been when the land still was still military jurisdiction and the cops really were hampered by what they could do. I know people that were pulled over for speeding but were let go. Eventually it was all conveyed to the county and the local police then had jurisdiction.

There are still tons of empty rotting buildings out there. But the county want's a crap load for them. The housing area has steadily grown. When they started selling the duplexes they wanted a lot of money for them. Well with all the gov. loans defaulting they are a dime dozen from the banks. But who want to live there? All the riff raff in the county moved there because they couldn't get in anywhere else. And then the "prison family's" moved in from the big citys. Back when I first lived out there it was fairly quiet but as time went by kids slowly started forming into packs that would traverse the base causing trouble. There was two high speed chases while I was there. I should say slow speed because everything was glare ice and the banks 6 foot high. If you go there now it's pretty depressing area.

Newhallone, too bad you couldn't have checked that place out better, who knows what you may have found.
Yesterday was a little different at the house, I walked in and that feeling of anger and doom was not so bad, maybe if there is something there, it knows I'm not there to do harm. I still felt the extreme sadness though. I lingered a while to take it all in. I noticed right away that things have been moved, someone else had been there. The wood paneling that was laying on the stairs from water damage was now thrown to the side, you can see it in the living room picture by the window. That revealed just how rotted the stairs were. It seems that fate had saved that set after all, maybe I was supposed to find it when I did. Those stairs will not hold a person this time next year. Those two leaks in the roof are fatal to this house, they are eating away a load bearing wall that holds all the floor joists for the second floor. it will then fall in starting in the middle. I'd like to patch that fucking roof but it would be pointless, the damage has been done. It leaks where the two peaks of the roof join in the middle, the gutters plugged and water backed up and started coming in, plus it rotted the edge of the roof and the soffits. I think it could have been saved about 8 years ago. The roof is starting to fail in other areas too, the spots are showing and will eventually look like the corner of that room by the bed. One place is the front room where the other two sets are, one spot being right over the Zenith. I have pics of the adult bedroom and it has a small religious keychain on the window sill that is for protection, I took a pic. A wish prayer on a piece of decorative cardboard is also on the floor. This is the nicest room in the house, no broken windows or bad damage, just a mess. A photo of a woman is there on the floor by the bed and alarm clock. The corner of the closet in that room is starting to show the slow demise of the house, it is the wall shared by the bathroom, the other leaking area. The small blue room is a nursery with a crib and stuff everywhere, more mail, receipts ect. One being form the Kenosha Co. Co-Op for feed in 1965. This was the Schaffer farm. That is the only name on everything of any date, this house was in that family for a long long time. I wonder if there are descendants that know anything about the place? The closet in the blue room is falling through too, also because of that leak in the other kids room. It's right above the stairs, mail and paperwork are starting to fall to the first floor.
I noticed in the pictures, there are some white orbs in the pics of that front room, coincidentally, the room with the strongest presence in it. Look at the pic of the MGA by the window, it's sticking to the wall there. I've seen this happen many times, people tell me it is dust, I only see these when there IS some sort of presence in a place or on things. I have seen these little orbs in pictures clinging to tv sets in my collection and Doug Harland's too amongst other things. I have pictures of things no one has been able to explain logically. I have also seen very odd colored ones, and with my own eyes floating down a hallway. That will be one of the stories on my thread in the OT forums. Also, coincidentally, these are sets that neither one us can seem to let go of. One of his is a CTC7 Sanford model.
I may very well be the only dumb son of a gun that wants to preserve the history here, soon my knowledge and pictures will be all that remains. I took 115 pictures. BTW, I can't seem to let go of that damn tv......

Aww man, just imagine all that's gone on in this house. Families being raised there, and now it just sits to rot.
I wonder how long it's been abandoned? The damage looks as if it's been abandoned for decades.
That house does have a wierd energy to it too, like there's still a family living in it. Even from the pictures, you can tell.
And about those orbs, I have seen those before, and I don't think it's just dust.

Hell, I'd take that Zenith set :D Actually....we tried that already didn't we ha-ha. Orb says: hands off, AKers. :yes:

Neat bunch-o pictures. I definitely agree that these orbs are real and are not just dust like everyone seems to say. Video ones are cool too: The way they appear and disappear is pretty wild.

The child's crib thing and the microwave oven near the MGA are the eeriest things in that place as far as I can see. :scratch2:

Call me crazy, but microwave ovens have an especially miserable and spooky presence to them in an abandoned house. I remember cleaning out my grandparents' home after they passed, and I unearthed a knob-timer oven just like that, which hadn't been used in years. An early 80s model Tappan IIRC. It worked well, and I cleaned it up for sale at a yardie. The other nuker, an old Sanyo, sat for another few years and then got junked. It used to feed the family and now they're gone and it's all by itself destined to be trash. :sad:

But yeah, very interesting stuff here Mark. And you don't even look scared in the mirror photo! :thmbsp: Keep the Motorola, I bet you can make it work really well again!

That IS one more creepy lookin' place...Puts me in the mind of Ed Gein's house. And no, I don't think those orbs are light tricks or dust bunnies, either. And yes, I think you SHOULD save that TV. Something needs to be saved from that place, in another year or 2 it'll be too late...I'm surprised somebody hasn't torched it. That's a favorite trick of the vandal set down here.

Cool house, I'd be more worried about Mold than Ghosts though. :)

If you clean the set up it'll look less spooky.

Look closer at that ol' MAG color set on the floor, it almost looks like it's on with a blank raster.

I hope there weren't any meathooks on the back porch.

Alright, I looked carefully at the pictures again...but I can't figure something out.

What the hell is an orb?

I believe it's a white spot of light, believed by many paranormalists to indicate the presence of a spirit.

Looks like some attention was paid to that house back in the seventies, judging by the paneling and trim. To me it just seems empty and kinda sad. On a very slow path to death.

That MGA looks to be one of their "blue tube" sets. I don't know if I've ever seen one in person.

Another old house story (and another repeat) in the late 90s I answered an ad in the classifieds, "old TV sets for sale". Turns out that a 90+ year old gentleman had died and his nephew was settling the estate. He had a farm with an old house and lots of buildings; he lived in an old trailer out by the road. The house and farmstead had been packed with antiques and for 3 straight weekends they had held auctions at the local firehall. What was left were the TV sets, seen as pretty much worthless. I did get some decent stuff out of there, but I had to leave maybe a dozen sets. Mostly bw consoles from the late 50s/early 60s. They were all in the house, which as very close to falling down. Every room had one or two sets in it, along with assorted junk. (trash furniture, old mattresses) I would have liked to spent more time and explored but, 1) I was being escorted by the nephew who kept me from venturing far and 2) the only time I could meet with him was late in the day, just before dusk, and there was no electric in the house. The real gems were on the enclosed front porch; I was basically down on my knees digging in the dark, throwing whatever I could grab into boxes. Tubes, knobs, assorted electronic knick-knacks. There was a 50 year old refrigerator on the porch used to store tubes and such; there were also about a dozen Electrolux vacuums in there which I could have had but didn't have room for. The nephew mentioned that his uncle had never owned a color TV; well, there was an 80s RCA in one shed, in pieces (the newest set I spotted) and inside there was a sad Sylvania tube chassis color set. (I brought that one home and should have saved it, but didn't-had HV issues) The greatest find, and the one that always struck me as peculiar in some sort of way, was a Zenith 25MC30 roundie, a bare-bones metal console. (looks like they made special efforts to build it cheap) The set is clean as a pin inside and out, and I was able to get it working with very little effort. Biggest fault was a bad power switch. Seeing that big "eyeball" in that lonely back room at dusk on a cool April day....strange. For a long time I felt a little uneasy when I watched that set, as if it was going to go "kaplooey" at any point, or something.

That whole place, the house, the TV sets, the farmstead, became a practice session for the volunteer fire company. All long gone now. The nephew and I actually destroyed a shed while we were there-we were able to push what was left of it into a pile. Inside were 2-3 fruit baskets full of globe/ST tubes. Yeah, I got 'em.

I get those spots often when shooting in a dirty/dusty environment, especially when firing a flashgun. Film or digital.

In fact, I took a pic last week and there's several on the side of a hutch in a warehouse. The owner is still alive btw.

I've participated in many a debate about the orbs on a couple of paranormal discussion boards. Pretty convinced that they can be something from another plane, but hey I have no proof either.

The MGA blue-screen sets made quite a nice picture. I was given a 26" one a few years ago and it had composite inputs and stereo. I sold it for I think 25 dollars. Sure looks like it's on in that picture, good point...strange.

I don't wanna see this thread 'die' :D

Speaking of orbs, here are a few cool pics of the barn, dusty but the wind was still in there. There wasn't much dust in the air according to the beam on my Maglite. The dark pic was taken with no flash, orbs still appear.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4322.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4323.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4324.jpg
Look at this one closely, some spots are little holes, but not all of them.
Here is the same pic, only brightened. Look at them now, a few are kinda green. Some were even hiding in the completely dark parts of the pic.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...100_4324_2.jpg
BTW, anyone think I should save the other sets???

Very cool post... I really enjoyed it as well as all the other contributions. Growing up in suburbia we just never have abandoned homes. Most of the homes here were built in a forty to fifty year time frame so you just don't see old homes where I live.

Thinking about if I were in an older area like that it would be really weird and creepy.

Just for the hell of it, here's a few more...
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4395.jpg
Baby's room
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4396.jpg
To the right in same room
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4399.jpg
Further to the right, it says "HELP" on the wall
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4403.jpg
Adult bedroom. I believe this is Emma Schaffer
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4406.jpg
Religious keychain for protection, the window is broken, I thought this one wasn't in an earlier post. Still the nicest and most safe feeling room.
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...1/100_4414.jpg
Also in the same room

Yeah, you oughta save all the sets you can from there. You were led to that house for a reason, maybe saving the sets was it.

Cool thread! I'm a sucker for this sort of stuff as well...in fact, stopped yesterday at a farmsite where everything but the garage had been leveled. There was a big scrap pile...I was looking for a small sheet of aluminum to fashion into a bottom cover for my ham transceiver. No aluminum...did pick a bunch of bare copper wire that'll come in handy for grounding & such. On the pile was an extremely battered "farm radio" (batteries only) that was waaaaay beyond rescue...but none of the tubes were broken! Into the trunk it went to be parted out. Found a really busted-up brown plastic AA5 radio, too...some salvageable parts there as well. I'm stopping back today...gonna load up this small air compressor that looks like it'll be easy to get going. Need one of those!

BTW: I read an article a few years ago in Popular Communications about an abandoned farmhouse somewhere in Minnesota that had the remains of a radio repair shop on the 2nd floor. Lotsa tubes, parts & radios...the usable stuff was harvested. The writer avoided indicating the location. Drat! I'd love to stumble across something like that!

Before I got into fixing radios, I failed to scoop up the contents of an old desk in a carriage house - every drawer was filled with old caps & resistors (and other small parts) from the 20's through the 40's. Back then, my uncle's grandfather & father ran a radio shop out of there before moving to a storefront around 1950 or so. I did save all the old meters I found, and some radio & appliance trade magazines from 1945-47. I had no idea anyone would want those old caps & resistors. The house was sold five years ago, and I have no idea if the new owner cleaned out the carriage house.

Here's a color roundie that had the misfortune of being installed in the wrong area code.

Photo NOT mine.

http://forgottenmichigan.com/gallery...2_JPG.jpg.html

Aww, man, what a sad picture !

Man, that sucks. I'd still bring 'er home and put in a CRT, the rest don't look bad, neither does the Zenith.
I'm thinking of grabbing the other two sets. I'm also looking into who currently owns the house, checking at the county records this week. I'm gonna see if there's a way to save the whole damn place. If not, oh well I tried.

You a Good Man, Charlie Brown...