Motown Ghost Town « Brain Clouds

Motown Ghost Town

This project has been put on hold as I have too little time to take all the pictures. Michigan is in fact becoming a Ghost Town.

I have started to take pictures on my way to and fro. Pictures of buildings that have gone out of business. Pictures of once vibrant mini malls that now only contain one or two stores. It’s good to know that people still eat pizza and get their dry cleaning done. I am calling this project Bush’s Motown Ghost Town. One by one the doors close and the For Lease sign goes up. The only thing that seems to be different than before is that the sign simply never seems to come down.

I’ll update the photos should I discover they are rented out. New life, new blood, new money. All of this is good for a dying economy where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Those of us in the middle class simply seem to get lost in the shuffle. Please feel free to send me your Vacant Building Photos. I would be more than happy to add them to the collection.

Former Wendy's

This building was the former home to a Wendy’s fast food chain. I’m not sure why they boarded up the windows, but it does give it a nice “urban struggle” touch. They hacked the Wendy’s sign out front completely down and no one seems to be maintaining the grounds. Guess this Wendy’s won’t be Open Late any longer.

(This building is now an Arbys)

(This building is once again vacant)

Former Sam's Club

This enormous monster of a building used to be a Sam’s Club. One of those “buy useless shit in bulk” type stores. The business itself relocated a few miles away. Looks like this will be a vacant haunt for truckers to rest just off of I-75 for awhile.

Mervyns

I think I have been in a Mervyn’s a total of once in my entire life. In ranks right up there with Kohl’s for me. I’ve never been big on the free standing department store. Hell, never been big on stores period. I’m a bit upset with this shot because I missed something I found rather beautiful in it. To the far left was a blue over-turned shopping cart laying half on the curb in front of the buildings facade. It just gave it that ghost town feel and I’m pissed at myself for not hanging around long enough to take another shot.

(As of 1/10/2008 Circut City has taken over this building)

Walden Books

This one kind of breaks my heart. Not only are there no privately owned bookstores anymore, but apparently the chains are going out of business too. I reserved an Anne Rice book at this store when I was in the 9th grade. It just came out and I had them hold a copy for me. No more vampire stories from Anne Rice, no more Walden Books.

Unknown

I’m not sure what used to occupy this building. I believe I took this shot around the 10 Mile and Van Dyke area. All the vacant buildings start to look the same after a while.

This isn’t the greatest of photos, but it was taken at 10 Mile and Mound Rd. This is one of those buildings that has been there forever. Looks like it still has the original fasade’. It was probably a factory that supplied one of the “Big Three” with one thing or another. The South end of Mound road is filled with these buildings. I didn’t have the courage to continue down to 8 Mile.

Live Physic!

This building is located in the “Old Village” portion of Warren. It’s been many things, but mostly empty. It’s last occupant was apparently a physic reader. Apparently he or she didn’t envision having to close up shop.

Warren Alloy

This old gem is located in Warren at 14 Mile and Mound Rd. I’m pretty sure Warren Alloy was another one of those companies that closed due to the decline in the car companies. Maybe we can donate the bricks on this one to India. They will need them to build more buildings for all the American companies opting to Best Shore.

I honestly have no idea what this building used to be. It is near a mall that was once nice and is not half empty. The building is run down and plain.