I know I ended this blog last semester with a goodbye, but I’m back! I’m excited because I will never run out of stories to tell, places to describe, and adventures to relive. Additionally, over winter break, I explored a few new locations and will be sure to include them this semester.
To begin this new year of blogging, I’ll start with one of my more recent adventures from over winter break while it’s still fresh in my mind. Two friends of mine and I began the day driving north towards the Poconos. We were headed towards the town of Nanticoke, PA, which was about an hour and a half drive. Once we finally got off the highway and landed in what seemed like a typical boring and quiet small Pennsylvanian town (no offense to any small towners reading this), we were driving in circles looking for an entrance to our destination. After circling around the depressingly barren town for about 15 minutes, we finally found a place to park. We were headed to Concrete City.
One of the more popular and legal places of exploration in Pennsylvania, Concrete City is an abandoned neighborhood of decrepit concrete homes nestled in the woods of Nanticoke. The duplex homes were originally built in 1911 to house coal workers of a nearby mine. According to AtlasObscura.com, the homes were considered luxurious and almost utopian at the time; they fostered a small and exclusive community atmosphere. The homes were organized around a large central courtyard, which used to be home to a baseball field and other communal facilities. Only English-speaking high-level employees were permitted to live here, as well.
Despite the neighborhood’s exclusive and futuristic approach to community living, it was abandoned in 1924. Its demise was due to the concrete outhouses that served as the tenants’ bathrooms and the property owner’s failure to replace its broken sewer system. The entirely concrete homes were virtually indestructible; after 100 sticks of TNT had no significant damage on one of the homes, they were left to deteriorate over the years and have been crumbling away in the eerie Nanticoke woods ever since.
The vibe when I explored Concrete City was somewhat creepy but not as hair-raising as most of my other adventures. There were other explorers there when we went, including a group of middle-aged men, which declares this spot as safe to explore. When I see a group of fatherly men exploring somewhere, I assume it must be legal and safe (lol).
Most of the buildings were in good shape; some had roofs falling in or holes in the ceiling to climb up. Every home was coated in layers of graffiti and snow, as we went in the middle of January. Concrete City was a cool place to check off my list, but it wasn’t as exciting or interesting as many of my previous adventures, especially because every single home had the same design and layout.
Rate: 7/10 (I plan on rating each place I adventure now!)
