I took these photos over the course of a month and a half in Feb and March of ’08 …it is the progressive demolition photos of Plymouth Place retirement home…a reputedly haunted location as recounted by employees and confirmed by my own vigilance in chronicling the dismantling of what was considered the Ritz Carlton of nursing homes and the destination of choice for many of the more affluent and in some cases “connected” of the Chicago elite following it’s construction back in 1944…

As the dis-assembly of the original building that seemed to almost retreat in acquiescence to the new and already partially occupied facility, it seemed like an ignoble ending to this stately and venerable landmark…a new building that was not even visible to the main stretch of Rt 45 until the main body of the original structure was finally leveled to reveal the mammoth replacement in the background that was thematically modeled after the architectural design of it’s predecessor  ..the progress of this project was such that it necessitated at least a bi weekly return to this site and I tried to capture a good representation of predawn, morning, mid-day, evening and night shots…

The videos I have recently composed consist of all of the base photo from this project and I have included the stills of the more notable of the edited photos a compilation thread aptly titled: “Miscellaneous Debris” that still sits at some of my longer term membership sites, but as the image hosting service “Put-file” has been absorbed by “Ebaum’s World” without notification or transfer of existing files, almost all of the image links have been disabled from that thread…

Considering the chaos of my schedule back then, lack of commitment to thorough analysis, and the sheer volume of photos I have of this site I will be intermittently resurrecting this thread between new or return existing site visits as I reevaluate these photos (taken with my old 5.0 camera) should  any new “items of interest” be  discovered …

I remember walking back to my jeep following an interrogation from a rather stereotypically  surly construction site foreman questioning my continued presence at the location and I encountered a couple of employees wearing what appeared to be uniforms of the new location and I asked them if they worked at the old site as well …after they affably confirmed that they did, I queried them about the rumors of paranormal activity a friend of mine that worked there years ago had intimated to me back then… they simply glanced at each other then smiled nonchalantly before one of them said ”we aren’t supposed to discuss it, but yes it was VERY haunted” ..they then preceded to relate several instances of personally experiencing things like: doors of empty rooms slamming, elevators going up and down in the middle of the night unoccupied, voices, even rumors of other employees seeing full bodied apparitions roaming the halls …” again we are not supposed to discuss it” …I thanked them and continued to my parking spot at an even faster pace as the sensations I have fought to suppress all of my life became a little harder to deny on that day ….b

Plymouth Place Demolition Part 1

Plymouth Place Demolition Part 2

Plymouth Place Demolition Part 3

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