Leipzig's Alte Messe.

I hadn't planned on blogging today but I was looking through some old photographs and noticed that it was exactly 20 years ago that I took these of the Soviet Pavilion in Leipzig.

This was  my first experience of urban exploration and it happened by accident. I'd been in Leipzig a couple of weeks by this stage and I'd noticed the shiny gold tower red star in the sky-line and was intrigued to go and visit.  I was initially quite disappointed to see that the buildings were in an abandoned state but soon enjoyed wondering around and taking photographs.
Leipzig has featured in this blog before, with the Paulinekirche being an example of cultural heritage destroyed by the GDR, this time it's the symbols of communism which are shown in a forlorn state.

Leipzig has been famous for its trade fair since the Middle Ages and continues to be so today. The old trade fair complex (Alte Messe) was built in 1913, the Soviet Pavilion being added 12 years later though it didn't get its distinctive look until 1950 taking inspiration from 1930s Moscow architecture. The Pavilion, otherwise known as Halle 12 (Exhibition hall 12) was just one part of the trade fair centre. The card below showing the full extent of the complex.

The next card dates from the mid 1950s and shows people visiting a Sports and Gymnastics exhibition. I don't have any cards depicting the inside but there are photos around on the web if you wish to look.

I don't know when the next postcard is from but I like that it acts as a contrast to my photo, showing construction rather than destruction.

The trade fair moved location in 1996 and the old complex was largely abandoned, though I seem to remember that one of the neighbouring exhibition halls was being used as a supermarket when I was there.
 The steps to exhibition hall 12 are still cordoned off but as it's a protected building it has not, in fact it cannot, be destroyed. I believe that the building is currently being sanitised and plans are afoot for the city archives to be moved there next year. I will update you on that when I know more, but in the time the gold tower and red star remain a symbol of a particular chapter in Leipzig's fascinating history.

A Tale of Two City's Ferris Wheels.

I was reading recently about Linda Ducharme, an American lady who married a Ferris Wheel and while I wouldn't go that far I do think they make an attractive subject for postcards. Also they're not hard to find so it's relatively easy  to build up a collection.
Fortunately for me, there are a fair few famous former Ferris wheels for fantastic future features.

Today I'm just going to look at two of them. The Grande Route de Paris (Great Wheel of Paris) and London's Great Wheel.

There was a period of just 7 years  (1900 -1907)when the two of them existed at the same time. The Great Wheel was built first, being constructed in 1894 and opening a year later for the Empire of India Exhibition in Earls Court.
The 308ft by207 ft. structure had 40 cars which held about 40 passengers each and a revolution took about 20 minutes, apart from for some poor passengers in 1896 who got stuck there for 4 and 1/2 hours when the drive mechanism broke. This doesn't seem to have put people off as the wheel remained in service until 1906, by which time around   2.5 million passengers had enjoyed the ride. It was dismantled a year later and nearby trains were stopped especially for passengers to witness the event which took about 6 hours in total.
This particular card was sent in 1905, so towards the end of The Great Wheel's life.

I don't normally post the back, but the phrases "have written to M" and "Dear 7" caught my eye. Could a proto James Bond have written this? Perhaps not as they would be unlikely to be so blatant as to which train they are getting. Unless it's a double bluff.

The Grande Route de Paris was built in 1900, also for an exhibition, the Exposition Universalle. At the time of opening it was, at 328ft tall, the largest Ferris Wheel in the world, a record in held until 1989 when the Cosmo Clock 21 was opened.
In 1920, the decision was made to dismantle the wheel. A far cry from the hustle, bustle and  optimism the Exposition Universalle which had 50 million visitors, the cars were used to house French families made homeless by WWI and the rest was sold for scrap. A few remnants remained until 1937 before also being sold for scrap.
It was  a popular postcard for American soldiers stationed in France to send home, but my card is postally unused.

Hotel Farr - Dream vs Reality

Have you ever had a grand plan in your mind  for something which hasn't worked out, but what you did end up with was more than satisfactory only for that to eventually come to an end?
I know I have, and John S Farr has too.
Who was John S. Farr? We'll he was a coal operator who envisaged a 14 storey, 250 room hotel in Huntingdon West Virginia.
A drawing of his plan can be seen in this vintage card below. 

However World War I meant that constructions costs increased and the hotel finished up half the size as was planned, but was still rather nice.

Just days after the end of WWI, a pottery salesman became the first guest of the hotel, setting a precedent as the hotel proved popular with travelling salesmen in the decades which followed.
The hotel  changes hands and went through a number of name changes in the 30s and 40s before closing in 1965 . From the 1970s until 2014 the building had been used as offices, business as well as apartments, but has remained empty since July 2014 when a fire damaged most of the building.
The building does actually still stand, and the original Hotel Farr sign is still visible but I'm not aware of any plans to renovate the building. In fact it's very hard to find any information about the place at all, but thanks to postcards and postcard collectors it is not truly forgotten.

Bingham Canyon - Destroyed by Success?

The first blog post of the year brings you a card from a bona fida lost place, Bingham Canyon Utah.
The card is not dated but is though to be from the 1920s.

Bingham Canyon Utah was once a busy little town which attracted a workforce from all over the world. So what happened to turn it into a ghost town?

 
The Beginnings
As with a couple of the other North America towns featured here, Bingham County was a mining town .  It's named after Thomas and Sanford Bingham the brothers who founded the town in 1848. Initially the area was farmland until gold and silver ores were discovered there in the 1860s, the building of a railway a decade later, plus a switch to mining copper helped expand the mines and consequently the town grew too.

The Boom
The early 20th century saw the Bingham Canyon continue to grow, at its peak in the 1910s  the town stretched for about 7 miles and the ethnically diverse population numbered around 15,000. It was considered a true melting pot with communities from all over Europe making up the workforce of the mine. 90% of which was born outside of the USA.

The Decline
Bingham county faced two problems. The first  being that the geography of the place made  urban development difficult. Other  townships were set up and the population of Bingham Canyon began to move out.
Ironically, it was the success of the mine itself which caused the biggest problem for the town. As it became more successful and expansive it encroached on the residential settlement also mechanisation rather than human resources were increasingly used meaning fewer jobs and fewer reasons to stay in the area. This downward its 31 inhabitants voted in favour of disincorporation.
A year later the remaining buildings were razed.


Today
Bingham Canyon Mine is still in operation. In fact it  is the largest man-made excavation in the world and is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history it also National Historic Monument Status.  
All land once occupied by Bingham Canyon has been consumed by the mine and no trace of the town exists today making it a genuine lost place.  
  

Chapelcross Atomic Power Station - National Landmark or Unsafe Eysore?

A nuclear power station may not seem the most obvious subject for a postcard but take a quick look at any website selling cards and you'd be surprised at how many there are and they are reasonably collectable.
Chapelcross nuclear power station in Annan, the subject of this card was commissioned in 1955 and building was completed in 1959. It is the sister site of the still extant (as of December 2017) Sellafield in Cumbria.
The plant was designed with two functions in mind, the production of weapons grade plutonium for the military, and electricity production for the civilian market.
Looking at the history of the place, it does not make for pleasant reading. A partial meltdown in 1967 resulted in the reactor being closed for two years, there was also a fatal accident in c. 1978 for which they were fined £200 (equivalent to about £1400 in today's money) but trying to find any more information about that is proving impossible.
There were further incidents in the late 1990s and early 21st century such as the discovery of hairline cracks, fuel elements being dropped and workers being exposed to irradiated fuel elements.
Power production ended in 2004 but the iconic 300ft  towers which can be seen in the postcard above, dated 7th May 1961, remained intact until almost exactly 46 years after the card was sent. They were destroyed in a controlled explosion lasting less than 10 seconds on 20th May 2007.
Thousands of spectators turned up to watch the event, and not surprisingly in the Internet age a webcam was installed so the destruction could be viewed on-line. The footage of the destruction can be found on YouTube. (just type in Chapelcross Demolition)

While many people can be heard clapping and cheering in the footage, the demolition of the towers was not without controversy with many people seeing them as a symbol of local heritage and a local landmark. Looking at the pictures below it is hard to disagree with that sentiment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6673905.stm

One city, 3 names, 100 years

This will be a postcards only post in commemoration of the October Revolution which took place 100 years ago today going by the new style calendar.

As so much has been written about it already there is nothing which this blog can add, so just enjoy the postcards, all from the same city over a 100 year period.

The first card is from 1911 when the city was still known as Saint Petersburg.

The next is still pre revolution, but from circa 1915 after the city had been named Petrograd.

Still known as Petrograd, this card was sent in December 1917, shortly after the revolution.  The card below that is from a pack celebrating the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution and by this time the residents lived in Leningrad. The final card is from the early 21st century with a return to Saint Petersburg. 

Buffalo Central Terminal 1929 - 1979

Some of you may have seen picture of today's subject matter in something of a sad and sorry state on a few websites which detail abandoned buildings.
This blog likes to redress the balance a little and show the places "in happier times" although I'm not sure if there were that many happy times in the timeframe of the station's existence.  The glorious Art Deco building (you must know by now about my fondness for those) can be seen looking shiny and  fairly new  on this 1940s card below.

Buffalo Central Terminal was a working station for 50 years, with around 200 trains a day coming and going in its busiest era . The station was opened on 22nd June 1929 and over 2000 guests attended. Services began the next day, only hours after the revellers had stopped celebrating. It wasn't particularly good timing for the station as the Wall Street Crash which happened only a few months later, followed by the resulting Depression had a negative impact on the number of people using the vast station. Increase in car ownership in the 1930s also meant fewer passengers travelled by train.
Activity picked up during WWII but soon declined again after the war was over. The station was put up for sale in 1956 but negotiations fell through and 10 years later dismantling of parts of it were already being dismantled.
Passengers did continue to use the station until 1979, the last train to depart from there was on October 28th 1979. Ironically ,at around the same time , in my home town 150 years of the Rainhill Locomotive Trails had just been celebrated.
The station was neglected and allowed to fall into disrepair during the 1980s and 1990s but repairs began in 2003 and tours of the place began.  Restorations have continued and many planned events are due to take place there this year. The first, the traditional Polish and Ukrainian Dygnus Day,  will be held on Easter Monday in  couple of weeks' time. 
I do hope that this is one story with a happy ending. I don't know if trains are likely to run from there again but I do like the idea of these gorgeous buildings being used for something.    
You can read about the restoration here
http://buffalonews.com/2016/06/25/central-terminal-is-given-a-temporary-face-lift-thanks-to-marshall-crew/
You can find out more the station here
http://buffalocentralterminal.org/