2The cities of Pennsylvania are littered with the redundant relics. Behind closed doors and hidden deep in forests, there are decaying secrets waiting to be discovered.
At the start of the twentieth century, migrants were drawn to the up-and-coming industrial giant that was Pennsylvania. There were jobs and opportunities aplenty. Then, the economic bubble burst. Factories and steel mills closed, one by one. Families left in droves in search of work and a better life elsewhere. After the mass exodus, a wealth of infrastructure was rendered obsolete. Abandoned churches lay discarded, as small scattered congregations merge together. Schools and hospitals are left to rot. Forgotten theatres, once hosting sell-out performances, now lay silent and lost. The steam locomotives and trolley cars lie rusting and disused, obsolete in the face of new technology.
One by one, these hidden treasures are lost as time and the world moves on around them. This book explores the beauty that lies in these forgotten places, often hiding in plain site on the streets of Pennsylvania.