There are so many abandoned places in Maryland! This is a list of the top three abandoned places in Maryland. Browse through all abandoned places in Maryland
National Park Seminary, later known as National Park College, was a private girls' school, which operated from 1894 to 1942. National Park Seminary was built in 1890 on a 23-acre plot of land in Forest Glen Park, Maryland. The name of the school came from the nearby Rock Creek Park. The historic campus is well preserved due to its significance as the focal point of a new housing development. It is currently a historic landmark having been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Use of the land that later became a girls’ school began in 1887 as "Ye Forest Inn," a summer holiday hideaway for Washington, DC citizens. Due to a lack of funding, the retreat was canceled. As a result, the land was sold and renovated into a girls' school. The school's doors originally opened in 1894, with a class of 48 female pupils. Women could be taught social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entering society. Emily Elizabeth Holman, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based architect, created multiple residences with international designs built from blueprints. A Dutch windmill, a Japanese Pagoda, a Swiss chalet, an Italian villa, and an English castle were among the residences. There were covered walkways, outdoor sculptures, and planned formal gardens on the campus. Miss Edna Roeckel was the administration's assistant Dean of the College. In 1936, the college's name was changed to National Park College. The renaming was done primarily to focus on more modern educational trends. The school retained its reputation as one of the most prestigious women's schools in the country.
Unfortunately, during the 1960s and 1970s, the army did not receive adequate funding from the United States Congress. Maintenance became difficult, and the property was forced to sell. The property was given to the General Services Administration in order to find a new owner. The property's historical integrity deteriorated day by day as a result of neglect and vandalism. The Greek Revival Odeon Theater was destroyed in 1993 by deliberate fire. By the 1970s, the facility had been abandoned, and by 1978, all patients had left.
In 1988, a group of local preservationists created the 'Save Our Seminary' organization. The plan was to repair and improve the buildings, similar to the Pagoda restoration project, which was finished in 2003. The following year, Alexander Company, coordinated by a development team, began putting into action a proposal to keep the campus as the heart of a new residential neighborhood. The Save Our Seminary organization offers monthly guided tours of the restored buildings' interiors. There are self-guided tours available that include nine markers that allow you to see the exteriors of the buildings and provide information about the history of the National Park Seminary.
Mallows Bay is a small bay in Charles County, Maryland, on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. Mallows Bay is home to what is known as the "Largest Shipwreck Fleet in the Western Hemisphere." It is referred to as a ship's "graveyard."
Mallows Bay is well-known for its 'Ghost Fleet,' which consists of hundreds of ships whose wrecks still lie in its relatively shallow waters. The term "Ghost Fleet" refers to the wrecks' tendency to disappear during high tide and reappear during low tide. Mallows Bay is home to the most wrecks in the Western Hemisphere. During World War I, the ships were built for the United States Emergency Fleet. The majority of the ships are wooden steamships, and their mission during the war was to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Due to the scarcity of steel, ships were built out of wood. Most of the ships were obsolete by the end of the war because the wood was not durable. 230 ships of the United States Shipping Board Merchant and Fleet Corporation were lost at sea. Because the US Navy did not need the ships, they were sold to the Western Marine and Salvage Company. After acquiring ships, the company relocated them to the Potomac River in Widewater, Virginia. The ships were towed to Mallows Bay in 1925. Mallows Bay is rich in history, wildlife, and outdoor recreation.
The Potomac River is important in American, Indian, and black history. At one point, the blacks lived there, much like African slaves who arrived on Maryland's ships. The area has a history of civil warfighting. The property's owner, Western Marine, declared bankruptcy. The ships were burned and abandoned in Mallows Bay. During WWII, Bethlehem Steel built a salvage basin to recover the metal from abandoned ships. The ships were abandoned in Mallows Bay to rot.
The ships can be reached via Mallows Bay Park, which is managed by the county. Wilson Landing Road in Nanjemoy, Maryland is where you'll find it. To provide access to the Potomac River, a boat ramp and pier were constructed. The bay is threatened because the sheep form a reef that is home to a variety of wild animals. On April 24, 2015, Mallows Bay was designated as an archaeological and historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. In July 2019, it was designated as a National Marine Sanctuary. The S.S. Mallows Bay is the most noticeable ship in Mallows Bay. These wrecks now support diverse ecosystems teeming with marine life, attracting recreational fishermen and ecotourists to the area. Tourists can take virtual tours of the ghost ships using a computer or mobile device. This system provides two kinds of virtual tours: Riverview and bird's-eye view.
Located in Baltimore in Maryland, U.S.A, Glenn Dale Hospital was a tuberculosis sanatorium and isolation center. Glenn Dale Hospital first opened its doors in 1934 and closed in 1981. The shutdown was caused by asbestos. Police patrol the hospital grounds on a regular basis, thanks to Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Park.
The hospital was built in 1932 by the city of Baltimore to help curb the tuberculosis epidemic which was ravaging the city. Adults were cared for in a separate room within the Colonial Revival style building, while children were cared for in another. The children were cared for in two buildings: the Nurse Home and the Children's Hospital Building. Only two of the hospital's 23 buildings were used for treatment. An incinerator, paint and repair shop, laundry, pump house, water softener house, heating and power plant, sedimentation and control building, and adult hospital building were among the structures. The basements of each hospital housed a morgue.
Art rooms, staff housing, nurses' homes, a theater, playgrounds, seclusion rooms, storage areas, chapels, and boiler rooms were all available at the hospital. The massive structure made the hospital one of the largest tuberculosis sanatoriums ever constructed. In the 1940s, a vaccine was developed that assisted in the treatment of tuberculosis cases. The number of cases immediately decreased, forcing the hospital to expand into the treatment of other conditions. It was used as a home for criminally insane people until it was closed down.
A fire inspection of the building was performed in 1976, and it appeared to be extremely critical. There were problems with fire escapes, laundry chutes, cramped living quarters, and unsafe materials that endangered the patients' health. Lead paints and asbestos were also a source of hospital damage. The total cost of bringing the building up to code was $23 million. The hospital's operations were halted due to the need for large sums of money for restoration. The facility housed 370 patients at the time of its closure. The number of patients gradually decreased until Glenn Dale Hospital was closed in 1981.
The hospital was transferred to the District of Columbia, which sold it to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1994. The transfers came with the requirement that the facility is used as a continuing care retirement community. Those who attempted to bid were turned down because none of them were licensed to operate by the terms of the contract. In 2011, Glenn Dale Hospital was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently in the process of becoming a park. Broken glass, peeling paint, corroded walls, and overgrown vines currently adorn the hospital structures.
Because they are so close, the children's and adult hospital buildings can be seen from Glenn Dale Road. The hospital buildings' basements are extremely dangerous and filthy. Pieces of rusted, sharp metal, cloth, and debris hang from the ceilings of the buildings' interiors. The buildings have been found to contain significant amounts of asbestos and lead paint. Garbage, broken glass, and graffiti litter the walkways. Rats and bats have infiltrated the hospital. Some of the walkways are underwater.