Old Buildings

The old buildings I like to photograph aren’t the usual. I like to portray the nostalgia around them and some sort of historical connection to our common past. To help tell a good visual story, old buildings to be photographed also need to have some enjoyable rustic character and some rough charm.

Usually, to find something worthwhile for the camera means running down the old back roads on a ramble. Often, that means going to out of the way places where time creeps along slowly. As we know, change is always constant. But in those rural places down the unbeaten path, change has a bit more patience and bides its own sweet time.

The general shot list for this shooter would include old churches, mills, schoolhouses, and one of my favorites, old gas stations. Old sheds and carriage houses in towns can be interesting too.

Unfortunately, those old gas stations are hard to find anymore. They’re nearly all gone and gas pumps of old can hardly be found out in the wild anymore. Like everything else in this gallery, they eventually fade into the past and disappear.

Schoolhouses once were common, but they are nearly gone too. I’ve even found a dilapidated few with trees growing out of the windows in what today is a farm field. On the other hand, there are a few being used as homes today.

Education is built to last and to be used, but apparently not what houses it. As well, there are pictures here of a nearly abandoned high school in a modest-sized Pennsylvania town which shows abandonment isn’t always out in the countryside.

An old rural church can be a fascinating find, especially with old Victorian architectural styles. Some are still out there in use, but many are just fading away in place with their congregations disappeared and churchyard overgrown. Some old rural churches have the doors locked and the stained glass has gone or covered in plywood; with others you can just walk right in.

Farms are a great place to uncover old buildings but they have their own gallery on the website. The summer and winter barn pictures and such are there. Being such a wide subject, farms and other agricultural things needed their own place to show them.

In this gallery, a few of the old buildings are still active and in use today. I hope you enjoy this collection made mostly during two-lane blacktop rambles; that’s where to find the good nuggets that lie out there in rural America. All the pictures shown are available as quality prints on super high gloss, canvas, or matted paper with free shipping to the USA. ~Andy