by Gordon Bondgardenstatelegacy.com/files/Fringe_History_Bond_GSL1.pdfpassed away of cancer,...

Slowly decaying in an Oxford, NJ field is what may bethe state’s last example of a “round barn.” If you do aGoogle.com search on “round barn” and “Oxford,” allbut one of the relevant hits about it come from aseventeen-year-old from Bloomfield named JustinGurbisz. On his website, www.VacantNewJersey.com,may be found an interesting little history of thisuncommon architectural form along with the pictures hetook in February of 2007, both inside and out,recording what may very well be only a memory with the

next strong wind. The only other mention comes fromPreservation New Jersey who included it among their2002 list of most endangered barns.

Yet history, per se, isn’t really one of Justin’s interests -at least not according to his MySpace.com page. Still, hissite includes some rather interesting and little-knownNew Jersey ruins with all but forgotten histories all theirown. He’s an example of a controversial hobby thatsometimes flirts with mainstream, albeit decidedlyamateur, history.

by Gordon Bond

All pictures by Megan McAllister. Used by permission.

Fringe History Gordon Bond GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 1 September 2008

The best respected of their number went by the name“Ninjalicious.”They will enter into places that are,technically, illegal to be in. They’re mostly young and,truth be told, easy to dismiss as frivolous thrill seekingkids who get off on spooky old buildings and themacabre. Yet, as in Gurbisz’s case, these self-styled“urban explorers” do sometimes create a valuable recordof modern ruins.

Urban exploration goes by many names and has itsroots in the basic curiosity of our human nature - whatlies behind that door? Down that hall? Behind that signthat sternly commands, “Do Not Enter”? Its history isas old as the advent of the urbanlandscape itself. ParisianPhilibert Aspairt’s curiosityabout the catacombs lyingbeneath the city led him toexplore them by candlelight in1793. Some view him as theoriginal “cataphile” - and also asurban exploration’s earliestknown casualty. Evidently hebecame lost and his body notrecovered until some eleven yearslater. He was still clutching thekeys to the exit, that, thoughmere feet away, had apparentlyeluded him in the blackness.

But urban exploration can alsoencompass another aspect ofour nature that draws a vicariousthrill from breaking the rulesand the lure of the forbidden. Afaction of urban explorerspursue their hobby with a strictcode of self-imposed ethics - don’t vandalize, leavethings as you find them, don’t intentionally damageanything. Trespassing, however, is not always high on thelist of sins to avoid. Indeed, in order to explore thehidden passages of even long-abandoned buildings, it issometimes necessary to ignore warning signs andperhaps jimmy a window or two. And this is the murkyside of urban exploration - the part that sometimesbreaks the law and creates the greatest divergence withmainstream forms of historic documentation.

Beyond adventure, curiosity and the thrill of being“bad” there is also the appeal of the aesthetic and the

artistic. The patina of decay is often a favorite subject ofartistic photographers - a rusting old car, left forlorn ina field, for example, has a character the gleaming newmodel in the showroom doesn’t. Then there’s the surrealexperience of walking through abandoned, decrepitbuildings, paint peeling from the walls and the onlyhappy color coming from the graffiti taggings. If theproverbial walls could only talk!

So what exactly do urban explorers do? And does ithave any relevance to the mainstream historicalcommunity?

Defining Urban ExplorationUrban exploration is

something of a catch-all termfor a variety of activities,making any hard and fastdefinition elusive. That thereis anything about “UE” thateven approaches a discipline islargely credited to one man,the late Jeff Chapman ofToronto, Canada. Reflectingthe legally dodgy element ofthe hobby, Chapman adoptedthe colorful pseudonym“Ninjalicious” and launchedthe websitewww.infiltraration.org as wellas a print publication,Infiltration, self-described as“the zine about going placesyou’re not supposed to go.” In2005 (the same year hepassed away of cancer,

unrelated to his UE activities) he even published anentire book on the subject, “Access All Areas, a user’sguide to the art of urban exploration” offers anunflinching and unapologetic look at both the fun andthe dangers of the UE world.

Chapman’s definition of urban exploration gave it themore solid context of ethics, dragging it into the viewof mainstream popular culture. But he certainly wasn’tthe first to attempt to bring a sense of organization tothe activity. In 1959, a “Signals and Power”subcommittee of the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology’s Tech Model Railroad Club held semi-


Breathing mask, gloves and a flashlight kit out thisurban explorer in an abandoned house near EssexMountain Sanatorium. [Megan McAllister - Face blurred to protect identity]

systematic excursions into the steam tunnels and ontothe rooftops of various buildings on the MIT campus -a practice they called “hacking” long before the termbecame associated with computers.

In 1968, citizens of Paris, inspired by tales of thecatacombs used by the French resistance during WorldWar II, followed in the spirit of Aspairt by not only

exploring their depths but communicating with oneanother in printed newsletters under pseudonyms. TheSan Francisco “Suicide Club” included “fringeexploration” as among its activities in 1977 (eventuallybecoming the Cacophony Society). In 1986, Australia’sCave Clan expanded their traditional spelunkingactivities to include storm drains and other manmade“caves.”

The internet, of course, has been a tremendous boonto the hobby, networking likeminded explorers all overthe world. Digital photography has allowed images ofhidden places to be shared via websites and blogs. It wasonly a matter of time until mainstream culture tooknotice and, slowly, UE has begun to define itself as amore specific set of activities.

According to Chapman’s book, “Speaking broadly,urban exploration consists of seeking out, visiting anddocumenting interesting human-made spaces, mosttypically abandoned buildings, construction sites, activebuildings, stormwater drains, utility tunnels and transit

tunnels, though with lots of other possibilities on topof those basics. The areas explorers are interested in areusually neglected by or off-limits to the general public,though there are some exceptions to this, and it’scertainly not the case that urban exploration alwaysinvolves trespassing.”

In her capacity as a professional architectural historianand preservationist, Stephanie Hoagland, gotto climb up into the famed arch atWashington Square Park in Manhattan.Though people once used to have parties inand atop the structure, these days, very fewever get to see the inside or the view of thepark it offers - and her job has allowed herperfectly legitimate and legal access to manyotherwise off-limits corners and vistas ofbuildings throughout the city. While perhapsstretching the definition for hardcore urbanexplorers, by this criterion, her experiencecould arguably fall under the UE category.As Ninjilicious put it, “exploring isn’tsynonymous with recreational trespassing.”

There is, of course, overlap with otheractivities, which don’t fall anywhere near to“doing history.” Sneaking into a theater isconsidered “infiltration” - which can be anaspect of UE - but the goal is to see a free

movie, not to explore or document the space itself.Playing hide and seek in an abandoned building isconsidered “urban adventure,” - again part of UE - butthe primary purpose is to have a cool place to play, notspecifically to explore the building for its own sake.Some seek the challenge of accessing “behind thescenes” areas of actively occupied buildings - goingthrough those “authorized personnel only” doors.Obviously, this can’t be considered doing history.

There is, however, a form of UE which can bedescribed as entering places for the primary purpose ofseeing, exploring and documenting those places - andthat includes seeking out and understanding the place’shistory for context. It is this definition which produceswhat might arguably be considered legitimate historicalrecords like that of the “round barn.”

Jeff Chapman is considered to be responsible for thisemerging maturity and it shouldn’t be any wonder. Hispartner and co-publisher, Liz Clayton, told me, “In reallife he edited a history magazine in Canada.”


Debris now fills what was once the sterile environment of a hospital.[Megan McAllister]

Nevertheless, it’s urban explorations “bad boy” sidethat can be both its appeal and its repulsion.

TrespassUrban exploration in this context doesn’t always mean

breaking the law, but it can. That some do indeedtrespass has given the hobby a bad name and may beone of the major reasons it is dismissed bymany in both the amateur and professionalhistory worlds - even by those who arefascinated by the very same kinds ofstructures.

Chapman spelled out his ethicalphilosophy on his website, “I don't thinkthere is anything wrong with urbanexploration, at least not the type describedhere and on 95 percent of the other siteson the Internet, and I can’t pretend I do.Genuine urban explorers never vandalize,steal or damage anything — we don’t evenlitter. We’re in it for the thrill of discoveryand a few nice pictures, and probably havemore respect for and appreciation of ourcities’ hidden spaces than most of thepeople who think we’re naughty. We don’tharm the places we explore. We love theplaces we explore...While it’s true thatsome aspects of the hobby happen to be illegal, it’simportant not to confuse the words ‘illegal’ and‘immoral.’ Laws against trespassing are like laws againstbeing out after curfew: people get into trouble not foractually doing anything harmful, but simply because thepowers that be are worried that they might.”

Chapman couldn’t bring himself to put the kinds of“for entertainment only; don’t try this at home” styledisclaimers found on other sites to be on the safe side.“So, no disclaimer.” he stated, “Not for yourentertainment only. Please do try this at home.”

Chapman was right that many urban explorers canreally care about the places they explore. Justin Gurbiszdoes include the standard disclaimer on his site, but heis also protective of the places he has documented.“Please note, some location names have been altered toprotect the identity and well-being of the owners, andyourself,” he also added. “Some town names are alsoundisclosed for safety reasons and for the well-being ofthe structure photographed.”

“I am very willing to give out any history that I knowabout the locations posted on Vacant New Jersey,” hewarns on the contact page. “However, please do not e-mail asking for directions, you will not get a response.”

“Some places I document, I would have no problemgiving up information about,” he told me, “[but with]other structures I would be more hesitant, just because I

would hate to see the information be obtained by thewrong people.”

And, while some may not want to admit it, perfectlyrespectable historians have been known to bend thetrespassing rules. “The argument for the other side is ofcourse if the explorers did not ignore ‘no trespassing’and ‘keep out’ signs, then a great deal of history wouldbe permanently lost,” concedes Kevin Olsen, a memberof the Society for Industrial Archaeology (SIA) “I recallJim Ransome stating that if he paid attention to the ‘notrespassing’ signs, his ‘Vanishing Ironworks of theRamapos’ could never have been written.”

Though they would not speak on the record, at leasttwo respected members of the historical communityadmitted to having used such methods to securedocumentation of endangered buildings. It was a matterof weighing the ethics of breaking the law or risking theloss of one last chance to document buildings quiteliterally under imminent threat of the wrecking ball.

Breaking the rules, however, can also have the effect of


Lambertville High School, built in 1854, was almost completely destroyed byfire in 1926, but was remodeled in 1927 and used up until 1992, when anotherfire destroyed much of the school, closing it for good. [Megan McAllister]

ruining it for everyone else. “Railroad enthusiast groupsare often at odds with urban explorers,” Olsen explained,“since the presence of the latter in subway tunnels givesall visitors a bad name and makes it harder for thelegitimate groups to get permission to enter.”

“The railroad historical societies I belong to, TheNational Railway Historical Society and the TheRailway & Locomotive HistoricalSociety, Inc. are careful about nottresspassing and don’t encourageothers to do so,” comments railhistorian and author JoelRosenbaum. “If there is anabandoned station or interestingRight of Way they try to get itpreserved and restored. Somestructures and rights of way arebeyond econonomic andarchectetural restoration. Thecloser scrutiny of photographersphotographing transportationafter 9/11 and some arrests andconfiscation of film and camerashas lead rail history buffs to becareful what and where theyphotograph and explore. Whilerules have eased, some overzealoussecurity agencies don’t alwaysfollow the newer laxer guidelines.Those who trespass hurt the rail preservationists.”

Regardless of how well-intentioned some urbanexplorers may be at heart, however, “No Trespassing”signs are often put up for more than just territorialreinforcement. Abandoned buildings can be full of allsorts of serious dangers, from breathing in asbestos tofalling through a structurally unsound floor to runningafoul of anyone also trespassing for more illicitpurposes.

“ANY glorification of ‘urban exploration’ would beexceptionally inappropriate,” warns the SIA’s VicePresident, Jay McCauley (the emphasis is his). “Theyare breaking the law, period. They are visiting sites thatcontain unknown hazards, and should somethinghappen to them, their rescuers would also face dangers.Old industrial sites probably contain hazardousmaterials, such as asbestos, chemical residues, etc. thatcould be brought out and expose innocent bystanders,

family members, etc. It takes huge amounts of effort tomake these sites safe for the public.”

McCauley has little use for urban explorers and noqualms about calling it as he sees it. “I think the notionof some ‘higher code’ for these criminals is extremelysuspect. In my limited exposure to this activity, I didn’tsee any evidence of the kind of professional research our

members engage in. When theactivity starts with dangerouscriminal trespass, and thecriminals have no formaltraining or experience in thestudy of industrial archeologyor related disciplines, I find itvery hard to assign them nobleintent.”

Which brings up the salientpoint. Criminality aside forthe moment (after all, not allurban exploration involvestrepassing), is there anyhistoric merit to what thesefolks are doing?

But Is It History?Professional architectural

historians like StephanieHoagland are often calledupon to make the case for the

historic significance of a structure. They draw from abroad range of resources to find clues as to what abuilding looked like at a given period or the culturalcontext of how it was used. Hoagland mines suchdiverse sources as the Historic American BuildingsSurvey and Historic American Engineering Record(HABS/HAER), Sanborn Insurance Maps, postcards,newspaper clippings, blueprints, personal photographsand letters - pretty much anything where they mightfind a critical clue in piecing together the historicalnarative of the life of a building.

“These are interesting” comments Hoagland as shescrolls through Justin Gurbisz’s VacantNewJersey.com.The roughly hewn beams revealed in one of his picturesof another barn catches an eye trained to notice suchdetails. Pictures showing the ruins of a mansion remindher of a project her firm is working on where they’retasked with stabilizing similar ruins. Even if no photos


The bridge on Clinton Rd. where a little boy sup-posedly drowned. According to the myth, if youthrow a quarter off the bridge, the boy will throwit back. [Megan McAllister]

exist of a building, having images of similar structuresfrom the same period can be useful in making educatedguesses. “Pictures are always useful!”

Nevertheless, the main divide between urbanexploration and mainstream historical exploration (asidefrom the sometimes trespass issues) seems to be verymuch akin to that which sometimes manifests itselfbetween the professional and theamateur - between those who wentto school for it and the dedicatedhobbiest.

Not that there isn’t fruitfulcooperations between these twoworlds. But for those who havedevoted a lifetime to what they seeas a serious, respectable discipline,it’s understandably difficult tosuffer even well-meaning amateurswhen the survival of artifacts andtheir accurate interpretation is atstake. Now throw the occasionallaw-breaking into the mix andnicknames like “Ninjalicious” andyou can see why some have a hardtime treating urban explorationwith respect - particularly when“doing history” isn’t always theirprimary motivation.

“Some of it is just for the spooky value,” commentsRosenbaum. “But personally I feel some of these peopleare violating the law and just doing it on a dare. [Theyare] endangering themselves and perhaps others whomay try to follow up on the articles.”

“[Some] explorers just enjoy exploring for the thrill,and history is not their main priority,” admittedGurbisz. “However, other explorers I have met, doseemed to be interested in the history of the places theyexplore.”

“While ‘Urban Explorers’ do take pictures and writeabout what they see,” Kevin Olsen concludes, “they donot publish in legitimate archaeological or historicaljournals. Nor do they deposit copies of their work inpublic archives. So no, they are not legitimate historicalentities, however valuable their contributions maytheoretically be.”

“Taking a few poorly lit pictures and posting them toa blog is not archeology or historical research by any

stretch of the imagination,” asserts Jay McCauley.The Society for Industrial Archeology’s President and

Preservation Chair for the Roebling Chapter that coversthe New York metropolitan area, Mary Habstritt,defined the situation this way, “I would say that theessential difference between urban explorers andindustrial archeologists is the desire of archeologists,

both amateur and professional,to decipher industrialremnants. Our thrill comesfrom puzzling out what oncehappened at a factory site -what did they make? how didthey do it? what equipmentdid they use? how didmaterials move through theplant? Urban explorers get athrill from visiting not justabandoned, but forbiddenplaces. We do not sanctiontrespassing.”

“Ultimately” Olsenconcludes, “the solution is tofind a way to get legitimatearchaeologists, architects, urbangeographers, and civilengineering historians intothese sites.”

So what about it? Is urban exploration a type ofhistorical research? The answer would seem to be no.“Doing history” isn’t a large enough component ormotivation for what they do, even by amateur historianstandards. Indeed, when UEers do include historicbackgrounds, they usually glean it from the existingprofessional sources rather than from originalscholarship.

Nevertheless, mainstream historians shouldn’t dismissthe urban explorer community too quickly. As peoplelike Justin Gurbisz here in NJ demonstrate, while notthe prime motivator, history does factor into what acertain set of them do. The value of this can bedemonstrated by the example “round barn” in Oxfordcited at the beginning of this article.

Preservation New Jersey identified it as the Pfaffbarn, built in 1933 - something Gurbisz didn’t have inhis history on his website. Nevertheless, while otherpictures of it may exist, in terms of ready accessibility


Decaying halls from an abandoned NJ hospital.[Megan McAllister]

for both professional and amateur historians - or anyoneelse, for that matter - his series of images are wonderful.In addition to overall pictures, there are also the kindsof detail shots that architectural historians love. A searchof the HABS/HAER drawings didn’t even turn upanything on this barn. Considering its dilapidatedcondition, it is very possible that someday soon, barnhistory afficionados will rely onthe pictures of a teenage urbanexplorer from NJ if they want toknow what it looked like.

Common Ground“If explorers were given the

chance to add to legitimatehistory journals, I think somewould quickly take advantage ofthe opportunity,” speculatesGurbisz. “I’d say it is a fair guessthat quite a few explorers wouldseize the opportunity to helppreserve history in a legitimatefashion.”

It could be argued that ratherthan reject urban exploration as awhole, the mainstream historycommunity might be better servedif it acknowledged andencouraged those in their numbers who demonstrate atrue respect for the historical contexts of the spaces theyexplore.

Obviously, this wouldn’t apply to all UE hobbiests.While trespassing in this context, as criminal activitesgo, is minor compared to the lesser motives of others(vandalism, thieving, illicit activities like drug use orprostitution), law-breaking certainly isn’t something thehistory community should be seen encouraging.Eschewing such shady methods would allow for thebacking of legitimate organizations. That, in turn,would impart a respectability to some urban explorersthat might enable them to gain better access to sites.And, perhaps it would be that air of respectability thatwould keep at arm’s length those who do urbanexploration solely for the thrill of being bad.

“[H]ow many journal editors would worry about theDepartment of Homeland [Security] showing up intheir ivory towers with pointed questions?” asks Kevin

Olsen. “If the explorers confine their explorations andarticles about a ghost towns and abandoned tugboats,then no problem. However if they start to write aboutwater supply systems, railroads, transit systems, andshipyards, then I think things will get very interesting.”

“I don’t see any reason why the two approaches toappreciation shouldn't be able to coexist in the world,”

Liz Clayton told me. “Iimagine ‘real’ historians thinkthat urban explorers have thepotential of ‘ruining it foreverybody’ by possibly gettinginjured within or causingdamage to a site, and thatconversely the urban explorerswould fear the so-called‘legitimate’ (cough) historianswould be so overprotective ofsites that they might makethem permanently inaccessibleto the reverent but curious.”

Oleson certainly benefitedfrom such a cross-pollinationof sorts. “My wife and I hadfor one of our first dates beenon a hike through the NewarkCity Subway and on anotheroccasion crawled into Jim

Lee's Morris Canal turbine tailrace tunnel.”Urban exploration defies any one-size-fits-all

definition. To dismiss them all seems unfair and to denysome of the very same motivations that animate perfectlyrespectable mainstream historians.

The Eastern State Penitentiary museum over inPhiladelphia provides safe, guided tours and displaysthat explore the penitentiary system in western society.But anyone who has been there can attest to a visceral,emotional effect of those abandoned corridors, paintpeeling, with their rows of debris-filled cells that goesbeyond historical scholarship. The New York TenementMuseum will be opening floors of “stabilized ruins”where the peeling layers of wallpaper speak more to thegenerations who lived there than any restoration could.

Perhaps the divide doesn’t have to be all that great. As Mary Habstritt put it, “we are alike in finding thebeauty in these places and feeling the loss when they are gone.”


Stair in the remains of Lambertville Highschool..[Megan McAllister]

by Gordon Bondgardenstatelegacy.com/files/Fringe_History_Bond_GSL1.pdfpassed away of cancer,...

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