Mr. P. Explores

Hidden away in a quiet Springfield neighborhood sits one of Ohio’s most remarkable works of folk art: the Hartman Rock Garden. The garden was created by Harry George “Ben” Hartman, a foundry worker who moved to Springfield in 1912. When he lost his job during the Great Depression in 1932, Hartman looked for a way to stay busy and began building a simple concrete fish pond in his backyard. What started as a small project soon grew into an extraordinary artistic vision that would consume much of the next twelve years of his life.

Using concrete, stone, glass, metal, wood, and other salvaged materials, Hartman transformed his yard into a miniature wonderland filled with castles, churches, historic landmarks, patriotic scenes, religious imagery, and representations of everyday American life. By the time he was finished, the garden contained more than 250,000 individual stones and over 50 structures and sculptures spread across roughly a quarter-acre surrounding his home.

Hartman was entirely self-taught. Inspired by books, magazines, radio programs, movies, family, and friends, he used the garden to express his values, faith, optimism, and love of American history during one of the nation’s most difficult periods. Among the miniature creations were replicas of famous landmarks such as the White House, Mount Vernon, and Independence Hall.

Hartman worked on the garden until his death in 1944. Afterward, his wife Mary carefully maintained the site for more than five decades, giving tours and preserving her husband’s life work. Following her death in 1997, the garden fell into decline and faced an uncertain future. Fortunately, preservation efforts began in 2008 when the Kohler Foundation purchased the property and undertook a major restoration. After extensive conservation work, the site reopened in 2010 and was transferred to the Friends of the Hartman Rock Garden, ensuring that future generations could continue to experience this unique piece of Ohio history.

Today, the Hartman Rock Garden is recognized as one of the nation’s finest examples of “outsider art” and visionary folk art. Open free to the public, it remains a testament to creativity, perseverance, and the remarkable things one person can build with imagination, determination, and a backyard full of rocks.

On a trip to St. Louis, Missouri in the autumn of 2022, I stopped at the Hartman Rock Garden to take a break from driving and also to document the spot. It was a perfect, warm early October day, and I had the place to myself. Enjoy the set and have a great Thursday out there, all! -Mr. P.

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Good evening, all. This one goes out to everyone who follows Mr. P. Explores, followers old and more recent and everyone in between.

I wanted to take a moment to talk about something that's been happening behind the scenes; something that many of you have probably seen on your own pages or maybe even on pages you follow on Facebook. Many of you have probably noticed that posts from this page aren't showing up in your feeds as often as they once did (or maybe even at all). Unfortunately, that's not your imagination. Over the past few years, the reach and engagement on this page have steadily declined. Photos that once reached thousands of people and produced discussions and conversations are now often seen by only a small fraction of that audience.

The strange thing is that the page itself is larger than it has ever been. More people follow it than ever before. Yet fewer people are actually being shown the content. I don't believe this is because people have stopped caring about abandoned places, forgotten history, road trips, Rust Belt stories, old factories, lost amusement parks, ghost towns, or the strange corners of America that we explore together. I think (no, I pretty much KNOW) it's because social media has changed. The dreaded algorithms increasingly decide what people see, and pages like this one often get buried beneath endless streams of recommended content, videos, advertisements, and whatever else the platform decides should be in front of you that day.

What makes this frustrating is that this page has never been about chasing trends. It has always been about visual storytelling and the history of America's lost places. It's been about preserving places before they disappear, sharing local history, documenting forgotten corners of the country, and introducing people to locations they might never otherwise see. Every photograph represents hours of driving, researching, editing, writing, and exploring.

The good news is that there are things you can do to help (and I'm hoping perhaps you will feel the desire to help and keep this going here!). If you enjoy the content here, please consider liking, commenting on, and sharing posts when you see them. Even a short comment helps tremendously. Facebook's algorithm pays attention to those interactions and is more likely to show future posts to other people. It's sad that this is the way it is, but here we are. You can also make sure you're following the page and set it to show favorites or prioritize posts from Mr. P. Explores in your feed. Many people are surprised to discover they follow a page but rarely see its content anymore.

Most importantly, keep participating. Tell your stories. Share your memories. If a photo reminds you of a place you worked, a neighborhood you grew up in, a factory your family was connected to, or a road trip you've taken, tell us about it. The conversations have always been the best part of this page.

I started Mr. P. Explores back in 2018 because I wanted to document a disappearing world and share it with others who cared about history, architecture, photography, and the stories hidden in forgotten places. That mission hasn't changed and I don't plan on stopping that. As long as there are abandoned factories to photograph, forgotten roads to travel, old stories to tell, and curious people willing to come along for the ride, I'll keep posting.

I just want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. I appreciate all of you, wherever in the great wide world you happen to be hailing from. Have a great evening and thanks for hearing me out!

Let's keep on exploring: - Mr. P. Explores

A section of the former Warner-Swasey factory in Cleveland, Ohio that was demolished this past year to prepare the rest of the building for abatement and renovation into apartments. While I'll be sad that I'll never get to wander this space and sit within its cool, shaded and quiet expanses with my camera on any day of the year, I am glad that the factory building is getting a second lease on life, rather than be ripped down and replaced with soulless garbage modern construction (those glass-block, cheaply built apartment buildings that have gone up all over the city). This was the first industrial building I EVER explored, back in November of 2018, before I even had a real camera. Enjoy the quick look into this section of the factory and have a wonderful day out there, all! -Mr. P.

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A further look at an abandoned boiler works in a small Eastern Pennsylvanian town, explored and documented on a warm late-spring day. The lines, rust and grime in this place lent to some fantastic angles to shoot here. And best of all, left behind, was some heavy machinery that was too big to take when the place closed. Have a fantastic Tuesday out there all! -Mr. P.

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A very strange and abandoned warehouse that was still full of old car engines on pallets in New York State. It was as if whoever worked there just parked the old forklifts at the end of a day's shift and just left, never to return. There HAS to be some kind of story here, and in my weirdest imagination, it involves a Mafia front company and some deal gone wrong. But who knows? I have no idea what cars these engines would have belonged to, or whether or not they are even worth anything at this point, but the look to have been sitting here for years. Nevertheless, an interesting find out on the road. Enjoy and have a great Monday out there! -Mr. P.

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Sometimes some of the best explorations come from parking somewhere on a quiet back street and walking around to see what you might find. On this day, we took a look at one such street in Detroit, Michigan's wide industrial areas; Hastings Street near the old Fisher Body Plant #21, near I-94. Here, there is an amazing set of old rail bridges built just over a century ago, when train traffic was much heavier throughout the Motor City. While there are some main lines traveling over these bridges, several have no tracks over them at all, and have trees growing atop them. The lines and rust and symmetry of these old structures was worth the time walking up and down the street looking for gritty objects of interest, and in addition, we got a great closeup of a still-in-use old multi-story factory just down the road. All in all, a great way to spend an hour on a warm early summer day. Enjoy the shots and have a great Sunday out there, all! -Mr. P.

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Intriguing lines and shapes at a storage yard that held shipping/storage containers for automobile parts. These containers would be loaded up with various parts for different cars and trucks, and once secured, would be sent to various vehicle assembly plants. The lines and geometry here on this warm early summer afternoon made for a great hour or so of photography in the industrial heart of Detroit, Michigan. Enjoy the rusty metal goodness and have an amazing Saturday out there today, all! -Mr. P.

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This is a longer post today, but bear with me on it, as I feel that I need to bear witness to the passing of this amazing place. Yesterday, due to a massive fire that yesterday annihilated all that you will see in the photo set below, the Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital, for almost all intents and purposes, save for the charred shell of the structure, is gone. Investigations into the fire (which according to reports started in two separate areas of the building, making things seem quite suspicious) are not completed yet, but hopefully we will find out who was behind this. Despite its clear dangerous state, there WERE real plans to save portions of it, most importantly the beautiful administration building at the front, but that is now gone as well.

So, the story. Perched high above the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York, the Hudson River State Hospital (later known as the Hudson River Psychiatric Center and Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital) was one of the most impressive and haunting psychiatric institutions ever built in the United States. The state purchased the property in 1867, and construction began shortly afterward on a massive Gothic-style complex designed under the Kirkbride Plan, a revolutionary 19th-century approach to mental health treatment that emphasized light, fresh air, and beautiful surroundings. The hospital opened to patients in 1871 and continued expanding for decades. Its grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the same team that designed New York City's Central Park.

At its peak in the mid-20th century, the sprawling campus housed more than 6,000 patients and included workshops, farms, laboratories, recreation facilities, and numerous support buildings. Like many large state psychiatric hospitals, however, changing treatment philosophies, deinstitutionalization, and advances in medication gradually reduced the need for such enormous facilities. The original historic Kirkbride campus closed in 2003, while remaining psychiatric services continued elsewhere on the property until the broader psychiatric center finally shut down in 2012.

After closure, the abandoned complex became a magnet for trespassers, urban explorers, vandals, and (sadly, tragically) arsonists. Fires became a recurring tragedy. A lightning strike in 2007 caused a devastating blaze that destroyed large portions of one wing. Additional suspicious fires followed, including intentionally set fires in 2010, 2016, and a major arson fire in 2018 that heavily damaged the already deteriorating administration complex. No one was ever publicly charged in connection with the 2018 blaze.

Redevelopment plans eventually emerged under the name Hudson Heritage, a mixed-use community intended to preserve portions of the historic campus while adding housing, commercial space, and other development. Demolition of many auxiliary structures began in 2016, with additional buildings removed over the following years. While several historic structures were slated for preservation and adaptive reuse, progress moved slowly and large portions of the site remained vacant and vulnerable.

Then, in June 2026, just yesterday in fact, disaster struck again. A massive fire erupted in the abandoned complex, beginning in the Avery Building and spreading to multiple connected structures. More than a dozen fire departments responded as flames and smoke consumed portions of the historic campus. The blaze ultimately destroyed the landmark Administrative Building, one of the most significant surviving pieces of the original Kirkbride complex. Smoke could be seen for miles, nearby businesses were affected, and firefighters battled the inferno for more than a day. The cause remains under investigation, though officials noted the abandoned buildings had no electrical service. Many preservationists fear the 2026 fire may represent the final chapter for one of America's most architecturally significant psychiatric hospitals.

The site remains a mixture of redevelopment, demolition, preservation efforts, and loss. What was once a self-contained city devoted to mental health treatment has become one of the Hudson Valley's most famous abandoned landmarks; a place where grand Victorian architecture, changing attitudes toward mental illness, and decades of neglect have combined to create one of New York's most fascinating and tragic historic sites.

I try to explain the sheer majesty and magic of this place to anyone who has never been. To stand next to it, looking up at the architectural flourishes and to stand inside of it, no matter how terrifying the integrity of the floors might be, and settling in there with its dim mysteries and heavy, thick history, your camera in hand...that was to know the place and come to truly love the building and property. While I was only able to visit three times in the last few years, I know there are those of you out there who spent so, so much time there, in all seasons, for years, soaking up the personality of this beautiful old girl. My heart is breaking along with yours; whether you've been there once or a thousand times, she was quite a place to behold and witness. She'll be missed.

I do hope that they find the people or organization that may have made this happen. There is always the possibility a random individual started this fire, but considering the development plans and the fact that money for abatement on the asbestos in the building was significant, AND the reports that fire was seen in different parts of the building...it seems quite a lot suspicious. We shall have to wait and see what the investigation brings about.

That being said, here are a collection of photos from my three times spent here, each near full days of wandering, documenting and marveling. And my heart again is with all of you who also spent time here and who are grieving the loss of this truly fantastic building. Enjoy the photos and have a great day out there, all. -Mr. P.

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A wander through the now demolished and erased hallways, classrooms and auditorium of Don Hubert Elementary in Detroit, Michigan. We were able to explore this sad remnant mere months before the demolition began this past winter. It was painfully evident that fires had been a part of the advanced decay of this place over the years, starting with its closure in 2005. Enjoy the explore and have a great day out there, all. -Mr. P.

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The stripped down powerhouse of a much bigger industrial facility in rural Eastern Pennsylvania. The main factory once built boilers for buildings big and small; we'll look at that a few posts on down the line. The sun and warm spring air and the breeze made this place such a pleasure to wander and explore, a perfect place to be on a Saturday morning. Enjoy and stay tuned for the larger facility as the week goes on. Have a good day out there, all! -Mr. P.

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