West Little Rock "Gardens"

[adub3n]

Well, I hinted at it before, but here's the scoop. I revisited one of the first places I shot "urbex" over the weekend, and found that it was somewhat of a therapeutic endeavor. The visit provided a sort of closure for a chapter of my life that's been more or less haning in the balance since my last trip out there, although it's a personal matter not related directly to these trips. Also the photos I took provided a sort of benchmark for where I'm at compared to where I was at that time.

The location is on the west side of Little Rock in a nursery that caught fire some time ago, and has sat abandoned every since. This place was abandoned in the strictest sense of the word, too. There are ledgers, stationary, and catalogs on the desk in the office. You'll find files in the file cabinets, a reminder note on the drawer of the file cabinet, and even a busted monitor and keyboard. The occupants left in the fire, and although tresspass is evident to an extent, the place seems to be undisturbed, more or less the way it was the day the place caught fire.

I went on Sunday afternoon, not particularly worried about visibility, but assuming there would be no issues. However, within minutes of my arrival I heard a truck pull up out in the front. Not nearly satisfied with the amount of time I'd spent there, I crept to a window and peeked out ninja style, back against the wall. Not 20 ft from my car, there was an old white dodge truck. I started to get a little apprehensive, but my position was defended enough, as there were no signs or fences. Surely I could talk my way out of this...

Watching from my hiding place I saw the truck drive right up behind my car. Then they backed up a few feet. Then stopped and got out. I could hear them carrying on, and decided that the rear of the house was a better place to be should I get caught in the act, so I crept out, as quietly as possible in so much rubble. From the back yard, I heard chainsaws fire up, and I realized I was more just inconvenienced than busted. I would simply need to keep a low profile, because I couldn't leave until they did, since they were blocking me in. Naturally I went upstairs to the darkest corner and played with my strobe.









*New personal favorite*

[pinkspider]

really really nice i love that blue you got in there! i may have to pm you to find this place >.> looks small but awesome.

[critter]

Great pictures and narration. I especially like the staircase shot. Were you able to distinguish if the building was old before the fire?

[bgould]

I used to shop at here; nice little nursery. The house was modest and woodframe w/ rock facing. I wasn't paying attention to it, but would guess it to be late 1940s or newer.

Probably not overly molested because it's on such a busy street.

Lovely pictures.

[adub3n]

Thanks for hearing my story, and as always the compliments are truly appreciated.

As bgould said, the nursery building itself was just a converted house that's actually in a fairly busy commercial area now. I'd guess '40s, too because it's as good a guess as any, but it could be more recent, even. Nothing very impressive as far as hand made mouldings or high ceilings. Quite the opposite, really. You feel like you have to hunch over in the office upstairs.

I didn't take many interior shots besides in the office on this trip due to the unwanted visitors, and my trying to remain unseen. Basically the entire west side of the building is gone, burned to the studs, and the guys cutting wood were just in the trees west of the house. It was more annoying than an adrenaline rush, once I realized what was going on. In fact I wanted to get closer to the black angel statue, but couldn't because where I took the shot from was as far as the wall between me and the chainsaw wielding interrupters provided coverage. There's a back room that could have allowed me to close the distance somewhat, but on my last visit here I took one step into that room and I was crotch deep in floor. It's kinda funny looking back on it. I think I said something like "This doesn't look safe...", immediately followed by crashing and falling. Fortunately there wasn't far to go and the rest of the floor supported whatever part of me hit it. Didn't revisit that room on this trip.

Good times!

[bgould]

Back in The Day when I was more prone to being where I should not be, I would wear jogging shorts under my jeans, and if Controlling Legal Authorities and/or armed rednecks were guarding my car, I'd stash my gear, strip to the jogging togs, move out of sight...and then casually jog to my car. Better to be scolded for parking in the wrong place than for tresspassing. Only had to do it once.

Went through several floors while investigating old houses on Richland Creek, mid 1980s. Tends to focus one's attention on foot placement.

Only cats suffer from curiosity. Keep at it.

[critter]

I like your idea about jogging shorts under pants. The only incident that I have had with cops with with a group of four of us at 1 AM, and I don't think cops would had belived that we were joggers. Not very many cross country teams run at that time of the morning.

[jakethesartech2]

bgould....where abouts in richland creek were those houses? i am gonna go back up there if the roads ever get cleared out.....

[bgould]

I have not a map nearby and too many applications open to fetch one online, but get to Snowball (west of Marshall) and go west over the mountain. Topo maps will show some structures on the mountain north of the road, but they are now just foundations and wet spots from old stock ponds, After coming down the mountain the road will fork. At the fork there was a 2 story house/hotel that has long since been pushed down. It was scary 20+ years ago. Go right (north-ish) and there were 1-2 houses/barns (with moldy tack still in the barns) on the right before reaching Richland Creek (no bridge, have to ford it). After crossing RC, there were several houses on the left. I think one might still be standing. A nice drive to the Buffalo, roughly across from Woolum (I THINK) and on the dry side of the narrows (aka- nar's).

This part of RC is still leased and farmed, rather like Boxley at the other end of the Buffalo, so beware.

Again, the last time I was there, most of the structures had been removed. As an aside, there are a few interesting old, empty commercial buildings in downtown Snowball. Not that I'm suggesting you enter them or anything.

Back to RC; somewhere I have pictures of newspaper (Ozark Insulation) from one of the houses; 1940s as I recall. The Brooklyn Dodgers were doing well.

[osiris]

haha i love that place, i live about five minutes away.
it's really a cool place to hang around, very serene. 99% of it is burned to a crisp, but still standing.

[psychosaw13]

I freakin' love that last pic! it almost appears as a painting!

[itcantbestephen]

This wouldn't happen to be on Kanis would it? I know there's a burned up house on that road that's been there for a while, and a greenhouse nearby it, but I never payed much attention to it, haha.

[bgould]

Indeed, that is the place. Considering the condition and size of the structure, the pictures are quite remarkable.

[itcantbestephen]

Wow, I live less than a mile from there, right by Kohl's. I might have to stop by and look around sometime!

[adub3n]

It's pretty amazing this place is still there. It's right in town, but has a kind of quiet feel, with woods around it, and being a little off the road. If you know where it is and have an interest in smaller scale urbex, it's worth checking out. Like I said up top, they had made significant progress clearing trees from the road side of the property since my first visit. I'm not sure that's any indication that they'll be cleaning up the whole property, but it's a pretty awesome little place to see. It's very moving to me to see so much just left, on the one hand that no one's destroyed much of it, and also that the owners apparently didn't come back for very much clean up, too.

Got a straggler to lay on ya, too...