In 1928, at the western edge of a local college campus, a lovely brick women's recreation building was built, complete with a gymnasium and a small indoor swimming pool. A few years later, the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club began using the space for activities and functions.
(Photo from the 1950's, courtesy of the Kennebec Journal)
Sometime in the 1960's-70's, a one-story addition was built that included a larger swimming pool, locker rooms, and recreational/office space. Not long after that, though, a new facility was built nearby and the Club moved out.
I know very little about the building's history from that point on (it may have been used for storage or offices), but by the time I moved to the area in 2003 it had already been empty for a while. The building sits in a very developed part of town and is surrounded by homes and a street, so it was hard to miss, and even back then it caught my attention. I guess you could say it has been on my "location radar" since elementary school.
Being very centrally located might have helped protect the building from rampant scrapping and vandalism. This changed, though, when a group of young locals set fire to it in 2009. Basically, the crew brought some homemade Molotov cocktails into the building and smashed them into one of the pools, detonating them. Having recorded the whole thing, one of them decided to upload the video to Youtube, complete with the names of each participant. As you might imagine, they were tracked down rather quickly.
(Screenshot from said Youtube video, courtesy of the blog "Strange Maine".
Luckily, damage was very contained, but it brought the site lots of attention and got it very well-sealed. By the time I became interested in serious exploring,it was a no-go due to this incident and its visibility. Still, I got into a habit of occasionally stopping by, in the off chance that I would spot a way in. Eventually, this practice paid off; in early April, just as the Club was floating off my radar due to inaccessibility, I came across a newly opened, very obvious entry. Knowing it was only a matter of time before the entrance was reported and sealed, I bundled up for a long-awaited pre-dawn explore.
A lot of these photos are very grainy, but hopefully they get the point across. Enjoy!
Building in its present state:
At the edge of the pitch-black 1970's addition, I found myself standing beside the larger of the facility's two pools.
In the adjacent locker rooms, the peeling-paint fan in me rejoiced.
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In a side office, training paddles sat unused.
Down the hall, the smaller pool was full of ice.
Rounding a corner, making my way to the original segment of the building, a sign of daylight:
Arriving at the gymnasium was a special moment. The photos are grainy and really don't do it justice; the dawn light floating through the windows of the massive space was a gorgeous sight to behold.
View from the other side. At some point, a home-made skate ramp setup was constructed right in the center of the room.
Rope Swing
Hoop
Doorway to the daylight
The homemade skate park continued up a stairwell...
...which led to a landing with roof access.
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There were signs of squatters in a few rooms...
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...And it was kind of surreal to stand at one end of the building and hear people ordering at the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru next door. I was happy, however, to find a few rooms vandalism and graffiti-free.
Wonhwa-do
View over town
A final glimpse from the balcony
A couple of days later, I was unsurprised to see that the entrance I used had been re-sealed. Of course, I was a little bummed that I couldn't return to get better pictures. In the long run, however, I'm beyond happy that my continued curiosity paid off, and that I got the chance to explore a local building that had been on my list for years.
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