Back in June a friend and I went to go see if a the old Prospect Hills Elementary School just outside Milwaukee was still standing. I know at least a couple of you were there over the years as it made its way onto the UER DB, but that was way back in 2014.

Sure enough, it was wide open and easily explored. Despite the poor shape it was in I was able to get some good shots.


IMG_7084 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7048 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7049 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7063 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7089 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7109 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7116 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

IMG_7124 by Forgotten Interstices, on Flickr

I heard through the grape vine that it was demolished last summer a few weeks later, making us the last people to explore Prospect Hills Elementary school before its demolition. Sometimes the bulldozers beat you to it, but sometimes... sometimes, on those lucky occasions, you get there first.

Thanks for the share. Looks a LOT drier than the last time I was there (maybe fall 2018). It was so dank and moldy, I had to come back at a later date with respirator. There were puddles everywhere, and it hadn't rained in at least a week. So they finally leveled it? I know the city was suing the owners not only for safety, but also the Police resources it was taking for calls from neighbors spotting stealthless teens entering. There was even a news story a few years back about some fucktards spray painting, smoking dope, and trying to light a fire. I myself was asked to leave by NBPD weeks before entering when I was taking pictures of the outside. No spray paint, no B&E/scrapping tools, no dope, no attitude, and graying hair usually gets you the "get the hell out of here" vs local teens who get ticketed for just being on the grounds. In fact any time I've ever been caught, I've gotten pretty much the same. Hooray for being old, I guess!!?!

It always bums me out when they leave the lights on for so long. Really cool photos though.

Posted by EsseXploreR It always bums me out when they leave the lights on for so long. Really cool photos though.

You'll be happy to hear that those aren't ceiling lights, those are skylights. It's all natural lighting in that photo

Cool shit, Aran. Been diggin what you’ve been posting. Happy to see some folks gettin out and about and it looks like y’all been having some great adventures. It’d be really cool to meet ya sometime in the future. Always quite admire your attentiveness. Thanks so much for sharing this. It’s great to have one last look inside and your pics are bringing back some real nice memories of times had in that area.

I surely regret putting that one in the database back then. I had just joined UER in 2014 and it was encouraged to contribute and all that. Im sure local kids were already in the school at least a handful of times but unsure if the school was known around UER yet. I hadn’t seen it posted anywhere at the time and thought it would be a good way to show folks a spot they might not have seen yet. I had only found it because I was taking bike rides out Racine Avenue pretty regularly when we lived in Waukesha. That school is actually a big part of how I found UER. Brother and I had been going in buildings for as long as we could remember. We had no idea that there was a title for the hobby or that there was literally a handbook about it. We always just called it “lurking, or fuckin around by the river” cause that’s where all of our old industrial stuff was at the time. So upon finding that school, it got me to start trying to research it on the internet, and see what else we could find. That ultimately led to some UER search results mainly about Cooper Glue, which was already gone. Being pleased with the discovery of the school, it seemed like it could be part of a good introduction to UER.


In hindsight, not so much. It started getting trashed what seemed like almost immediately after I put it in the database. I recall only a bucket of paint being splashed on the wall of the music room but not a whole hell of a lot of other vandalism. It felt like the next day when big graffiti pieces started going up, which honestly I don’t really think detracted from the spot too much. But still, ever since, it’s always kinda felt like I leaked that spot to the graffitti community and it was downhill from there. Lessons learned I guess. I’ve been more selective about posting new discoveries here.

All in all, I don’t think that school really stood much of a chance anyway. And, on the plus side, it was a good introduction to UER after all and I met a lot of really cool people on here who have been so welcoming. Thanks again for posting these. Really enjoying looking at them.

Posted by chuck barkley

Thanks man! Despite the vandalism the school was still a cool place to walk around in- I especially loved the skylights in the hallway above. And I'd absolutely be down to meet up sometime!

Posted by Aran Thanks man! Despite the vandalism the school was still a cool place to walk around in- I especially loved the skylights in the hallway above. And I'd absolutely be down to meet up sometime!

Right on. I’ll hit you up sometime when the weather gets better. I’m sure you’ve got a few spots I haven’t seen and vice versa.

Posted by chuck barkley Right on. I’ll hit you up sometime when the weather gets better. I’m sure you’ve got a few spots I haven’t seen and vice versa.

Count me in!