Creepiest, bleakest places you've ever been to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Downtown Detroit 25 years ago. Not creepy but bleak AF.

Agree. I had to work there for a while. Even the nice hotels were like a boarded up ghost town that they opened temporarily just for you, and the few open shops had people smiling at you with a desperate look behind the eyes, hoping for you to go spend some money, then glaring when it was clear you'd pass by. Then a local would take you to a nice place for dinner, and it was always in some weird abandoned looking neighborhood you had to drive a little too far to get to, and the local's exchanges with the people there made you feel like you were in a mob movie. It gave me a real stranger-in-town vibe.

[Anonymous]

Freeport, Bahamas

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a town in New England that had an abandoned mental institution in it. It was about the size of college campus, dozens of large brick abandoned buildings. Very creepy.

Norwich, CT?

NP. This is my hometown and I can’t believe there’s someone else who knows about that place!

Oh Honey. It's not a secret! https://opacity.us/site22_danvers_state_hospital.htm

This site will draw you in

My great grandfather ended up there after he was kicked in the head by one of his cows and was never in his right mind after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Twentynine Palms, CA. Creepy desert town.

Excellent song by Robert Plant though!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:When I was younger, I remember being scared of the buildings at Sheppard Pratt mental hospital in Towson, MD. They just looked old and creepy. I still live in the area and drove through the campus last week and loved the beautiful architecture. I guess age changes your perspective.

PP, for creepy factor, check out the abandoned Crownsville Hospital in Anne Arundel County. I drive by it frequently. Sometimes, there are vultures lined up on the edges of the buildings. Chills me to the core.

Vultures chill you and to the core. Some of these posts are just embarrasing.

You can't see why an abandoned asylum with vultures lined up on the edges of the roof, as if guarding the buildings, would feel creepy?

They have soccer tournaments and some league games on some of the grass areas around these buildings. First time I went there I thought to myself....if ghosts are real, they would be here. It is a creepy bunch of buildings. Washington Post did a story about local haunted stories like Bunny Bridge, Goat Man of Bowie, and a few others. This was in there as well and they said that there a cemetery on the property that is supposedly haunted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wheeling, WV

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the bleakness Cumberland MD. I drove through there on my way to school in the 90s. I thought it was so beautiful. It was always on my radar as a place to revisit.

I was one of the Cumberland posters. It's not so much about being bleak, it's that it has a super creepy vibe that I can't quite explain. Every time I have to drive that way, I can't wait to get through it as quickly as possible, like if I take too long or *shudder* stop somewhere, the town will just swallow me up.

There are very beautiful areas near Cumberland, which is why I drive through there semi-regularly.

The Cumberland Gap just swallows you whole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZaeKwgS7wg

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:18th St NE a bit further away from Union Station. It was 2008, I was on a work visit to DC, and went to a shoe store that I thought carried some wheelies that a friend asked me to bring. I didn't know what I was getting into, taking public transit and walking, with my orange Furla purse and a matching silk scarf! I must say everyone was nice to me and some nice older black ladies made sure I took the right bus which took me back to Union Station.

so black people are creepy?

Also...18th St NE isn't near Union Station so ???

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A hotel in Inari Finland in January. I was a 20yo woman and everyone else at the hotel was a burly older man. I don't speak Finnish. All TV was in Finnish or Russian. I just stayed in my room. I went to the Sami museum though and that was great--it was just the hotel at night that was bleak.

I also got a weird vibe in Molokai. It was beautiful, and the tour of Kalaupappa was fascinating, and I didn't get a sense of hostility from the people I met, but I felt like I would not understand anything even if I lived there for 30 years. It was like half of what was said was a lie/inside joke/myth/historical reference and 50% was not and I couldn't tell which was which. It also felt like a place where it would be so easy to die in the sea or some remote area and never be found, or to be killed and have nobody fess up.

And a Microtel in Syracuse NY. I wish we'd gone with our initial plan of camping even though it was chilly.

I lived in Helsinki, so I just have to ask. How in the world did you wind up in Inari?!

Lol, I was visiting a friend who was doing a Fulbright in Helsinki. We did some stuff together in the city, but since I didn't want to overstay my welcome with her (she had a small apartment with a roommate) I did some other side trips--Stockholm, Estonia, etc. I thought it would be cool to see northern Finland and the train ride was overnight so it was like transportation + lodging. I took a train to Rovaniemi, where Santa Claus Village was closed, and then took a bus to Inari. Spent the night in the aforementioned hotel, saw the Sami museum, and did the journey back. I'm glad I went, and it wasn't any colder than Helsinki (there were days when I was there that the high was like 2 degrees F) but the hotel creeped me out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unadilla, NY

I have been trying so hard to remember the name of the town we drove through on the way to Utica for a funeral, and I think this is it. I felt like we were in the holler of WV.

[Anonymous]

TORRINGTON CT. CONTEST OVER.

[Anonymous]

It's over because you used all-caps? Intriguing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's over because you used all-caps? Intriguing.

No, because it's true. *snap*

[Anonymous]

A few that come to mind from my personal experience --

Butte, Montana (in the mid-80s - maybe nicer now?)
Suhl, eastern Germany (mid-90s, right around the time that racist skinheads attacked an African-American member of the US luge team there)
Mostar, Bosnia (early 2000s -- pretty town but you could still feel the oppressive hatred in the air between the Croats and Bosniaks)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The entire state of New Jersey

Even the “nice” parts of NJ look like they need a good coat of paint.

I don't love NJ, but I don't hate it either. Silly posts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Jersey_locations_by_per_capita_income#:~:text=New%20Jersey%20is%20one%20of,second%20highest%20in%20the%20country.

But that’s the point. I was actually thinking about the counties this article talks about. Morris County is the 4th richest county in the nation according to this, and Morristown is a pretty gray, bleak-looking place, compared to most affluent towns. The downtown shops look like they haven’t been painted in 30 years. There are some pretty farms out there, but any of the towns are grim. Compare the “horse country” towns of NJ to Middleburg.

Yeah, but then you'd have to live in VA, and we see what it's done to you, so no thank you.

I've never been to New Jersey- why all the hate?

It’s a unique combination of expensive and grim.