I started working at a movie theater a few weeks ago. At 95 years old, this theater was once a single room theater providing both movies and Vaudeville shows. Over time it's been converted into a fairly modern movie theater. It's certainly in rough shape at this time, but it has something special. This theater deserves better and I'm trying to start the process of getting it back to what it could and should be.
I began exploring the theater during my downtime. I climbed up into the original projector room and found advertisements for movies that came out nearly 30 years ago, a bathroom straight out of a horror movie, film reels galore, and dozens of old projectors. While discussing it with other employees, one of them mentioned that they heard there are "hidden tunnels filled with random stuff" somewhere in the building. I had a new mission to accomplish on my downtime. I checked every door, walked the exterior, and became frustrated. I started to think it was only a rumor.
Then I had an idea to check the fire exits and found a hidden room with an old arcade unit inside and two doors. One, the fire exit going outside. The other a number of long abandoned rooms and steps leading downstairs into a series of tunnels. As someone who enjoys urban exploration of abandoned places, this is such a rush. Seems when the seats were replaced 20-30 years ago, then disposed of the old seats in the tunnels. A process that may have happened more than once as I found multiple styles of seats. Zero lights down there, so it's absolute darkness, moisture galore, spiderwebs, and a few fantastic cave crickets. I'm crazy for going in there, but how often does anyone get to say that they've explored a place no one else has possibly seen for decades?
#abandoned #urbanexploration #exploration #urbanex
I began exploring the theater during my downtime. I climbed up into the original projector room and found advertisements for movies that came out nearly 30 years ago, a bathroom straight out of a horror movie, film reels galore, and dozens of old projectors. While discussing it with other employees, one of them mentioned that they heard there are "hidden tunnels filled with random stuff" somewhere in the building. I had a new mission to accomplish on my downtime. I checked every door, walked the exterior, and became frustrated. I started to think it was only a rumor.
Then I had an idea to check the fire exits and found a hidden room with an old arcade unit inside and two doors. One, the fire exit going outside. The other a number of long abandoned rooms and steps leading downstairs into a series of tunnels. As someone who enjoys urban exploration of abandoned places, this is such a rush. Seems when the seats were replaced 20-30 years ago, then disposed of the old seats in the tunnels. A process that may have happened more than once as I found multiple styles of seats. Zero lights down there, so it's absolute darkness, moisture galore, spiderwebs, and a few fantastic cave crickets. I'm crazy for going in there, but how often does anyone get to say that they've explored a place no one else has possibly seen for decades?
#abandoned #urbanexploration #exploration #urbanex
