CuriousIdent
Not yet SO old Great Old One
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,510
- Location
- Warwickshire, England.
Morning folks,
Here's one that I stumbled across via Reddit, and couldn't find others discussing on here.
Lincoln Way is a neighbourhood in Clairton, a steel and coke (as in high carbon fuel, not cola) city in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has been left abandoned since the mid 1970s, and nature has gradually begun reclaiming the land ever since.
But what is of particularly interesting speculation is over WHY it was abandoned. And how quickly.
Depending on who is retelling the story Lincoln Way was either abandoned over a few short weeks or literally overnight. By families who really didn't take very much with them. Seriously, TVs, furnishings, food, even pre-sorted racks of work clothes are still on display to this day, exactly as the had been left on the 70s. One of the houses on the block even has a car still parked up neatly in its garage. There's some great photos throughout the following article, and then listed as a gallery at the end of it:
https://architecturalafterlife.com/2015/01/27/the-eerie-abandoned-neighborhood-of-lincoln-way/
A heck of a lot of things seem to point towards a sudden, rather than planned, abandonment. The locals didn't pack up. They just left.
But here's the thing, while there were *some* elderly residents (and some had recently died of old age, leaving properties vacant) a lot of this neighbourhood was made up of families, 16 in total.
Families are not easy to move at short notice. School placement being a major hurdle for one. But what is perhaps a little bit more suspicious is that reportedly records from the tax assessor's office show that the homes in this neighbourhood have never been transferred to ownership of the City. They have the same owners which they did back in the 70s. But those owners do no live there, and taxes have only been paid steadily by 3 households since that time.
So why? What happened to cause these residents to leave?
The local authorities have supposedly refused to comment on the matter. Which has naturally had tongues wagging over the years, in relation to some kind of cover-up. Speculation that the city made residents move out because of toxic fumes from the coke stacks of the local plant. But if that was so then why had the City (or the plant) not bought the land? Why was it still owned by the residents?
Others have proposed that something more paranormal may have been the cause. The street has been 'investigated' by paranormal groups on more than one occasion.
And then there's the more... Out There explanation. A local legend. Of some kind of creature in the locality. To quote from the above article:
"It’s hard to truly conclude what is fact or fiction with Lincoln Way, but the legend tells of a creature; something not human, but unlike any animal that it could be compared to. People claimed that this creature would torment residents, while pets would go missing, later found disfigured and maimed at the forest’s edge surrounding town. Aside from mangled pets, gardens would be found torn to shreds by bigfoot-size paws, far too large to belong to any animals native to Pennsylvania. People would sometimes talk of the creature thumping, rattling and scratching at the sides of their homes."
Which sounds more than a little like utter cobblers to me.
Nevertheless, something seems to have prompted a relatively sudden abandoning of 16 odd homes, without a finite explanation. Anybody on here from the Pittsburgh area, who may of heard of this street?
Here's one that I stumbled across via Reddit, and couldn't find others discussing on here.
Lincoln Way is a neighbourhood in Clairton, a steel and coke (as in high carbon fuel, not cola) city in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has been left abandoned since the mid 1970s, and nature has gradually begun reclaiming the land ever since.
But what is of particularly interesting speculation is over WHY it was abandoned. And how quickly.
Depending on who is retelling the story Lincoln Way was either abandoned over a few short weeks or literally overnight. By families who really didn't take very much with them. Seriously, TVs, furnishings, food, even pre-sorted racks of work clothes are still on display to this day, exactly as the had been left on the 70s. One of the houses on the block even has a car still parked up neatly in its garage. There's some great photos throughout the following article, and then listed as a gallery at the end of it:
https://architecturalafterlife.com/2015/01/27/the-eerie-abandoned-neighborhood-of-lincoln-way/
A heck of a lot of things seem to point towards a sudden, rather than planned, abandonment. The locals didn't pack up. They just left.
But here's the thing, while there were *some* elderly residents (and some had recently died of old age, leaving properties vacant) a lot of this neighbourhood was made up of families, 16 in total.
Families are not easy to move at short notice. School placement being a major hurdle for one. But what is perhaps a little bit more suspicious is that reportedly records from the tax assessor's office show that the homes in this neighbourhood have never been transferred to ownership of the City. They have the same owners which they did back in the 70s. But those owners do no live there, and taxes have only been paid steadily by 3 households since that time.
So why? What happened to cause these residents to leave?
The local authorities have supposedly refused to comment on the matter. Which has naturally had tongues wagging over the years, in relation to some kind of cover-up. Speculation that the city made residents move out because of toxic fumes from the coke stacks of the local plant. But if that was so then why had the City (or the plant) not bought the land? Why was it still owned by the residents?
Others have proposed that something more paranormal may have been the cause. The street has been 'investigated' by paranormal groups on more than one occasion.
And then there's the more... Out There explanation. A local legend. Of some kind of creature in the locality. To quote from the above article:
"It’s hard to truly conclude what is fact or fiction with Lincoln Way, but the legend tells of a creature; something not human, but unlike any animal that it could be compared to. People claimed that this creature would torment residents, while pets would go missing, later found disfigured and maimed at the forest’s edge surrounding town. Aside from mangled pets, gardens would be found torn to shreds by bigfoot-size paws, far too large to belong to any animals native to Pennsylvania. People would sometimes talk of the creature thumping, rattling and scratching at the sides of their homes."
Which sounds more than a little like utter cobblers to me.
Nevertheless, something seems to have prompted a relatively sudden abandoning of 16 odd homes, without a finite explanation. Anybody on here from the Pittsburgh area, who may of heard of this street?
