Eerie Photos of Abandoned Places

Photojournalist Seph Lawless has a keen eye for abandoned landscapes and eerie places like Spreepark, a theme park in Berlin, Germany, which opened in 1969 and closed down in 2002.

Remnants of the park remain in Plänterwald Forest, a popular tourist destination in Berlin.

Lawless also photographed this abandoned home in an undisclosed location. More of Lawless' work can be seen in his book, "Autopsy of America: The Death of a Nation."

In Lawless' book, "Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks," he explores shuttered amusement parks that had once been filled to the brim with smiling faces and families. Fun Spot Amusement Park & Zoo closed in 2008.

Lawless captures the loneliness of abandoned buildings, as well as the haunting feeling they evoke.

The Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita, Kan., was open from 1949-2004.

R.W. Bishop founded the Enchanted Forest Theme Park in Toledo, Ohio, but was forced to close it down a few years later due to lack of attendance.

Six Flags New Orleans closed in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region.

The park originally opened as “Jazzland” before Six Flags decided to upgrade the property.

The Ohio theme park opened in 1887, but was shut down in 2007 after many changes in ownership and several bouts of rebranding.

In February 2018, Cleveland.com reported that a local man, Brian Roote, is currently trying to bring Geauga Lake back. Roote has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the cause.

This abandoned theme park in Chippewa Lake, Ohio, closed in 1978 after opening 100 years earlier. The final owner of the park, Continental Business Enterprises, shuttered the park due to poor attendance.

Despite being a success in its early years, this Arkansas theme park, which opened in 1968, closed in 1993.

This Irish Hills, Mass., theme park is as extinct as the fake dinosaurs that inhabit it.

The North Carolina property that sits atop Beecher Mountain opened in 1970 and closed 10 years later.

The West Virginia amusement park was abandoned in 1966 and is said to be haunted with the ghosts of children who have died on the property.

Lawless has also photographed abandoned asylums. This particular image is of an asylum chapel.

This haunting image of a decrepit room in an abandoned asylum at an undisclosed location is hard to forget.

This antiquated typewriter was found in the same asylum.

The Bethlehem, Pa., mansion was completed in 1923 and sits at the top of a hill in Janet Johnston Housenick & William D. Housenick Memorial Park.

It's always summer vacation in this lonely, Pennsylvania school.

After 67 years, Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital in Monmouth County, N.J., closed its doors for good on July 1, 1998. 

This decrepit barn can be found in Allentown, Pa.

Nobody is heading to this hotel for vacation in the beach town of Cape May, N.J.

The northeast is full of old warehouses, including this one in Bloomsbury, N.J.

Built in the 1850s, this tunnel in the American Midwest has seen better days. Freight trains used to travel through it, and despite the abandoned state, the photographer wrote that upon visiting, the tunnel's support system appeared to be intact. 

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, in Pripyat, Ukraine. The city is now a ghost town, part of the inner exclusion zone around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant where the accident took place.

Aga foundry closed at the end of November in 2017. During World War II, bomber aircraft wings were made here. Coalbrookdale, where Aga had been for about 300 years, is sometimes called "the birthplace of industry."

A pool that's seen better days is situated in Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, the effect of a severe drought.

This farmhouse in Hawes, England, would not be fun to come across while walking alone at night. 

Once the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games festivities were over, the venues were left abandoned.

There's nothing more eerie than an old swing and a giant, derelict house on a snowy farm.

The Haint House outside Atlanta was built in 1920. Purchased in the early '90s by a doctor who hoped to turn it into a nursing home, the plan never came to fruition and the property slowly fell into disrepair.

Pomegranate Hall was built in 1830 by a New Jersey judge who moved down to Georgia. Today, the interior has completely collapsed and the home has been largely overtaken by nature.

The Masonic Temple in Alabama was built in 1922 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 

The Masonic Temple in Alabama was built in 1922 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Here, an old Coca-Cola machine can be seen in one of the ground-floor retail tenants.

Booker T. Washington High School was built atop a former landfill in New Orleans and closed after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Once abandoned, part of it was demolished, which is when workers learned that the soil had 24 times the permissible amount of toxic metals. 

Part of Booker T. Washington High School is seen here.

The chapel at Little Bethlehem was erected by Rev. George Pike in Monroe, Georgia, in 1970 and quickly became home for dozens of families from across the U.S. The church closed in 2013 and was left completely abandoned until 2016, when the property was purchased by David Pike, the reverend's son. 

On Mulberry Street in Kentucky sits one of the oldest homes in the neighborhood. As of 2017, it was listed for sale at $15,000 and is in need of extensive repairs.

Charity Hospital in New Orleans has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Prior to that, it had been in operation for centuries.