Preston Castle

Preston School of Industry also known as Preston Castle or The Castle was built between 1890 – 1894 as a school to rehabilitate juveniles in Ione, California. The Castle stands on 230 acres bought from the Ione Coal and Iron Company at $30 per acre with 100 acres donated. The sandstone bricks were made at San Quentin and Folsom prisons and delivered via railroad at 6,000 bricks per car. The original plans consisted of five floors and seventy-seven rooms. It officially opened for business on July 1st, 1894 and remained so until 1960 when new buildings were built to replace it. The wards were taught two trades so they could survive after their release. Some of the wards went on to become famous and some infamous. Among the famous Eddie Anderson who went on to play Rochester on the Jack Benny show. Eddie Machen became a heavyweight boxer Pancho Gonzales was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s. Merle Haggard went on to become a country siger. He escaped several times on his last escape he stole the deans car and was sent to San Quentin. One of his songs is Misery And Gin. The infamous include Caryl Chessman who was a convicted robber and rapist who gained fame as a death row inmate in California. Another was  Joseph Paul Cretzer was killed in the bloodiest escape attempt called "The Battle Of Alcatraz". He and two other inmates and two guards were killed. Many television programs have filmed episodes at Preston Castle. The Travel Channels Ghost Adventures filmed an episode at Preston Castle. Other television programs include The Outsiders and The Amazing Race.

The wards were not housed in the castle they were only processed there when they arrived. The wards stayed in several small houses around the castle. The castle had offices, a school, kitchen, showers and the only hospital in Ione at the time.

The image below is the chemical bath they used to delouse the wards when they arrived.

In the image below the raised indentation to the lower right was for the gaurd (to stand in and keep his feet dry) to keep and eye on the wards while they showered.

The image below shows a hidden staircase they are not sure what it was used for, but some people think it was used so dean could use to get around undetected.

The castle had a water powered elevator shown in the next two images.

A fire hose reel, the part with all the holes is made of wood. There are several of these in the castle.

There is a lot of controversy over where Anna Corbin's body was found. This is one of the places that some people say she was found rolled up in a rug with a rope around her neck. Others beleive she was in a locked room that only staff had access to and that she was murdered by one of the gaurds. The gaurds were strict and Anna was very motherly to wards and people think the gaurds did not like that.

They are not sure if Merle Haggard carved the "Merle 48" in the wall or if it was done for a film that was filmed here. He has been asked to come back to visit, but he says that is not a part of his life he wants to revisit.

When Preston Castle closed the state came and took items because the castle was going to be torn down. Luckly it is still standing today. There is an effort to restore the castle and you can find out more by going to prestoncastle.com. If you would Like more information on Preston Castle visit Dreaming Casually. 

Bayshore Roundhouse

I don't know what it is about graffiti that makes a place look like a cool place, maybe its because of the bright colors and the creative and elaborate drawings. I wish I could create masterpieces like some I've seen. I don't know if I would feel the same if it showed up on property I owned. But you see it everywhere old buildings, trucks, buses, train cars..................the list goes on. This is the Bayshore Roundhouse in Brisbane, it was used by Southern Pacific it was built in 1912 and serviced steam and diesel until it closed in 1982. In 2001 a fire destroyed half of the 16 stalls the roundhouse had. There is talk of restoring it and making it a railroad museum. There is even a registration form for the National Register of Historic Places filed.

Most of these images were taken with a wide angle lens. they tend to distort towards the corners. Notice the bucket in the lower right in the image below it is from barrel distortion common with wide angle lenses. If you had straight lines around the edges of the image barrel distortion would look like this. I did not fix it because I think it ads interest to the image.

Abandon Hotel Concord Ca



I would not call this urban exploration, but it is an abandon building. Its an old Red Lion Hotel that closed its doors in April of 2011. I saw a news story that had just been purchased. I have wanted to get a shot of the mural on a cloudy  day that mimicked the clouds on the mural. When I heard the hotel was purchased I was afraid the would pain over the mural. Luck was with me I saw a cloudy day and grabbed my camera hoping the clouds would look the same when I arrived at the hotel. A better example of urban exploration is the Byron Hot Springs Hotel. I like exploring old buildings because of the history. It also brings back childhood memories of spending the day running from place to place poking around see what we could find. I think back to when I was a kid and I hope I did not send a historic site like the Byron Hot Spings Hotel to an early demise for an afternoon of fun.



In the photo below you can see a car that belongs to someone working on the hotel.

Byron Hot Springs Hotel HDR November 11 2011

This is my first attempt at HDR (high dynamic range). Its a photography technique where several photographs are taken at different exposures from under exposed to over exposed and then combined to produce a higher dynamic range than the camera can capture in a single exposure. The photos were taken at Byron Hot Springs Hotel built in 1914. There have been two other hotels built here but they both burned down. Movie stars including Clark Gable and Fatty Arbuckle came to the baths. Brown wiskey bottles marked "Jos. Kennedy" dating back to prohibition have been found on the site. During World War II the hotel was used as a interrogation camp.

The stairs were covered with marble (some of it is still on the steps). The fireplace to the right of the staircase has bricks made in Richmond and Livermore. The staircase is right inside the doors in the photo above.

There has been a fire in the kitchen and scrap metal collectors have taken the stove, the heater and serveral other things shown in snapshots taken back in September 2008. All the plumbing in the kitchen has been pulled down and the hot water heaters are knocked down and moved. I wanted to shoot a HDR of the stove but I was too late. I have heard of plans to restore the site, but I see it being destroyed not much left. Since my last visit whole walls have been knocked down.

Not only have people been taking things from the site, they are leaving things also. I saw everyting from old hot tubs, dump trucks, mobile homes to this hearse below. I hope the dearly departed had departed before the accident.