Last Moments of a City; Cairo, Il.

[photoLith]

I just got back from my trip this weekend to Memphis and St. Louis. Ive always been intrigued by Cairo, it had the possibility to become one of Americas great cities, but it just never happened. Railroads went past it, highways bypassed it, the port was moved; and now, the former city of 20,000 is mostly abandoned. 20 of the cities historic buildings have been burned down in the past 2 months due to arson and the ones that havent been burned down yet, are caving in on themselves. Its truly one of the most depressing yet most fascinating places Ive been.






































































Still smoldering building








Future City, right before you enter Cairo, ironic?


Next up, St. Louis...


Eventually I get around to getting a Memphis thread going too.

[Chef]

It was once a town, soon it will be an archeological site.

Great thread.

[Kingofthehill]

Hardcore Grit Porn

[LMich]

It is CRAZY the short self-life of select cities in the United States. Throughout the history of man, it's usually taken centuries to bring a even a small town to ruins, and we can do it in decades.

And, I wonder who wasted their money to put the decorative arch over the downtown street? I'm usually a huge proponent of upgrading infrastructure to promote growth, but this is one of the very few places I've seen where I just don't get the point. The town needs an economic reason for being if it's to hold onto the little it has left.

This just makes me ill.

[stepper77]

Disturbing and fascinating at the same time. Thanks for sharing!

[glowrock]

Not to sound like a broken record, but incredible shots, photolitherland! Alas, they make my photothread of Hot Springs I just posted pale by comparison...

Aaron (Glowrock)

[photoLith]

^
Thanks man, you should have come up to St. Louis and Memphis with me, St. Louis is way better than Hot Springs Hopefully you had a good time in HP though, its a pretty gritty and run down place also, although, not near as bad as Cairo. I had never seen such a place before in my entire life, the level of destruction and decay was astonishing. But, North St. Louis was also pretty incredible in its war zone like atmosphere and abandonment.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

^
Thanks man, you should have come up to St. Louis and Memphis with me, St. Louis is way better than Hot Springs Hopefully you had a good time in HP though, its a pretty gritty and run down place also, although, not near as bad as Cairo. I had never seen such a place before in my entire life, the level of destruction and decay was astonishing. But, North St. Louis was also pretty incredible in its war zone like atmosphere and abandonment.

I'll certainly join you for a phototour of any city you'd like! Just happened to be I had arrangements to meet up with some rock and mineral shop friends of mine at Wright's Rock Shop out on Albert Pike a few miles west of town, so that's why I was there!

I'd love to hit up Memphis or St. Louis some day. Have only driven through them on my way cross-country, never spent any time there, unfortunately.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[BnaBreaker]

Great stuff buddy. Very surreal shots. Maybe it's just me, but based on the names of some of the places in extreme southern IL (Cairo, Metropolis, Urbandale, Future City) I always have kind of thought that the people that initially settled that area and established the towns there had massive dreams of a modern megalopolis forming there some day. I dunno.

Can't wait to see your Memphis thread!

[JivecitySTL]

Great pictures. I eagerly await your St. Louis set, although I'm hoping you captured more than just the distressed neighborhoods of the North Side.

[STLgasm]

So are there any cool spots left in Cairo?

Can't wait to see STL. Hopefully you captured the living city as well as the dormant.

[brycedavid]

Just amazing.

For a country of 300+ million it always amazes me how many abandoned and empty houses there are in the US. A town's existence is ruled by the flow of money. If there's no money flowing in = death, states or government won't/can't help.

But I've noticed that some streets have been recently updated with stone/brick roads. They look brand new. I guess it's because there's no traffic.


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[kool maudit]

there is too much ruin in the united states for such a young country. i know the restlessness thing, the "frontier people" thing, but something is very clearly quite wrong.

[ColDayMan]

I've seen some "down and out" towns in my life but shit...

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by STLgasm

So are there any cool spots left in Cairo?

Can't wait to see STL. Hopefully you captured the living city as well as the dormant.

Nearly everything in Cairo was in disrepair, on wikipedia it says the town has 3000 some odd residents left but I just dont know where they live. Nearly 90% of the houses were abandoned it looked like and the ones that werent were in pretty bad shape; save a few of the really large old mansions that were actually in really good shape. Virtually every last commercial building in the old downtown was empty, except for one bar.

And yes, I walked through almost every neighborhood while in stl, I have thousands of pictures of the city that Im going to have to go through, its going to take quite some time. But dont worry, I made the city overall look damn good Soulard was awesome, as was Lafayette Square.

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures! It's too bad that people are burning down buildings for fun. Obviously, burning down any building that isn't yours is wrong, and burning a historic building just adds to that. Hopefully that gets put to an end and Cairo can figure out a way to revive itself.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

Nearly everything in Cairo was in disrepair, on wikipedia it says the town has 3000 some odd residents left but I just dont know where they live.

Fascinating photos....I've never been to Cairo, IL, but you captured the place very well......truly depressing that a town at such a crossroads could be so down at the heels.

I'm looking forward to your St. Louis photos...any photos in this area...I recall it being pretty dead with little demand for the parking meters.


http://goo.gl/maps/nrx3

Did you happen to go to East St Louis or Brooklyn, IL....now there is some grit

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

there is too much ruin in the united states for such a young country. i know the restlessness thing, the "frontier people" thing, but something is very clearly quite wrong.

Theres so much ruin in this country because its mostly inhabited by herds of anti intellectual suburban mall shufflers whose only goal in life is to consume.

[Rizzo]

Wow, looks like it's gotten even worse. On paper this place seems to have had so much potential in the past.

I just wish some of those buildings could be picked up and moved to Chicago.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Hayward

I just wish some of those buildings could be picked up and moved to Chicago.

even if you could move them up to chicago, they'd probably just get ripped down for another shitty-ass CVS in a few years anyway.


really, really fascinating pictures here in this thread. fascinating and depressing.

Originally Posted by kool maudit

there is too much ruin in the united states for such a young country. i know the restlessness thing, the "frontier people" thing, but something is very clearly quite wrong.

do you know about the "white people refuse to live around black people" thing? cairo's misfortune was far more than just an unlucky deal of the economic cards. a lot of its wounds were self-inflicted through the ravages of racial intolerance.