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King Solomon Baptist Church

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Sherman Cahal in Midwest | Leave a comment

Located in the Northwest Goldberg neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan, King Solomon Baptist Church’s facility at Marquette and 14th Street was best known as the first African American church to be located on a major thoroughfare.

Eastern Catholic High School

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Sherman Cahal in Midwest | Leave a comment

Driving down Gratiot Avenue in Detroit, Michigan late night in the summer of 2011, I came across the former Eastern Catholic High School. The obviousness of its abandonment, with its blown out windows and the hulking structure contrasting to the vast, empty lots surrounding it, made the four-level school all the more interesting to enter and photograph.

The Packard

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Sherman Cahal in Midwest | Leave a comment

The Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit, Michigan has long been on my list of abandonments to visit. Known for its extensive deterioration, brought about by decades of underutilization and neglect, and by scrappers, the Packard encompasses 3.5 million square feet that fills vistas from all directions. But how does one simply cover the Packard? It’s been gutted, scorched, written about, photographed, spray painted, scrapped, and adored for decades. It is often the sole subject of ruin porn, a newer terminology coined … →

The Auction of the McKinley School

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Sherman Cahal in Midwest | 1 Comment

Several years ago, nine schools in Cincinnati, Ohio were auctioned to the highest and most qualified bidder. The McKinley School, along Eastern Avenue in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood, was one of those selected properties, with the auctions being managed by Higgenbotham Auctioneers of Florida. The McKinley School was constructed in 1876 as a three-and-a-half story structure facing Tennyson Street in the Italianate/Jacobethan style, with red brick, vertical accentuation, pilasters, tall 12/12 windows and a gable roof. A two-story addition was constructed … →

A Trip to Cairo, Illinois

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Sherman Cahal in Midwest | 5 Comments

Spurred on by an impromptu excursion to photograph a collapsed bridge in western Kentucky, I decided to visit a part of the state that I had not yet fully explored. From Owensboro to Paducah, from the isolated Land Between the Lakes to dense streetscapes, I toured the back roads in hopes of finding something new to write about and to photograph. Then, I came across Cairo, Illinois. What the hell happened here?