GUEST BLOG: Urban Exploration: Madness Grows in Abandoned Tree Nursery

The second guest blog by Michael Antonucci takes us on a trip into a bizarre abandoned structure in Anacostia Park/Poplar Point. As is patently obvious, Urban Exploration (Urbex) is often not for the feint of heart.

Photo by Michael Antonucci

Exploring deserted places is almost, by definition, a little eerie. Abandoned sites hint at past trauma - after all, they're abandoned for a reason. That's part of the appeal. The best finds thrill by evoking a sense of a world behind this world. A site in Anacostia Park doesn't evoke that sense though - it screams it.

Photo by Michael Antonucci

I was trying to fill in more sites on a graffiti map, and thought there might be an defunct skate park or tagged retaining wall in Anacostia Park. I don't think there is. There is, however, an abandoned building rimmed by rusty pipes, tangled vines, and broken glass. The interior is an anti-Christmas present for a horror director - windows covered with smeary red hand-prints, choice sections of revelations childishly scrawled on the wall, threatening notes on paper, and a chain-filled boiler room that Freddy Krueger would envy. I texted my coordinates to my wife in case of a Bloodyface attack, took a few pictures, and wandered back to civilization with lingering unease.

"Chain filled boiler room" was an interesting but unhelpful Google search, so I dug around documents on the site itself, Poplar Point. The pipes, broken glass, and broken down flower beds all suggest that this used to serve as the Lanham Tree Nursery.

Photo by Michael Antonucci

For almost a decade, Poplar Point's been in limbo. Although Congressional legislation mandates a transfer of the property to the DC city government, a full transfer has yet to occur. This glacial pace has chilled plans for development, and induced at least one frustrated developer to sell. While the transfer remains theoretical, the site's actually still managed by the National Park Service. In the case of the Lanham Tree Nursery, that management means fencing it, chaining the fences, and letting nature do its thing.

Its not clear what or who occupied the abandoned nursery buildings while Poplar Point remains deserted. A few Flickr photos and a snap from the DCist show that whatever weird traces exist there existed in 2013.

We'd definitely appreciate any hints, clues, or speculation. If you're venturing out to the site yourself, remember that you're probably trespassing, definitely traveling over a polluted site that hasn't been fully remediated, and potentially disturbing a timeless cthonic evil.

Happy hunting!

Here are some additional photos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18683454569/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18247059144/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18872389141/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18248992073/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18869613055/
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3946/18869612895_009902c529_b_d.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18681936050/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18864430662/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18681927120/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18248987943
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133462823@N06/18872387831/sizes/l