St. Stephen's Cemetery, Louisville, KY

Rather than go swimming in the nearby pool, I took advantage of the Memorial Day holiday to visit an interesting and unusual local cemetery, St. Stephen's, located just east of Old Louisville.  It is a worthwhile visit, should you find the time and inclination.

Abandoned Shelbyville Road Bridge, crossing Floyd's Fork in Louisville, KY.

This old double-arch concrete bridge lies slightly to the south of the current US-60/Shelbyville Road bridge.  The age of it is unknown, but the current bridge appears to date from the 1990s.  My guess is that this structure probably dates from the 1920s, give or take a little bit.

Abandoned flashing rack outpost at the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant - Charlestown, Indiana

This flashing rack station was a part of the old Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, and is located in what is currently Charlestown State Park in Charlestown, Indiana.  The purpose of the flashing rack was to check that used plant materials no longer had any traces of propellant.  Only a small building that appears to have been an office at one time now remains in the area.  At the time these photos were taken the office was more or less how it was left when abandoned.

Nuclear Fall Out Shelter Sign - New Albany, Indiana

I found this Cold War relic in the stairway of the Floyd County Court House in New Albany, Indiana.  A lot of old public buildings will still have fall out shelters in their basements, but the signage in most places has been removed.  I may return one day to get some pictures of the basement, but the door was locked at the time when I took this picture.

Abandoned Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant - Jefferson County, Indiana

Marble Hill was a nuclear power plant that began to be constructed in 1977 and was never finished.  The plant was abandoned by the company now known as Duke Energy in 1984.  The abandoned cooling towers of the plant were visible driving the back roads of Jefferson County, Indiana for two decades until the scrapping of the plant began in 2005.  These photos were taken in the midst of the scrapping process and the towers came down not too long after that.

Abandoned Eastern Cemetery and Crematorium - Louisville, Kentucky

Eastern Cemetery is located on Baxter Avenue in Louisville, KY next to the infamous Cave Hill cemetery.  The cemetery suffered from years of horrible mismanagement before being abandoned and left to the mercy of vandals.  Volunteers now take care of the cemetery doing what they can, but it still sits in what is incredible, although improving disrepair.  An old building with a crematorium and chapel sits in the back of the cemetery.  It was  at one point a squatter's paradise, but has now been repainted and all the entrances bricked up.  I have included photos of the crematorium before and after a clean up done a few years ago.

Abandoned Rose Island Amusement Park - Charlestown, Indiana

This photo of the old swimming pool is from my first visit to Rose Island back in January 2009 before it was open to the public.

The Rose Island Amusement Park was once the Louisville area's premier family attraction in the early twentieth century.  The park had a wide array of attractions for its time including a swimming pool, hotel, zoo, and dance hall.  The flood of 1937 essentially wiped out most of the park and it was never reopened.  The ruins of the park sat abandoned for decades on the bank of the Ohio River, as it became part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant.  After INAAP was shut down the land became part of Charlestown State Park.  In 2011 the trails of Charlestown State Park finally expanded into the former Rose Island Amusement Park making access to the park relatively easy.