Disclaimer: This article was published in 2023. Some information may no longer be current.
“This was somebody’s home, and somehow they lost their home,” said weekend photographer Michael Wade, 68, who has been documenting the nostalgic stories of abandoned buildings through his lens since 2018.
“That personally resonates with me greatly because I had to struggle so hard to keep my family from losing our home.”
The sunken roofs and sagging porches of the deserted houses he portrays—once elegant manners filled with laughter—bespeak of simpler times gone by. Meanwhile, haunting fronts of forsaken goods stores, once the thriving heart of a community, whisper of their owners’ lost dreams.
“That was somebody’s dream. What happened to it?” asked Wade.
Could internet shopping have rendered these rural businesses obsolete in the same way cell phone cameras shuttered his once-bustling photography portrait studio?
He would find out through his photo documentation, while also discovering that those lost dreams aren’t hopelessly lost. They just require re-finding.
An abandoned farmhouse in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, photographed in August 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned auto station in Stoney Creek, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An antique store in Matthews, Virginia, photographed in October 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
Wade learned this after his parallel life led him to recapture his dream of being a photographer. “All art is in some way autobiographical,” said Wade, speaking of the forgotten buildings he photographs. “I see myself in them.”
Descending into Obsolescence
Wade’s photography career began 40 years earlier, taking Avant Garde portraits of punk rockers in a bar during the early 80s. That led to his shooting for the Chrysler Museum in Virginia before venturing out to open his own portrait studio. He was making six figures.
Life was good.
But technology caught up and drove his gradual descent into obsolescence—much like the buildings he now devotes his off hours to documenting.
The smartphone was introduced, landing a camera in the hands of pretty much everyone.
“The cell phone that can take photographs did to professional photography what Netflix did to Blockbuster Video,” Wade said wryly.
“It used to be that only the Pharaoh had his story documented. Now 13-year-old kids on TikTok are getting his life documented.”
An abandoned grocery store in Winterpock, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned home in Claremont, Virginia, photographed in December 2019. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An old home in Snakebite Township, North Carolina, photographed in December 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
Wade watched despondently as Kodak filed for bankruptcy. He looked on forlornly as portrait studios in Sears and Walmart shuttered their doors for the final time.
They were the “canary in the coal mine,” foreshadowing the direction of his future career path.
“By 2012, it was pretty much over,” he said. Pretty soon, he locked his studio door for the last time, too.
Like those whose deserted homes and businesses he photographs, Wade bade farewell to simpler times. He would likewise have to re-find or reinvent himself—somehow.
An abandoned house in Ivor, Virginia, photographed in January 2023. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A deserted ice cream shop in Frog Level, Virginia, photographed in July 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned house in King and Queen County, Virginia, photographed in January 2023. Courtesy of Michael Wade
Thus at age 58, he worked 60-hour weeks at a shipping yard. Pushing 60, he attended college full-time.
He sold life insurance. And still does.
It paid the bills, but “literally working in a cubicle” all day wasn’t nurturing the soul.
But the three-day weekends with his office job afforded him time to spare.
“I started just wandering around, going out to the country more and more, and was attracted to these older, abandoned buildings,” he said. “I felt comfortable photographing them because nobody lives there. Nobody’s going to come out and say, ‘Why are you taking pictures of my home?’
“The more I started doing that, the more I started discovering the history and the story of these places.”
He would also discover a major reason for their decline.
Reclaiming the Dream
The freedom was intoxicating. Literally “wandering aimlessly” in his car, he would intentionally get lost down dirt roads in remote reaches of his home state of Virginia.
A house and tree on a hill in Dolphin, Virginia, photographed in April 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"John Sykes' home," located in Adams Grove, Virginia, photographed in October 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A deserted service station located in Dragonville, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
“A lot of times, I'll pick a spot just for the name,” he said. “I’ve been to Frog Level, Little Hell, Hurtsville, and I just pick a place because the name sounds interesting.”
We sometimes don’t even think when we pass by a place—a lonely service station or general goods store becomes a lost fixture. They were places of vital importance.
“A lot of these places were the Walmart: the post office, the merchandise store,” Wade said. “These places were the heartbeat of the community. This is where you went to get your mail. This is where you sat down on a summer’s day, got a Coca-Cola, a bag of peanuts, and sat down with a guy in blue jean coveralls and talked about the weather, talked about politics, gossiped about the pastor. This was small-town life.”
So, what became of those simpler days? Wade believes both politics and technology had a hand in phasing them out.
While driving those dirt roads, he sees hardly a soul, but they’re not deserted.
“One of the things I see a lot of when I’m out riding around: UPS and Amazon and FedEx,” he said. “Because now, if you can access the internet, you don’t have to go down to Three Black Cats to get something ordered.”
And, lamenting the 2008 financial crisis’ sad recovery, he added with a nudge that “elections have consequences.”
An abandoned convenience store and service station in Grizzard, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Davis & Allen GMS," which once "sold everything—even caskets," is located in Ladysmith, Virginia, and was photographed by Michael Wade in November 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A gas station located in King and Queen County, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
Wade has traipsed to some 500 plots across the state and beyond. He has developed a “radar” for spotting their signature old red tin roofs “out of the corner of my eye, 65 miles an hour, a mile behind me,” he said.
Although he has now fully embraced digital—Wade professes he isn’t a “caveman”—he’s partial to the elegance of his antiquated 4x5 view camera, which looks a lot like an accordion.
He misses the craft. Film “slows you down” in a good way.
“There’s a certain elegance,” he said, adding with a laugh: “like driving a shift versus an automatic—but I still drive an automatic.”
Still, for years he clung to all those old negatives and sample photos—reminiscent of a once-burning artistic ambition now in ashes.
“It’s almost like a divorce, or death,” he said. “And you’ve finally come to a point where it’s like, ‘I need to move away from this, and I got to stop grieving.’
“This part of my life is over.”
"Allen J. Harris Store" and "Koskoo Post Office," located in Little Texas, Virginia, photographed in August 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Two Frogs on a Bike" antique store, located in Hanover, Virginia, was photographed in December 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
The grandson of the original owner of an abandoned store. Courtesy of Michael Wade
Over, but not really over.
Somehow, Wade’s passion persists, and through it, the stories of the places he photographs persist, too.
He’s gotten more organized in his approach now. Wade’s plugged himself into a tight-knit community of fellow ghost town hunters, whom he turns to for GPS coordinates and Google Earth screen grabs on the fly or historical profiling—thanks to technology, ironically.
By posting his finds on Facebook, resources come flooding in from helpers who fill in the gaps in the story.
Wade has managed to locate surviving family members, such as grandchildren, whose ancestors once owned these places. He’s uncovered histories, some downright bloody and notorious.
Less haphazard in his approach, today Wade plans his journeys more deliberately, often with specific targets in mind.
But he’s not too careful.
“I do have a target destination,” he said. “But on the way back, I try to get lost as many times as possible.”
An old car and home in Conway, North Carolina, photographed in December 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A deserted farmhouse (now no longer in existence) in Newville, Virginia, photographed in August 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Belle Haven," located in Chesapeake, Virginia, was photographed in January 2023. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned property for sale in Somerset, Virginia, was photographed in April 2021. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A deserted auto shop photographed in May 2019 in Waverly, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned barber shop photographed in May 2019 in Surry, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Champe Brockenbrough House" was the "last place John Wilkes Booth visited," according to Michael Wade, who photographed the building in Port Royal, Virginia, in October 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A "country store" in Blackwater, Virginia, photographed in February 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Fanny Hall" in Ivor, Virginia, photographed in January 2023. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A "depot" and later an "insurance office" in Wakefield, Virginia, photographed in November 2019. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A deserted home in Snakebite Township, North Carolina, photographed in December 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A "mansion" in Kenbridge, Virginia, photographed in April 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Musgrave House" in Southampton County, Virginia, photographed in August 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Need Things" store in Susan, Virginia, photographed in October 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An old abandoned home in Ashland, Virginia, photographed in August 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A convenience store in Joyceville, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An old home in Ashland, Virginia, photographed in August 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned post office in Sunbeam, Virginia, photographed in September 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Penola" post office and "Coleman's" store in Penola, Virginia, photographed in June 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned school in Champlain, Virginia, photographed in January 2023. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A service station in Branchville, Virginia, photographed in January 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned goods store and post office in Signpost, Virginia, photographed in June 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A steak and porkchop restaurant in Stoney Creek, Virginia, photographed in July 2021. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A service station in Stevensville, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Sycamore Crossing" general merchandise store and post office in Isle of Wight, Virginia, photographed in July 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A tank and flag in Clingenpeel Park, Dundas, Virginia, photographed in April 2022. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An unknown church in Beaverdam, Virginia, photographed in November 2020. Courtesy of Michael Wade
An abandoned store in Prince George County, Virginia. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A deserted goods store and post office in Uno, Virginia, photographed in June 2021. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Vintage Goods" antique store in Southampton County, Virginia, photographed in April 2021. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Farmhouse & Grain Bins" in Pungo, Virginia, among Michael Wade's early photography taken in 1980. Courtesy of Michael Wade
A now demolished abandoned home in Little Texas, Virginia, photographed in March 2021. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"The Blue Madonna," a home in Chesapeake, Virginia, photographed in 2010. Courtesy of Michael Wade
"Tree in Field of Sunflowers" in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is among Michael Wade's early photography taken in 1980. Courtesy of Michael Wade
Michael Wing is a writer and editor based in Calgary, Canada, where he was born and educated in the arts. He writes mainly on culture, human interest, and trending news.
