On Saturday, I went back to Warrenton to continue electrical work on the Habitat house. It was another cold day but John, bless him, had brought hand warmers for everyone which really helped. I think the last weekend had put folks off because we were short on the ground with volunteers this week but Val, Evelyn and I pushed on and worked together to get one of the bedrooms wired up as downstairs was completed. Val and I installed the cables while Evelyn followed and spliced the wires coming out of the sockets so they were ready for connection.
Checking the wiring diagram with Ralph, our qualified electrician and teacher.
Val clamping the wire to the wall struts.
Yay! We had hot food for lunch, pasta and delicious sausage. While eating, I had a chat with our WomenBuild site boss. I'd noticed that the past 3 weeks we hadn't seen the lady who was getting the new house and was curious to know how much time she herself had to volunteer. She only has to put in 50 hours which left me open mouthed in astonishment. How can someone who benefits so much be expected to give so little when the rest of us are donating so many weekends? I mentioned that I found this information and her absence was really deflating my enthusiasm, and if I was starting to become disenchanted then some of the others could be too. I was then told that she had even had the audacity to ask whether the house would be finished by the end of March. I would have told her that if she put in some time herself the completion date would be sooner. I'm going to finish this house as I am committed to completing this project but I don't know if I shall be as heavily involved with future house builds.
The Electric Team. We finished the bedroom but failed to muster up any more enthusiasm to start another room, it really was too cold, and others were starting to pack up too. Sure hope next week will be warmer!
On Sunday Steve and I hooked up with DCUE and went to revisit an old haunt, Henryton. I've been a couple of times already to this crumbling decrepit TB hospital but we got the news that $3.5 million has been set aside for asbestos abatement and demolishment of the site this coming spring, so it was a final trip for me to say thanks and farewell.
This site has been a hang out for grafitti artists, explorers, party goers and of course many vandals. It has even been investigated for paranormal activity,
http://www.prrsociety.org/henryton.html.
There have been a few fires here too and the buildings have slowly become more and more wretched. Despite a web site trying to save the place,
www.savehenryton.com, it seems that finally the fight has to come to an end, but Henryton will live on in our photos, videos and internet reports. So the following photos are my last collection of the famed sanitorium.
Some of us brought our favorite props along. I had my glass marble, a piece of mirror and a chunk of reinforced glass, Margie brought her stuffed cat, and even found a little china cat in one of the buildings, likely the last intact thing in the place. And Olivia had her clown, great idea for creepy shots. And then the few of us remaining as the afternoon came to an end took a final group shot in front of the complex.Henryton was built in 1923; I felt a little sad it didn't manage to stand for a century...
There's more information on Henryton here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryton_State_Hospital
Afterwards Lewis directed us to a biker bar close by that he'd found on the internet, The Woodstock Inn.
It was warm and had a pretty good selection of beer along with some great food. Once again, a great urbexing trip rounded off nicely!
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