Scenic route

I've had to make a few trips over the last couple of months, to Fredericksburg and Richmond, and I-95 has been so undependable - or rather, predictably useless - that I've been using US 1, the old north-south highway that runs all the way from Key West to the Canadian border in Maine. I enjoy US 1, because of the heterogeneous mix of pretty, rolling farm land, and run-down commercial districts, both elements yielding plenty of specimens of abandoned real estate, which interests me, strangely. Maybe it's the ghostly quality of buildings that once were new and functional, and played a role in the lives of people who are now (mostly) gone. Maybe it's just the idea of the inexorable working of nature and the elements in reducing the untended creations of man to ruin. I think a photo essay featuring some of the lonelier, more delapidated structures would be interesting.

For instance, near Aquia, I noticed this abandoned assisted-living facility, which I'm pretty sure was originally a roadside motor court (click on image to enlarge).







In addition to what's barely standing, there are also fascinating historical markers denoting what is now long gone. Also near Aquia, there is a crucifix marking the first English Catholic settlement in Virginia.