American Ruins by Arthur Drooker

The Globalist PhotoGallery

American Ruins

Photographs by Arthur Drooker

Published by Merrell Publishers

144 pages. 120 photographs. Dimensions (in inches): 11.5 x 10.3 x 0.8.

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American Ruins

Photographs by Arthur Drooker

Outside cities, derelict buildings crumble behind overgrown shrubbery and great towers stand in the midst of expansive deserts, shells of formerly majestic buildings.

These are not biblical-era ruins but rather fading markers of American history — iconic places such as the Alamo, Alcatraz Island and Harpers Ferry.

Photographer Arthur Drooker records the beauty and historical importance of these buildings in American Ruins — and in so doing, reminds people that there are places in America, despite its relative youth, that are worth remembering.

Exploring the Bannerman Castle

In the fading light of day, the vine-covered Bannerman Castle looks like it could be placed anywhere: a Scottish moor, the English countryside, perhaps even perched on a hill in Romania.

But instead, the massive five-story castle rests on Pollepel Island in New York City and is what’s left of proprietor Francis Bannerman VI’s vision. He owned the nation’s largest military surplus store and in 1900, purchased the island to warehouse his expanding merchandise.

When Bannerman died in 1918, construction on the island ceased. Two years later, an explosion of shells and powder damaged it, prompting his family members to abandon the island.

Architecture from America's past

And while the majority of Bannerman Castle remains rooted in place, the Windsor plantation of wealthy cotton planter Smith Coffee Daniel II in Alcorn, Mississippi, is skeletal. All that remains of its former grandeur is 29 Corinthian columns and ironwork.

The two-story, 23-room home survived the Civil War only to be destroyed by an accidental fire ignited by a cigar on February 17, 1980.

A mysterious fire destroyed Thomas Carnegie’s home, Dungeness, on Cumberland Island in Georgia. He built it from the ruins of Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene’s home into a turreted castle so large sea captains used it as a navigational point.

Before the fire, it had an indoor pool, a billiard parlor, a squash court and golf course. Fruit orchards flourished on the property, as did wild game.

Native American relics

But the United States has more than just old castles and plantations to admire. Drooker explores the Native American relics that are hidden within the Southwest’s expansive deserts: Fort Union in Waltrous, New Mexico; Rhyolite in Rhyolite, Nevada; and several abandoned missions.

Just 2.5 miles west of Beatty, Nevada, sun filters in through the open windows of the abandoned John S. Cook Bank, the tallest building in a once-prosperous gold mining town. In 1907, 10,000 people lived in this town with electricity, plumbing, an opera house and a stock exchange.

Twelve years later, it was just a ghost town — and like all these images, it is another piece of history that Drooker urges us to remember and reconsider.

About Arthur Drooker

Photographer Arthur Drooker is a University of Pennsylvania graduate and an award-winning documentary writer and director. His photography revolves around architectural, landscape and historical images.

About Douglas Brinkley

Dr. Brinkley is the director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization and a professor of history at Tulane University. He is the author of “The Great Deluge,” a look at Hurricane Katrina and the havoc it wreaked across the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Reviewed by Christina Erb.

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay Area, California

Bethlehem Steel Mill, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Renwick Ruins, Roosevelt Island, New York

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