Ohio is home to a vast number of derelict structures, including residences and even entire communities. The featured location for today is yet another eerie example of a neighborhood that was once bustling but now lies utterly desolate. The fact that the town wasn’t deserted for very long adds to its allure. Some of the houses were even inhabited as recently as this year (2019). These photos, taken by Johnny Joo, reveal the eerily deserted streets of Woodcliff.
Ohio’s Woodcliff neighborhood is one of the state’s most peculiar due to the presence of approximately 100 abandoned homes.
The 36-acre property has been deserted since 2019. But by that point, most of the houses had been deserted. What happened to cause this Ohio neighborhood to be deserted?
Woodcliff was founded in 1953 and quickly became a popular residential and commercial area. The suburb of Columbus became known as a tranquil area to settle down.
In contrast, the housing stock’s quality started to decline in the late 1980s. In addition, tensions among the locals started to increase. The downward spiral began in 2007, when things really started to become bad. Both the city and county lodged a health complaint when they discovered that the condo association management had been putting trash into the pool and then paying contractors to clean it out weekly. Because of this, the property was labeled a public nuisance the next year.
Sewer backups, mold, and structural deterioration were just a few of the problems that would result in numerous complaints to local authorities about property code violations over the next fifteen years.
An order from the court mandating the sale of the property was issued in August of this year. Nearly $10 million was spent on the purchase by the city. The remaining 20 or so residents were given a year to vacate the area.
The neighborhood has begun to be slowly demolished, and the city claims that the redevelopment won’t be completed until 2030. Do you find these photographs fascinating in their unsettling look at a once-thriving neighborhood that has fallen on hard times? From the largest abandoned industrial complex in the world to a gigantic ghost town with a tragic history, OnlyInYourState’s Vacant features fascinating abandoned places across the United States. Read on to learn about each of the eleven locations. Check out Johnny Joo’s website, Architectural Afterlife, for more pictures. What do you make of this Ohio neighborhood that has been let to decay? Do you have any experience with Woodcliff? Put your thoughts into words and leave a remark below; we value your feedback.
