Cairo, IL - Page 5

-AX- · #81 Posted **May 16, 2009, 1:43 AM**

Fascinating is right! wow!

ethereal_reality · #82 Posted **May 16, 2009, 2:04 PM**

Preston J. Ewing, Cairo Illinois

Preston J. Ewing

Cairo Public Pool closed in 1964 to avoid integration.

ethereal_reality · #83 Posted **May 16, 2009, 2:10 PM**

Preston J. Ewing
Downtown Cairo Illinois. Curfew imposed September 1968

Interesting to compare with......

Dan at Cyburbia.org

I take it the lonely automobile is the photographer's.

Rusty van Reddick · #84 Posted **May 16, 2009, 10:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LMich

BTW, the comparisons to Gary are poor, at best. Gary still has a chance of being saved, and many sections of it are. This little city could, in all reality, completely disappear in three to four more decades, if it even takes that long.

What a pointless response, "at best." Did you even look at the pictures?

ethereal_reality · #85 Posted **May 17, 2009, 12:55 AM**

Preston J. Ewing

Dan at Cyburbia.org

jpIllInoIs · #86 Posted **Nov 24, 2010, 2:30 AM**

Bumpto coincide with new Cairo thread.

photoLith · #87 Posted **Nov 24, 2010, 2:52 AM**

It def looked worse now than when this thread was posted.

Infernal_Elf · #88 Posted **Nov 24, 2010, 12:14 PM**

very intresting shots sad to see some cities get abandoned like this

jpIllInoIs · #89 Posted **Jun 29, 2012, 6:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chicago103

Here are the population stats I found for Cairo, IL:

Year/Population/growth
1850 242 –
1860 2,188 804.1%
1870 6,267 186.4%
1880 9,011 43.8%
1890 10,324 14.6%
1900 12,566 21.7%
1910 14,548 15.8%
1920 15,203 4.5%
1930 13,532 -11.0%
1940 14,407 6.5%
1950 12,123 -15.9%
1960 9,348 -22.9%
1970 6,277 -32.9%
1980 5,931 -5.5%
1990 4,846 -18.3%
2000 3,632 -25.1%

As you can see Cairo peaking in 1920 with 15,232 people, probably about the same time many of those buildings are built, so the downtown is meant to support that many people. Its 2000 population is 3,632, which means its smaller today than it was in 1870! Its not really a ghostown but its less than 1/4 the size that it once was. Does it seem that the remaining population is in pockets or are there just people scattered everywhere giving the impression that its close to adandoned?

UPDATED POP stats for Cairo
US Census April 1, 2010: 2831

Population Estimate (as of July 1 2011) 2759

arkitekte · #90 Posted **Jun 29, 2012, 11:52 PM**

I'm glad this thread was bumped. Looks a lot like Helena, Arkansas. I'm leaving to drive up to Iowa in the morning, hopefully I'll be able to jump off of I-55 on the way back to Memphis and take some photos.

DownhomeDenver · #91 Posted **Jul 2, 2012, 4:30 AM**

Racism killed this town in the long run. The people who remain should eventually leave and let nature take the land back.

DownhomeDenver · #92 Posted **Jul 2, 2012, 4:31 AM**

BTW whoever posted about Texas not having towns like this...I beg to differ, I've been to some of them. You should take a nice long drive on route 287 and you will see many little towns like this that are dying.

Centropolis · #93 Posted **Jul 2, 2012, 3:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawfin

The economics of the area I know are depressed......but that does not stop typical sub-division style development from cropping up. Policies should be in place to favor the reuse of areas like this instead of paving over acres for shitty sub-divisions and the roads and strip mall big box crap boxes that require those sub-divisions for their business model

Well, yes it does in this extreme case (yes I know I'm responding to a banned forumer years later). There is no sprawl around Cairo aside from Future City, which is a few scattered trailers, 1930s slab houses.

Someone asked if there was a nice part of Cairo. Yeah, kind of. There's parts of a few streets (from my Louisville/Cairo thread last year).

photoLith · #94 Posted **Jul 3, 2012, 1:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DownhomeDenver

BTW whoever posted about Texas not having towns like this...I beg to differ, I've been to some of them. You should take a nice long drive on route 287 and you will see many little towns like this that are dying.

Port Arthur in extreme south east Texas is almost like this with a completely dead and falling apart downtown. Theres plenty of small towns like Cairo in Texas. I just drove through Port Arthur today and took some photos inside some crappy old abandoned hotels. Heres a pic I took today of their main street which is almost completely abandoned like Cairo.

LSyd · #95 Posted **Jul 3, 2012, 1:27 PM**

makes me regret not going by there last week, but i didn't have enough time to go out of my way.

-

Centropolis · #96 Posted **Jul 3, 2012, 6:23 PM**

What's the deal with Port Authur, the old part of the city just too close to the refineries? I've not seen too many refinery towns with lively downtowns.

ChiSoxRox · #97 Posted **Jul 3, 2012, 6:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

Port Arthur in extreme south east Texas is almost like this with a completely dead and falling apart downtown. Theres plenty of small towns like Cairo in Texas. I just drove through Port Arthur today and took some photos inside some crappy old abandoned hotels. Heres a pic I took today of their main street which is almost completely abandoned like Cairo.

I knew Port Arthur was having a rough go of it, but I didn't realize that its downtown was anything like this bad. Is Beaumont doing better?

photoLith · #98 Posted **Jul 3, 2012, 7:05 PM**

Beaumonts downtown is a little more lively but also vastly destroyed and abandoned too. Not near as bad as Port Arthur, but its pretty bad. I dont really know why Port Arthurs downtown is completely abandoned though, the city at its peak in population was in the 60s at 63,000 people, now its at 54,o0o so its lost population but its still got a pretty fair amount of people living there. But, its on a downward slope, losing roughly 6 percent of its population every decade since the 70s. Beaumont however is gaining in population but the people that live in both Port Arthur and Beaumont arent exactly urban enthusiasts so the suburban mentality is still alive and well in southeast Texas; therefor their downtowns get abandoned. East Texas is still very much stuck in the 50s.

IMBY · #99 Posted **Nov 15, 2012, 12:28 PM**

I suspect one day this whole town will go up for sale, and it might be a good place for the FLDS of Utah to start up a new Hilldale or Colorado City, or some other religious denomination!

MolsonExport · #**100** Posted **Nov 15, 2012, 5:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

Port Arthur in extreme south east Texas is almost like this with a completely dead and falling apart downtown. Theres plenty of small towns like Cairo in Texas. I just drove through Port Arthur today and took some photos inside some crappy old abandoned hotels. Heres a pic I took today of their main street which is almost completely abandoned like Cairo.

wow. Apocalyptic as hell.