The Abandoned Thomastown School of Mound, Louisiana

Thomastown School (Panatomic-X film, Leica IIIC, 50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

Thomastown School (Tri-X film, Tachihara 4×5" camera, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar S-II lens)

A forlorn school sits on an overgrown lot near the junction of US 80 (the former Dixie Overland Highway) and Mound Road (also shown on Google Maps and Thomastown Road). I first saw this abandoned school when I biked on Mound Road as a way to bypass some of the traffic on US 80. Well, maybe it is not technically abandoned. A farmer must own the buildings because he stores hay rolls on the the former parking lot and parks tractors and machinery in the former gymnasium. But the classrooms are a mess and totally neglected.

According to one website, the Thomastown High School was an all-black establishment that closed in 2001.

The 1-storey section on the north was mid-1960s mass production with a brick exterior. The bricks are in good condition, but the roof is leaking. The large windows show that this building did not have air conditioning when built.

The south section was 2-storey, and when I first saw the building from the road, I thought this might be an abandoned mid-century motel. The wide overhangs on both floors were designed to provide some shade to the windows (an architectural feature that more homes should use). The panels on the overhangs were asbestos sheets; many have fallen they crunch underfoot when you walk next to the building.

Classroom on west side (Kodak Gold 100 film, Hasselblad 501 CM, 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, minor fill flash on ceiling)

Central hallway with cheap but intact cinderblock walls

Needless to say, the interior is a mess of debris, with dripping roof panels, standing water, and chipping paint.

This has been our short tour of a semi-abandoned school. I have no information about its fate. If it is privately-owned now, it may sit here moldering for decades.

The color photographs are from 120-size Kodak Gold 100 film. The film was long expired but had been stored in a freezer. I exposed it at EI=64 in my Hasselblad 501CM camera, all frames tripod-mounted.

Expired Color Film Treasure: Kodak Gold 100 120-size (Abandoned Films 07)

 

Dear Readers, this is the last (for now) article in my series on discontinued types of camera film ("Films from the Dead").

Kodak's Gold color negative films (for color prints) were famous for consistent and reliable results under various conditions. No matter what a customer did with their roll, a good laboratory could usually recover a decent image. Kodak manufactured the 35mm versions in USA, Mexico, China, and possibly other countries. I was familiar with Gold 100, 200, and 400 in 135mm size for 35mm cameras but had not seen other sizes. Therefore, I was surprised to see this roll of 120 size 100 in the freezer of a former friend who passed away a few years ago. 

This roll expired in 2000, so I wondered if it would work, but it had been frozen all these years. I loaded it in my Hasselblad and took photographs in the area under various light conditions. I exposed it at EI=64, on the assumption that it had lost some sensitivity over the years. 

I sent the roll to Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, to develop in C-41 chemicals. Dwayne's has been in business for decades, and some of you old-timers may remember that this was the very last laboratory on earth to process Kodachrome slides. 

I scanned the frames with a Minolta Scan-Multi medium format film scanner operated with Silverfast Ai software. The Gold 100 profile was not quite right and the automatic scan produced very green images. It is very possible that the film had shifted despite its long storage in the freezer. But I corrected the color balance using the grey dropper tool, and the resulting scans look pretty good for 20-year-old film. Please click any frame to see it at 1600 pixels wide. All comments welcome.

Examples

Fixer-upper cars, Old US 80 east of Vicksburg (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, 1/4 ƒ/16))

Junk yard, Old US 80 east of Vicksburg, Mississippi (80mm lens)

Abandoned school, Thomastown Road, Mound, Louisiana

Abandoned school, Thomastown Road, Mound, Louisiana

Abandoned school, Thomastown Road, Mound, Louisiana

I came across this old school one day while I was biking on a new route in Louisiana. No one is ever around when I have been there and therefore have not been able to ask about the school's history. Was this one of those separate but equal establishments erected quickly in the 1960s or 1970s? Was it closed because of asbestos? The panels from the roof eaves are asbestos, and they crunch underfoot when you walk near the building.

Workshop at the Mississippi River Basin Model, Buddy Butts Park, Jackson, Mississippi

Closed shop, 1016 Raymond Road, Jackson, Mississippi (80mm lens with polarizer)

Lessons of the Discontinued Film Series

What have I learned from these experiments using discontinued film stocks? I think the main lesson is if the film has been frozen or at least kept cool, it may be perfectly usable:

1. Low speed black and white film should be totally usable. Try exposing with ⅔ or a full stop more exposure compared to the original ISO. There may be more fog. As you saw from my 1960s GAF Versapan film, it provided excellent negatives at EI=64, and it was 50 years old! Northeast Photographic developed it in Xtol.
2. Kodak's Panatomic-X seems to be ageless. I now allow ⅔ of a stop more exposure (EI=20). 
3. High speed film, like Tri-X, may be marginal. But, I have been using 1989 expiration Tri-X 4×5" sheets, and they looks pretty good, although there is some base fog. However, I know the boxes have been frozen all these years.
4. 20-year-old expired Fuji NPS160 C41 film in 120 size (color print): no issue at all. 
5. 1990s Kodak Ektar 25 (120 and 135): Some rolls were ruined, some were OK. They all had color shifts. I think its time is gone and Ektar 25 is too old now. 
6. Kodak BW400CN black and white C41film looks fine, but it is a bit grainy.
7. Kodak Verichrome Pan black and white film appears to be amazingly durable.

If any of you readers have experience with expired film, please add notes to the comments. Thank you for reading along.

On the Dixie Overland Highway, Historic US 80 - Girard and Start, Louisiana (LA-06)

We continue on our exploration westward on historic US 80 through rural Louisiana.

4554 US 80 Girard, Louisiana (Fuji X-E1 digital file, 18mm ƒ/2 lens)

Girard is an unincorporated community in Richland Parish, Louisiana, on the west side of the Boeuf River. Originally, the town could ship merchandise to other markets via the river. But starting in the mid-1800s (before the Civil War), the railroad became the prime means of shipping agricultural products. This is now solely a bedroom community, with houses and a few stores.

The Easy Pickins' Thrifty Sales store is in a nicely-restored old grocery at 5144 US 80. It was open and quite interesting. I asked about old cameras, but the owner only had some old Kodak box cameras and Polaroids. There are always Polaroid cameras at these types of stores, but the lack of most types of instant film makes them useless today.

US 80, view east, Start, Louisiana

Start is another unincorporated community along US 80, this one in Richland Parish, Louisiana. It consists of an unused (?) gin, big gas station, and some homes. 

The buildings of the C.W. Earle Gin, address 5947 US 80, are a short distance south of the highway. Some of the equipment and siding was quite rusted, and I could not tell if this is a going concern or not. 

Texaco, US 80 view west, Start, Louisiana

This is all the excitement in Start. The next community west is Monroe, the "big city" of central Louisiana. We will continue our trip on US 80 in the next article. Thanks for riding along.

These digital images are from a Fuji X-E1 compact camera with the 18mm ƒ/2 Fuji lens.

On the Dixie Overland Highway, Historic US 80 - Dunn and Rayville, Louisiana (LA-05)

US 80 west of Delhi, Louisiana (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

We continue our trip west on The Dixie Overland Highway, now called US 80. Coming out of Delhi, 80 continues through a mixture of farm fields and an occasional forest patch.

Former service station, 1580 US 80, Dunn, LA (GAF Versapan film, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Schneider Angulon lens)

I came across some remnants of the old 80 that may have served travelers during the pre-interstate era.

These two abandoned stores were at the corner of Weems Road and US 80 in Dunn. As in so many rural areas, old country stores have been abandoned and left to the weather and vines.

On the road to Rayville, US 80 (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

As in these other small towns along US 80, the Kansas City Southern trains thunder through several times a day. There was no depot that I could see.

The main road through town is Harrison Street, which is also US 80. A restaurant at the corner was pretty busy, but I was concerned about the virus and did not go in to get lunch. I was pleased to see that most people were rigorous about wearing masks, more so than in Mississippi.

Joy Theater, Harrison Street, Rayville (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

The old Joy Theater on Harrison Street was a classic 1930s theater of the type you would have seen in many towns. The facade was interesting, but unfortunately, the building is a wreck. In the first picture, you can see a tree growing out of the interior.

One last picture, and this one stays in color: Robinson's Meat Market at 402 Madeline Street. What a great folk art advertisement, with lobsters, steaks, and sausages. The proprietor said a fellow from New Orleans painted it. 

Most of these images are from a Fuji X-E1 digital camera on which I mounted an Olympus OM 35mm ƒ/2.8 Zuiko Shift lens. The shift function let me correct for converging lines optically at the time of taking the picture (as opposed to using software after the fact to correct convergence). Most pictures of buildings that you see on the web show converging vertical lines, such as the edges of the building. But when you look at the scene with your eyes, your brain accommodates the convergence and the lines appear straight. Nikon and Canon make modern shift lenses, but very few contemporary users buy these rather technical lenses. I expect that most never used a large format camera, where you can shift the front standard upwards to correct the convergence.

If you want background information on US 80 and the Dixie Overland Highway, the Federal Highway Administration has a detailed history. 

In the next article, we will continue west on US 80. Thank you for riding along!

On the Dixie Overland Highway, Historic US 80 - Delhi, Louisiana (LA-04)

Heading west on the historic Dixie Overland Highway (now US 80), we reach Delhi (DELL-hi, Loo-zee-ANA) only a few miles west of Waverly (see the previous article).

US 80, Delhi, Louisiana (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

According to Wikipedia, Delhi, which is in Richland Parish, was originally called Deerfield. It looked like a clean and cheerful town, at least during a blazing hot summer day in mid-July 2020. The temperature was hovering around 35° C (95° F), and it was a challenge to use the dark cloth on my 4×5" camera. I wimped out and also took some digital snaps.

Former shop (car dealer?), US 80 (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Mooney's Auto Sales & Repair, 236 Rundell St., Delhi (Tri-X 400 film, Fuji GW690II camera, EBC Fujinon 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, yellow filter)

Heading into town from the east, you see a number of old commercial buildings, nothing too exciting.

509 East 1st Street (US 80) (4×5" GAF Versapan film, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar-S II lens, yellow filter)

Former service bay, 509 East 1st Street (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

501 East 1st Street 4×5" (GAF Versapan film, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens, yellow filter)

Former service bay, 501 East 1st Street (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

These two unused gasoline stations are on the south side of US 80 as it enters Delhi from the east. I do not know the architecture well enough to identify the original oil companies that built the stations. Both were faced with enameled steel panels, which are very durable and remain clean. Unfortunately, the roofs on both units were wood, and 501 has collapsed.

Former Water Works, Depot Street (4×5" GAF Versapan film, 180mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar IIN lens, yellow filter)

Within the main town, I did not see much of photographic interest except for the old Waterworks building on Depot Street. I did not see a railroad depot. Is it gone?

Helena Chemical from US 80 (Tri-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, polarizer)

Helena Chemical (Tachihara 4×5"camera, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar-S II lens, polarizer) 

West of downtown, I drove past an impressive elevator/silo complex owned by Helena Chemical. I like industrial photography like this and plan to do more of it in the future.

In the next article, we will continue west on US 80. Thank you for riding along.

On the Dixie Overland Highway, Historic US 80 - Waverly, Louisiana (LA-03)

Dear Readers, let us continue our trip west on US 80, formerly the Dixie Overland Highway. It still stretches across northern Louisiana and continues as far as Dallas, Texas. The Federal Highway Administration has an interesting web page describing how the Dixie was named and laid out in the early 20th century, when America was first motorizing. I have been slowly working my way westward, looking for old stores and interesting structures. For older articles about US 80, please type "Dixie" in the search box.

I wrote about the section from the Mississippi River to Tallulah in 2019. The previous article covered the town of Tallulah. I also wrote about Tallulah in 2013 and 2018 (please click the links).

We proceed west to Waverly, an unincorporated community in Madison Parish. From US 80, the big silo/elevator complex dominates the scene and offers a lot of interesting shapes and patterns for a photographer.

Waverly from US 80 (Tri-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens, yellow filter, 1/125 ƒ/11.5 )

The Mount Sinai MBC Church sits in a field just off US 80 with rather uninspiring scenery.

Elevator/silo complex, Waverly (GAF Versapan film, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Angulon lens, orange filter, ⅒ ƒ/22)

Detail, silo complex, Waverly (GAF Versapan film, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar-S II lens, yellow filter,  1/15 ƒ/22-32)

This impressive complex may be the Farmers Grain Terminal Inc - Waverly Grain Elevator. It is surprisingly hard to find the exact name, but I am not an agricultural scientist and may not know what to look for or how to phrase the search terms. Regardless, it makes for some interesting industrial photography.

Hwy 80 Bar & Grill, 3551 Hwy 80, Waverly (Tri-X, Fuji GW 690II camera, yellow filter, 1/125 ƒ/11.5)

This lonely little bar and grill caught my eye. It was south of the highway with woods all around. Otherwise, there is not too much to see in Waverly.

This is all the excitement in Waverly. Next stop: Delhi (Louisiana, not India, although I have been there, as well).

Update: for some superb large format film photography of wood grain elevators in Canada, please see the excellent work by Jan Normandale titled "Wooden Elevators."