From ghost towns to former hospitals, mines and even subway stations, America has a whole host of abandoned places which give a fascinating insight into its past. But just what did these places look like back in the day? Join us as we peel back the layers of history and reveal what these places looked like before they were abandoned.

Gold was first discovered in Montana in the town of Bannack, located along Grasshopper Creek, in July 1862. This sparked a gold rush which saw the town gain 3,000 residents in just a year, although its prosperity was short-lived. By 1870, many miners had left Bannack for more successful nearby mines including Alder Gulch, and its population dwindled to a few hundred.

By the 1940s Bannack was a ghost town, and it could have fallen victim to vandalism had it not been declared a State Park in 1954. Today, the strikingly well-preserved remains of wooden houses, mining equipment and community buildings make this one of the most compelling Gold Rush towns in western America.

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Opened in 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary was then the most expensive prison in the world. It’s also the facility that pioneered the term ‘penitentiary’, with a focus on inspiring its inmates to feel penitence or regret towards their crimes, which was inspired by Quaker principles. But make no mistake, this was a prison. It used a separation system, meaning prisoners weren’t allowed to interact with each other, and were left in loneliness.

Why were these inhumane methods used? The Quakers believed that if prisoners were forced into solitary confinement – eating, sleeping and exercising alone, and reading the only book that was allowed, the Bible – they would be forced into deep inward reflection and repent for their crimes. In fact, by all accounts these conditions were unbearable. The penitentiary closed in 1971, after 142 years in operation. It reopened as a museum in 1994, allowing visitors to wander through its haunting corridors and peek inside its tiny, isolating cells. 

Located at the end of a dusty, pot-holed, 13-mile-long (21km) road off State Highway 395, Bodie is devoid of residents but it was once one of California’s most important Gold Rush towns. In 1859, prospectors discovered gold reserves to the east of the Sierra Nevada and the town of Bodie sprung up, quickly becoming a thriving community with more than 10,000 residents in its heyday. Pictured here is its schoolhouse.

Unfortunately, the mining town’s bust was just as dramatic as its boom. After big-money investors splashed out on expensive mining equipment in the 1870s, and many thousands of people moved here in the hunt for gold, prospectors realised there was hardly any of the stuff left in the ground. In the early 1880s, people left Bodie in droves and just 800 residents remained. The town was abandoned by the end of the Second World War and became a State Park in 1962.

The town of Shakespeare started life as a stop on the mail train line, and it was known under a different name: Mexico Springs. But in 1870, when prospectors discovered silver nearby, it was renamed Ralston City after William Ralston, who financed building the mine. The name Shakespeare came nine years later, when the town changed hands again and its new owner attempted to kick-start mining operations here once more.

Yet Shakespeare never returned to its mid-1870s heyday, when there were as many as 3,000 people living here. After the 1893 depression, the mines had to shut and the town was all but abandoned. Today, it’s recognised as a National Historic Site and visitors can book onto a scheduled tour.

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Named after the array of colours in the surrounding mountains, Calico was established in 1881. The mining outpost, located in the heart of the Mojave Desert, quickly earned a reputation as one of the biggest silver hot spots in the West, attracting 3,500 residents in its heyday. Shown here in 1882, the town had hotels, restaurants, a post office, a schoolhouse, a doctor’s surgery and even its own telephone service.

Mirroring the fate of other gold- and silver-rush towns across the nation, Calico suffered when the price of silver plummeted in the mid-1890s and mining officially ended here in 1907. Although a cyanide plant was built a decade later, that was also short-lived and the town was left to decay in the 1930s. Thankfully, restorations beginning in the 1950s – courtesy of local farmer Walter Knott, who bought the town – have helped keep Calico’s history alive.

America’s first mineral mining boom began in the early 1840s with the discovery of silver, copper and iron in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One of the region’s best-known mines was Quincy Mine, which provided a reliable stream of copper for almost 100 years, earning it the nickname “Old Reliable”.

But all good things have to come to an end, and in 1945 the Michigan mine ceased operations. Today it’s protected by the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, which typically runs guided tours for visitors, which include underground exploration of the mine itself and access to the working cog rail tram. 

More than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. While most people know about its Great Hall, where newly arrived people were processed, it’s also home to America’s first public health hospital. After entering the island, immigrants received a check-up. Those with conditions deemed a threat to public health were turned away, and anyone else who required treatment were sent to this hospital. The Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital treated more than 10,000 patients a year at its peak in 1914.

The number of patients began to dwindle after the early 1900s and it eventually closed in 1930. Although the facility was repurposed as a military hospital in the decades that followed, it was finally abandoned entirely in the 1950s. Today, those wishing to visit can take part in a 90-minute tour, run by the Save Ellis Island organisation.

Recognise this spooky-looking former prison? That’s because it’s had on-screen appearances in films and TV series such as The Blues Brothers and Prison Break. Built in the 1850s, it’s an enormous facility, with 24 buildings and 25-foot-tall (7.6m) surrounding walls. Conditions were cramped and unsanitary – it didn’t even have running water or toilets in cells until 1910 – and it was the site of numerous hangings and executions.

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When nearby Stateville Penitentiary opened in the 1920s, Old Joliet was supposed to close, but it remained in operation until 2002. Today, its buildings are well-preserved, despite having been abandoned for almost two decades, and visitors can take a walking tour of the facility.

Built during the 1880s by railroad magnate Colonel James Sloss, Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces was created at the peak of America’s industrial era. It quickly grew to become one of the world’s largest producers of pig iron by the beginning of the First World War. But the workforce at Sloss was extremely segregated, with all managerial roles being held by white people and African-Americans providing all the hard labour.

The original mining complex was replaced throughout the early 20th century, and the oldest building we can see today dates back to 1902. In the 1960s, air pollution in Birmingham was chronic and the introduction of the US Clean Air Act ruled that out-of-date mining facilities had to shut. Local preservationists lobbied for Sloss Furnaces to become a historic site and in 1977, the government issued $3.3 million (£2.5m) to preserve it. Today, the abandoned relic stands as an intriguing insight into America’s industrial past. 

Created in the style of Old Joliet Prison, with Gothic-style turrets and battlements, West Virginia Penitentiary opened in 1876. It was divided into different sections: prisoners who behaved badly were placed in a five-by-seven-foot (1.5 by 2.1m) cell called The Alamo for up to 24 hours a day, while those who’d earned special privileges got to stay in the low-security Honor Hall.

The penitentiary was the site of 93 executions, which were done by public hanging up until 1931, and it closed its doors for good in 1995. Since then, the abandoned site has developed a reputation for being haunted by its former inmates: visitors have reported seeing ghosts, hearing voices and experiencing a feeling of being watched while they wander its spooky interior. Today, West Virginia Penitentiary has a number of tour options for those wishing to learn about its chilling history.

Named after the glacier near which it’s located, the town of Kennecott (also known as Kennicott) was founded after copper was discovered in the area in the early 1900s. In fact, a whopping $200 million (£150m) worth of copper was extracted here between 1911 and 1938. But supplies of copper ore began to shrink by the 1920s and the company that owned Kennecott’s mine diversified into other areas.

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Following further financial difficulties, the Kennecott mine closed in 1938. The same year, the town was left abandoned and the railway stopped serving the area. Today, the buildings of this former mining town remain in various states of disrepair, with a number of them listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sitting on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River, Bannerman Castle was built by Scotsman Francis Bannerman in 1901 as a place to store army equipment and weapons. Along with his family, Bannerman had established a thriving business in military supplies: in fact, half of all commemorative cannons in the US are said to have been purchased from them. 

As well as the storage site, a smaller building on the island was created and used as the Bannermans’ holiday home. Two years after Francis’ death in 1918, a gunpowder explosion badly damaged the property, then in 1950 the ferry that ran between the island and the mainland sank. Abandoned since 1957, the haunting castle has fallen victim to vandalism and graffiti over the years, although it’s currently protected by the Bannerman Castle Trust. 

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Pictured here on opening day, 27 October 1904, eager passengers board the subway for the first time at City Hall station. As well as being one of the first stops on the network, it was considered the grandest, complete with chandeliers, glass skylights and ornately tiled arches created by famed engineer Rafael Guastavino.

But it was the architectural features which made City Hall subway station so stunning that were also responsible for its downfall. When the design of subway cars changed in later decades, the station’s curved ceilings weren’t able to accommodate their shape, and in 1945 it was forced to close. Today, passengers can’t use the stop but they can travel through it, if they stay on board the 6 train after Brooklyn Bridge. 

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