Historic Urbex Graffiti

Today's photo I debated for some time what exactly to call it, and ultimately decided to go with the urban exploration theme as although it isn't truly "off-limits", it is in an area that is very rarely seen, and fencing has been erected to prevent additional graffiti left on the building.

Surprisingly enough, this shot is of the back of the Meyer-Halff House, located in HemisFair Park in downtown San Antonio, Texas. The house was built in 1893 for the Halff family, where they resided until around 1914. During the World's Fair the site served as the location of the "House of Sir John Falstaff" eatery. It has been vacant since the World's Fair.

I thought the front side of the house was interesting and attempted to take some shots through the windows, but I had no luck with that, so I wandered around to the back of the house. The entire area is fenced off (you can see the rolled up fencing on the ground, but I managed to avoid getting any of the standing fencing in the photo) likely to keep additional graffiti off of the walls of the historic site. Thanks to the swiveling LCD screen on the 60D I was able to preview the shots before I took them, as I had to lift my camera over the fencing to take any photos.

During processing I blurred the edges of the photo as well as highlighted the two slogans in purple in an effort to make them more eye-popping than the rest of the graffiti. It is a shame that such an old structure is defaced with graffiti, but I have to admit I think it makes a pretty impressive photo opportunity. I could probably have not revealed the location of this shot and it may have taken some time to find, as I think most people would not expect to find a scene like this on a historic and protected site.

As always, please feel free to leave any comments or feedback, and remember clicking on the photo takes you to my online gallery hosted over at smugmug where you can view this (and my other photos) in various sizes. Thanks for stopping by!

Historic Urbex Graffiti