The Key Lime

Last winter, work brought some of us to the former Farm Colony in Staten Island.

People who had no where else to go would live in this poorhouse, spread over 70 acres, and earn their keep by working on its farm.

At the age of 84, Alice Austen was forced to move here in 1950. The publication of her photographs garnered enough money for members of the Staten Island Historical Society to move her to a nursing home.

Today these landmark buildings are completely dilapidated and have fallen into ruin.

They have been stripped of their fixtures and vandalized. The weather has taken down roofs and walls. In an effort to keep the homeless and addicts out, many of the doors and windows have been sealed off with cinder blocks.

Yet, despite all the damage, they’re still amazing.