9. Spofford Juvenile Jail

The Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx was closed in 2011 after community activists and criminal justice advocoates cited its poor living conditions and treatments of detainees. The detention center was renamed the Bridges Juvenile Detention Center in 1999. Its multi-wing complex once held as many as 289 juvenile detainees. The detention center featured several recreational facilities like basketball and tennis courts and a pool. It also held a state-approved school called  the Carter G. Woodson Academy.

When Spofford closed in 2011, everything was simply left behind, giving the building the appearance of being frozen in time. Mattresses, files, deflated basketballs, and a single black sneaker are among the pieces remaining in the abandoned detention center. The building will not stay like this for long, however. Last year, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced their intention to transform Spofford into a five-acre affordable live-work campus. Spofford will be demolished to make way for this project, to be named “The Peninsula.”