Municipal Electric Light Plant
Updated October 2006 | By Matthew Christopher
The mid-sized Municipal Electric Light Plant in Hagerstown, MD closed in 1972 and since has been a haven for the homeless and vandals. A former plant boss recently plead guilty to running a team of thieves who stole and sold copper from the plant after its closure. While it lacks the scale of Baltimore Gas & Electric's Westport plant or Portside, it had a certain charm despite the years of abuse heaped on it.
The trip to the Municipal Electric Light Plant was much more eventful than I had intended. After walking around the back of the building I found a door with a glass panel that had been broken out. I hoisted my tripod and bag through it, and carefully crawled through. When I picked my tripod up I felt something wet on my hand. I quickly realized that I had slashed my arm fairly badly on an extremely small yet razor sharp piece of glass in the door frame and was bleeding quite a bit.
Since I had driven a fair distance to photograph the plant and had wanted to see it for a while, I decided that the best option would be to tie my shirt around the wound and keep photographing for four hours. During that time I was on the lookout constantly for the squatter whose drugs and pornography my friend had discovered on a previous visit. Since I was by myself I was somewhat worried that he might appear and attack me. It was only after I left that I pondered on the fact that if I were a homeless person - or any person, really - and saw someone wandering around an abandoned power plant with their shirt tied around their arm and covered in blood, I would probably give them a wide berth. When I left I went to the hospital as the cut had started to hurt pretty badly. I got several stitches and it healed up nicely.
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