15 Haunting Photos From Inside the Abandoned Lewis & Clark Tower

The Lewis & Clark Tower has stood at the intersection of Lewis and Clark Boulevard and Chambers Road since 1965 — but after the town of Moline Acres issued condemnation orders in 2014, its demise has accelerated.

As Thomas Crone explains in this week's cover story, "In the abandoned condos,  you get a sense of how quickly people left. Personal effects are everywhere. Photos and scrapbooks. Artwork. Furniture of all sorts. Books. Electronics. Toys. A little of everything's been left inside, almost all of it picked through over the years by urban explorers, graffiti taggers and the few dozen squatters who've called the Tower at least a temporary home and whose own lives here are told by small remains. They've left vials of pills, clothing piles made into bedding, trash bags of dried feces in countless toilets.

"All the way up, there's the Top of Tower Restaurant space within the building's tenth and final floor. Inside the once-posh restaurant, you can feel what was once a vivid example of mid-century style. Thick carpets remain, though filthy and mold-riddled now. Windows not spray-painted over the years offer the same wide views of the surrounding north-county landscape as seen on postcards of the glory days."


Photographer Carrie Zukoski visited the site recently. Her photos show a mid-century marvel that's suffered from the passage of time, a once-modern place that sadly feels left in the past.