Not long ago, a pack of teenage runaways lived the dream in Gowanus’ infamous Batcave, shacking up rent-free in an abandoned MTA powerhouse on the shore of the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal. Out of the grime, in back rooms and crooked halls, the artifacts of this sizable squatter settlement remain to enlighten, amuse, and unnerve the intrepid few that enter the disreputable interior.
You wouldn’t expect to find Superman string art in the Batcave.
The old Central Power Station of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was built in 1896 to serve a rapidly expanding subway system in the outer boroughs, positioned on the banks of the Gowanus Canal to ensure an efficient intake of coal to power an arsenal of 32 boilers and eight 4,000 horsepower steam-driven generators. The plant’s technology couldn’t keep up with the times, and after a brief second life as a paper recycling plant, the powerhouse was abandoned. Today, it’s more commonly known as the “Batcave,” supposedly named for the creatures that once congregated in its broken-down ceiling.
In the early 2000s, a colony of homeless young people settled inside the building, establishing a thriving, peaceable community. At onset, the squat held a positive reputation, kept under the watchful eye of a few individuals who ensured hard drugs and detrimental criminal activities were kept out. After a drunken rooftop incident, authorities were notified and made their first attempt to evict the punk-rock squatters, leaving the colony without its guardians.
Over the next two years, heroin use and overdose grew rampant, and a wave of brutality overwhelmed the Batcave. Drug-induced violence culminated in a series of nightmarish events; one homeless man was thrown from a window, another overdosed and was left on the street for law enforcement to find. Frightened community members saw to it that the Batcave colony was ousted indefinitely in 2006.
The residents are long gone, but most of their humble furnishings remain. Some living quarters, fashioned in old corner offices of the power plant, are generously sized, complete with beds, bookshelves, and lounge chairs. Others are no larger than a closet; album covers, skulls and superheroes, and a general state of chaos are prominent features of these impromptu bedrooms.
An eerie robot toy.
Prized possessions—a VHS copy of the Nightmare Before Christmas, a dogeared paperback edition of Hamlet—molder in the damp with shampoo bottles, plastic toys, and stockpiles of hypodermic needles. Stuffed animals are the most abundant, and telling artifacts. Once treasured, these hulking teddy bears, leather-clad Elmo dolls, and freaky Fisher-Price robots lie mired in filth, decapitated or gutted and hung from strings.
While large-scale pieces by notable graffiti artists dominate the Batcave’s main hall, the more intriguing artworks can be found on the bedroom walls. Always obscene, typically humorous, and occasionally clever, these amateur scrawls portray a community of fun-loving, hard-living, creative youth, although some inscriptions tend toward the dark and morbid, pointing to a deep resentment for society and obsessions with dying and suicide.
It’s no wonder so many lost souls found solace here—just look up. The Batcave’s eye-popping top floor certainly feels like a sanctuary. Light rain filters down from a collapsed ceiling, atomized to a sweeping mist. In a permanent puddle, arched reflections of the clerestory windows tremble. Pleated ceiling panels once muffled the hum and hiss of a mammoth industrial undertaking, but their effect is more visual now. Interweaving supports shimmer like the facets of a diamond as you move through the space—it’s a crustpunk kaleidoscope that constitutes one of the most spectacular abandoned sights in New York City.
For all the atmosphere of grime and decay, the Batcave gives an impression of a living space that, though not well kept, was certainly well loved. It isn’t difficult to imagine a time when this damp industrial shell was filled with warmth and welcome, or to imagine its occupants, in those first idyllic months, brimming with a sense of ownership and control, invulnerable to the pressures of parents and policemen.
The fate of the Batcave lies in the balance of Gowanus’ contentious transition from industrial wasteland to trendy residential neighborhood. Numerous plans have emerged for the development of the property, but the canal’s recent Superfund designation and an uncertain future for the game-changing Whole Foods development across the street has deterred potential investors from shelling out the millions necessary to renovate the structure and rehabilitate its environmentally hazardous grounds. Through an overgrown lot in the height of Spring, the dilapidated redbrick facade remains a sight to behold, concealing a sordid wonderland within, marking the spot where a youthful dream lived, and died.
-Will Ellis
UPDATE Nov 23, 2012: The Batcave property sold for $7 million to philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz. The building will be saved, and renovated into art studios and exhibition space. Read the New York Times article here.
Open Your Eye, Girl.
Ceiling of the Engine and Dynamo Room
A chair gives a sense of scale.
Some rooms are relatively undisturbed. Couldn’t resist lighting this candle holder, fashioned out of a beer can.
The residents are “Long Gone,” but it felt like someone could barge in at any moment.
Pallets remedy a flooded entrance to a large squat.
The markers of rebellion decorate a closet-sized residence.
Runes hidden in a jet-black hangout.
A Batcave Hallway
This Bear Jamboree figure was probably frightening long before it went to rot.
Detritus collects on a bedroom floor. Can you spot Buzz Lightyear?
Al Pacino watches over a squatter’s pad.
Hate, Fear, #1 Pizza Junky
A neighboring storage facility reflects its gawdy plastic siding into a Batcave nook, accenting some interiors with splashes of orange and blue.
An arched motif can be found throughout the building. Here, it’s painted in a ground floor nook.
A tree grows in Gowanus.
AbandonedNYC 
The building itself is beautiful – hope it can be saved. Those windows are stunning. The “decor’ is fascinating. Now it looks decayed and dangerous and dirty, but I wonder when those kids were there making it, how much magic it held for them.
As a young woman in the 70s, I lived for a couple of months in a SoHo squat that had something of that feel – at the time it felt warm and welcoming, but of course to and outsider it would have looked just as disturbing as this.
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Posted by g | 6-13-12., 10:10 amI’ve always been intrigued by the political messages scrawled across the top of the facade for the enlightenment of straphangers on the F and G trains.
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Posted by Katrink | 6-18-12., 4:15 pmfabulous pictures
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Posted by Vicki Day | 8-10-12., 1:47 pmBeautiful pictures, what camera/lens did you use?
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Posted by Mike | 8-11-12., 11:40 amThanks, Mike. I use a 5D Mark II with a 16-35mm f/2.8L.
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Posted by abandonednyc | 8-12-12., 9:41 amWhere is the Exact Location for this Spot? Please let me know, i really need it.
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Posted by usman | 6-23-13., 1:11 pmHow did you get in??? I circled it today and the only way seems to be by hopping the Verizon Fios fence…is that a new development? I didn’t see anything which resembled the grassy lawn in your pictures, which makes me think they’ve tightened security
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Posted by Hannah | 8-13-12., 11:51 pmYou have to walk along the shore from the 3rd Street drawbridge
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Posted by george d | 9-15-12., 4:18 amWhere is this place located
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Posted by Mawa Y Sackor | 10-19-18., 7:05 amI used to live there when there was mountains of garbage outside, before when we had the anti junkie law.
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Posted by ddd | 10-2-12., 6:49 amWhat’s the actual address?
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Posted by Rob | 11-3-12., 3:02 pmMe too. Hello old friend, the pictures seem unreal. Beautiful to look at, and remember so many good times. Saddening to see what was once our community space described as a nice place to “find a couple of bodies”.
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Posted by Shiloh | 12-4-12., 10:45 pmSHILOH!! Where are you??
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Posted by b | 9-25-13., 7:22 amhow to get there? what is the address? 🙂
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Posted by magda | 11-6-12., 5:41 pmgoogle maps will be helpful man
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Posted by carlos ranos | 9-27-16., 10:44 pmWell, at least the kids kept the place tidy. As of September 2012, this “community space” is owned by Joshua Rechnitz.
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Posted by Frank | 12-5-12., 10:18 amNice job! Been here recently; completely cleaned out. Shame, looks like I missed a lot. The graffiti still remains as of this post.
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Posted by Dan | 1-24-13., 6:03 pmI USE TO STAY HERE WITH ALOTA FREANDS BACK IN 2002, IT WAS VILLED WITH STUFF NOW ITS CLEAN …………… WE HAD ELECTRIC TO……..
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Posted by scott valentine | 3-7-13., 9:35 pmOh, the memories….we should do a Batcave reunion or something.
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Posted by Stormy | 5-1-13., 3:33 amyooo I know the security guard and i really wanta thro a party there sometime, hmu and we cud figure somethin out? Im also writin a book about the place and am trying to interview people who squatted there so ya hfrishberg@gmail.com
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Posted by Hannah Frishberg | 9-30-13., 10:32 pmThis place is sealed up like fort Knox with huge steel doors as of yesterday.
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Posted by dude | 5-6-13., 4:22 pmHeaven and Hell / Art and Pain / Here we go around again
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Posted by Pamela | 7-20-13., 11:14 amJust went to and its all blocked off and being demolished. theyre building a whole food there
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Posted by ryan | 10-15-13., 2:33 pmit would be interesting for a local newspaper to do a follow up with interviews from past residents and others from the area.
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Posted by Jack | 11-30-13., 7:16 pmI’m planning on using this in my World of Darkness game based in NYC. Thanks the great photos to break my writer’s block!
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Posted by shadowofthenet4 | 5-29-14., 6:56 amThere are many uses with the exercise equipment effectively, given that
the settings are adjustable. Your own phone trainer will
act as your personal coach, and keep you on track through your
routine. Don’t go to the table telling people you’re “eating healthy this holiday
season”.
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Posted by halovar.net | 2-7-15., 3:35 pmThis place is sealed up like Fort Knox with huge steel doors as of yesterday.
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Posted by Lady Ruth | 6-24-18., 6:21 am