In the southeastern part of Atlanta, Georgia, there hides an abandoned prison farm with a storied history. The decaying buildings are a creepy collection of ruins adorned with graffiti that spans from dark and thought-provoking to absurd and silly. Originally named the Honor Farm, The Atlanta Prison Farm was once the site of a Civil War battle.

Kudzu vines are reclaiming much of this site, which is now a strange juxtaposition of decaying history and urban art.
Scott Walker/Google Maps
Starting as an experiment in 1917, non-violent offenders were brought here when it was open fields and a few houses. Part of their labor was to build these prison buildings. Those who became unruly were sent back to the penitentiary.
Zlatko Unger/Flickr
By 1935, 150 prisoners were working on the farms growing crops and raising animals to feed themselves and the penitentiary. The prison farm had its own slaughterhouse for making pork products.
Robin Shreeve/Google Maps
This was to be a rehabilitative camp where prisoners who served their sentences could use their farming skills to get jobs. After the 1950s, the history is unclear. This is the mess hall where prisoners ate what they farmed.
Zlatko Unger/Flickr

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As more prisoners arrived, cells like these were needed. Perhaps it's a saving grace that they didn't have to spend too much time in these cramped quarters.
Scott Walker/Google Maps
The hall of the cell block must have been foreboding when in use, and is now as scary as any horror movie.
Scott Walker/Google Maps
The buildings started to fall into disrepair in the 1970s and eventually disuse in the 1990s. In 1968, 400 prisoners staged a strike, demanding that chronic alcoholics be removed from the farm.
Mike Boening Photography/Flickr
In more recent years, the prison farm site was used as storage by the penitentiary. Inmate property envelopes are scattered about, their contents looted, leaving us to wonder what became of these prisoners and what their stories were.
MFer Photography

Trespassing on this property is illegal and heavily prosecuted, not to mention dangerous. A fire broke out in 2009 and the fire department decided to let the fire burn itself out. There has been some talk to turn it into a 500-acre park, however, the city and the county have yet to reach an agreement as to what to do with the site, if anything. We love sharing mysterious abandoned places. Be sure to check out these haunting places. We’ve also created a ghost town road trip to see all sorts of abandoned places in Georgia.

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