When it comes to documenting the fascinating forgotten buildings across America's Deep South, Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast is something of an expert. Preserving the past through his incredible photographs, his work shines a light on the region's tumbledown treasures. Out now, Leland's latest book Abandoned Alabama: Exploring the Heart of Dixie tours the Cotton State's most incredible derelict buildings. Click or scroll on for a preview of nine structures featured in his new release...

Kent has stumbled upon more than his fair share of crumbling abandoned mansions. Among the highlights is this brick beauty that was built in 1899 for State Senator Robert H. Moulthrop, who is best remembered for penning Alabama's Equal Education Bill. A hybrid of fancy Imperial Revival and Queen Anne styles, the turreted five-bedroom home is an absolute gem despite its tumbledown state.

Exploring the interior isn't for the faint of heart. Swathes of the roof have come down in the parlour, while the rest looks like it could cave in at any moment. Piles of debris litter the floor and what was no doubt once an attractive fireplace is now nothing more than a disintegrating hole in the wall.

The bathroom may still have most of its tiles, but the wall has buckled in parts – the manse's interior walls aren't made of robust brick like the external ones – and it too is swamped with debris. There's even what appears to be a huge hole in the floor. The once-grand estate actually stayed in the Moulthrop family until the 1980s when it was sold to a developer who let it go to rot.

Fortunately, the future looks bright for the Victorian pile. In June 2020, the manse and its grounds were snapped up by an LLC Group that includes descendants of Senator Moulthrop and the property is now undergoing an extensive renovation. The group planned to complete the project by Thanksgiving 2021 but building work has presumably stalled due to COVID-19. Here's hoping it's done in time for the next holiday.

This mid-century masterpiece in Birmingham was designed in 1960 by the influential John Randal McDonald. The colourful character described himself as “an architect with a capital A” and the “poor man's Wright” since his work resembles that of Frank Lloyd Wright but was considerably more accessible. Despite this, McDonald went on to create homes for a roster of famous names, including Bjorn Borg, Perry Como, James Garner and Maureen O'Hara.

Abandoned after its original owner passed away, the 1,500-square-foot property had been unoccupied for many years when Kent paid it a visit. As you can see, the house was in a bedraggled state but its key features had survived, including the living area's sunken hearth fireplace.

There was also a 1960s Chevrolet Corvair rusting over in the backyard. Fast-forward to the present day and the architecturally important house has been fully restored. The property was purchased by a group of investors last year, who didn't waste any time fixing it up and putting it on the market for $225,000 (£166k). In the grounds, the pool was filled in and laid to lawn, but the whereabouts of the Chevy are sadly unknown.

Alabama has a troubled history of racial injustice – even the nickname Dixie is problematic with its connotations of slavery and the oppression of the Black community. This is reflected in many of the state's abandoned buildings, including the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane's infamous Jemison Center in Tuscaloosa, which is now a derelict shell following years of neglect and vandalism. A hotbed of paranormal activity, it's said to be the most haunted place for miles around.

The furore came to a head in 1970 when a journalist from the local newspaper visited the institution and reported on the appalling conditions patients were having to endure. Toilets and walls were covered in excrement and urine soaked the floors. Many lacked beds and 131 male patients were found to be sharing just one shower.

At the time, a lawsuit had been filed against the equally scandalous Bryce Hospital and in 1971 it was widened to include the Jemison Center. The resulting landmark judgement set minimum standards for the care of people with mental illnesses and led to the long overdue closure of the facility in 1977. A painful reminder of Alabama's racist past, it has lain empty ever since.

The Outlaw House in rural Mobile County was designed by celebrated architect George Bigelow Rogers and completed in 1914. Not just any old house, the elegant manse was considered one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in Alabama and ranks among the grandest period homes built in the state in the 20th century.

Outlaw acquired the property in 1925, purportedly after winning it in a poker game. Ingeniously, he went on to build a dam across a spring on the 120 acres of grounds, which created a lake and provided the manse with electricity. In fact, the Outlaw House was the first in the area to have electricity and a telephone, and it's even said to have had a secret tunnel. Outlaw could certainly afford the latest mod cons, having co-founded the popular Morrison's Cafeteria chain.

The house passed to Outlaw's youngest son Arthur, who lived there until the mid-1980s – as the serving mayor of Mobile, he was obliged to move within the city limits. The Outlaw family continued to own the property but it was left to wrack and ruin. Sadly, disaster struck in July 2021 when the house was gutted by a devastating fire that is yet to be explained, and its charred remains were demolished in December.

Located on the site of a former plantation, this now-overgrown house was built in 1915 by an Atlanta-based architect for a wealthy Alabama family. A captivating example of the American Craftsman style, the rustic property was designed to blend in with the landscape, so it's rather fitting that nature is reclaiming it. 

While awash with debris and personal belongings, the interior seems structurally sound, with much of the damage appearing to be purely cosmetic. Note the grand staircase. Along with rest of the house, it was admired for its sophisticated design. One of neighbours even purportedly went as far as to rip out their existing staircase and replace it with a copy of this Craftsman masterpiece.

It's thought the house has sat vacant since then. In 2020, Kent reported that the property had been put on the market with an asking price of $500,000 ($369k) but the listing has since been removed. Hopefully, a deep-pocketed buyer with a fondness for Arts and Crafts architecture has bagged it and is restoring the house to its former glory.

As well as exploring and photographing abandoned heritage buildings with heaps of architectural merit, Kent is partial to Alabama's discarded commercial buildings too, which can be just as interesting. Cue Montgomery's Governor's House Hotel, which was something of a local institution in its heyday.

Built in the 1960s, it boasted 197 plush guest rooms and a whole host of luxurious amenities, from a cavernous banqueting hall to a golf course and the gourmet Rotunda Restaurant and Filibuster Lounge. With so much to offer, the hotel fast established itself as one of Alabama's top convention centres.

Now looking worse for wear, the circular restaurant and lounge hosted an impressive number of VIPs over the years. Politicians regularly dined there – the hotel was also the most sought-after venue in town for election night parties – and the A-list Hollywood stars staying at the hotel would almost certainly have eaten in this room. 

According to Leland, the list of celebrity guests is said to include actor Whoopi Goldberg, who checked in while filming the 1990 movie The Long Walk Home in Montgomery. But the good times didn't last. The hotel began to look tired and some of the amenities that made it such a draw like the golf course were axed. Having gone down in the world, the hotel was rebranded as economy class.

The building did retain some of its wow-factor features, including the pool shaped like the state of Alabama. But it was a shadow of its former self by the late 1990s when competition from newly opened hotels downtown started to kill the business. The Governor's House Hotel was reportedly put up for auction in the early 2010s. Since then, the building, which is now claimed by the State of Alabama through a tax lien, has been hit by numerous fires and now stands derelict.

Dating back to the 1890s, this late Victorian stunner in Tuskegee is a mash-up of two architectural styles – Queen Anne and early Greek Revival. Also known as the Drakeford House, it was built by John Drakeford, the founder and president of the City Bank of Tuskegee, who according to Kent, commissioned the manse as a wedding gift for his wife.

The house certainly has a fairytale feel with its whimsical turret and the wonderful sweeping staircase that graces the entrance hall. Though it's devoid of decoration and isn't spotlessly clean, the space appears to be in decent condition with the walls and plasterwork intact, as well as the hardwood flooring.

In exchange for restoring the house, the university could use it as a learning centre for historic preservation. The educational establishment jumped at the chance and is working with several historic preservation organisations to restore the historic house, though the pandemic has massively slowed the project.

One of the more curious abandoned buildings Kent has encountered is Montgomery's Capital City Laundry. Founded at the turn of the 20th century, the venerable business was given a snazzy makeover in 1959 and by 1970 the firm had 11 locations across Montgomery.

The supersized laundromat's downfall came in 1993 when construction crews working on a site nearby discovered that a staggering 50 blocks of downtown Montgomery were heavily contaminated with cancer-causing toxins, including the key component in dry cleaning fluid. For obvious reasons, multiple laundries and gas stations in the area were reportedly identified as possible sources.

Along with other local businesses, the laundromat was forced to close down after almost a century in operation. Since the clothing was presumably contaminated, it was left behind, and the time-warp building is now a sort of twisted museum of fashion from the 1990s and before, somewhere a vintage fan would have a field day if only the apparel wasn't so toxic.

Located in Birmingham, this ranch-style Bessemer brick home was built in 1963 for steel magnate Norris Underwood and his wife Mildred. A time capsule of the era, the quirky house is packed with kitsch mid-century touches and plenty of jaw-dropping surprises that make it a real one-of-a-kind property. 

The couple went all out creating their dream home, splurging on all manner of custom features such as this Art Deco shelving unit and stone surround, which doubles up as a room divider. To the left of the shot, you can just about make out the bespoke kitchen with its old-fashioned dark wood units.

As well as a secret passageway, the property hides three acres of exquisite Japanese-style gardens. Norris Underwood died in 2006 and his wife passed away six years later. Their daughter inherited the house but left it vacant as she struggled to find a buyer. After falling into foreclosure, the house finally sold in April 2020 for $255,000 (£188k) to a buyer keen to renovate it.

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