Tag Archives: Phoenix Trotting Park

This is part three of a series exploring Phoenix Trotter Park. If you are just finding this series for the first time, I suggest you click here to start from the beginning. Also, be sure to check my wife’s site for some more awesome photos.

Thank you my friends for following this series of posts about Phoenix Trotting Park. This unique and magnificent building has absolutely captured my imagination and left me with nothing but awe. Today is the final installment in this series. I do have several more images from this place which I will certainly sprinkle in from time to time. For now, it’s time to have a little closure and move on.

If opportunity and chance allow, I plan on revisiting this park again in the future. I felt when I was there that I had such a limited amount of time and I was constantly looking over my shoulder and listening for sounds that we had been discovered. Every sudden noise of a bird taking flight left my heart pounding; every click of my camera’s shutter sounded like an explosion. Having the chance to explore and photograph this place has truly been a pleasure and I hope you have enjoyed this series as much I have. And now, the conclusion…

Out With a Bang

Built in 1964, in use from 1965 – 1966, Phoenix Trotting Park was to lay dormant and abandoned for nearly 30 years before proving itself useful once again. In 1998, the Park was selected to be used in the film “No Code of Conduct” starring Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen, and a plethora of other bad actors. Having sat through some of the film itself, I can say that it is nothing short of horrendous (what else would you expect from Charlie Sheen). I was disappointed with how they shot the scenes from the Trotting Park, perhaps because I was hoping to get a sense of what the park had looked like once upon a time. The park was set to be used for a huge series of explosions during the climax of the movie – have a look:

(Please reload the page if the video does not display)

In one of the other scenes, an explosion was set off that ran right down this escalator. You can plainly see the destruction is caused to this particular area – what at one time was a spectacular atrium has been reduced to nothing but rubble.

The scene in the movie certainly explains the lack of drywall throughout the park. As you can see in the left of this image, all that’s left of the walls is a series of steel studs running from floor to ceiling.

In an area that should be lined with people placing their bets and perhaps purchasing something tasty from the concession stands, we see only emptiness. I have, so far, been unable to find any images of what the park looked like when it was first built and running.

This final image really says it all. The sad story is now told, the curtains ready to close. Perhaps you, like myself, have been left with a sense of emptiness and sadness. We have together explored a place which was once a futuristic marvel of architecture; a place where the affluent would mingle and the desperate would see their hopes either fly or sink. A place which was once filled with dreams, hopes and ambition, but which now lies emotionless – nothing more than shadows, and dust…

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikkor 18-105mm
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust