Menard prison, in Chester, Illinois. Down in Chester, Illinois, right next to the river - is this rather ancient looking, somewhat gothic building, with rather impressive stonework - that is the Menard Correctional Center. Even though it looks cool with it's striking image - it probably is not a very nice place to call your 'home,' - ie - having 'Buster' or 'Rocko' as your roommates may not be the best idea for having nice family time together. Bob, being perhaps more intelligent than I, when I told him I wanted some shots of this building for my Flickr photoset here - he parked about a half mile away - and told me - 'That's as far as I'm going to go near that, you're on your own here.' I didn't see any signs warning to stay away, and that was a public road going past it - so I ventured right in front of it to take this shot. Though, it did cross my mind that as I parked my bike out front and removed my camera from it's bag to snap this shot - that the guard up in the tower probably had his machine gun trained upon me! Even though it was a really cool shot, now sitting here at home looking at this photo - perhaps it wasn't the best idea to get that close to the place because the guards may have thought I was going to do a jail break or something. But, as I was there, this one guard was walking to his car, and I did politely ask if it was OK to take this shot - and he said 'OK, but cameras aren't allowed inside. I told him I had no intentions of going inside, just wanted a few outside shots and I'd be on my way.

Menard, Texas
1931 --- Brick & Concrete