Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center is a Los Angeles County hospital--one of the best in the United States.  Before that, it was a County poor farm, where depression-struck residents cultivated gardens to feed themselves.

Rancho Los Amigos’ working facilities are situated on the north side of Imperial Highway in Downey, close to the Long Beach Freeway. 

South of Imperial Highway, old, abandoned hospital and poor farm buildings languish.  Once a place where many of the nation's most innovative developments in the treatment of polio occurred, the buildings are now being vandalized. Homeless people find their way into darkened rooms. Graffiti is everywhere.

Waiting at Rancho offers glimpses of these old buildings in a transitional moment.  In the near future, some will be demolished. Some will be restored. They are slated for other public and commercial uses. 

Meanwhile, they are waiting for their new life.

The following images have been selected from Waiting at Rancho (John Orr, Blurb.com, 2007).