25 October 2010

The Silk Mill

Silk Mill

photos by Tom b.

- 60s dress
- AA tights
- 30s oxfords
- vintage wool beret

c

Over the weekend we had the most amazing opportunity. You all know by now how much we enjoy exploring and photographing abandoned places, right? Well this was pretty much the ultimate in abandonment. The morning started out with us waking at dawn to hit the road, followed by a sunrise drive through Gettysburg. The drive alone was worth it as all the trees are at peak color and the mountains were gold and red. Just beautiful!

b

We arrived nearly four hours later to a large brick building in a tiny town where not much remains. The building was nothing special from the outisde... just simple brick with lots of the windows broken and part of the roof beginning to rot. But inside was a whole different story!

Silk Mill

After sitting outside and enjoying the morning sunshine for a bit, the owner showed up to accompany us into the building. As he was letting us in, he told a bit about the history of the place. It was built in 1907 and served as a silk mill for 50 years. Raw silk was brought here, washed, dyed and spun into silk thread. In 1957 the mill closed (and this is the best part) the doors were shut and everything was left exactly where it was! Nothing in the building has been touched or removed (except for the occasional unfortunate vandal) in over 5o years. It was like walking into a time capsule!

e

Not only was all of the machinery in place (complicated machines that I couldn't even begin to understand how they work) but there were still ladies' shoes in the lockers, evidence of lunches had on picnic tables, handwritten payroll records (minimum was was $.20 an hour!) and piles of raw silk waiting to be spun into thread. There were still calenders hanging in nearly every room, each turned to January 1957.

We wandered around the mill for hours, trying to take it all in and snapping lots of photos along the way. I couldn't resist the opportunity to turn it into a bit of a photoshoot, so expect more photos to come!

Silk Mill

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh these Pictures are amazing! And I adooore your dress. What a lovely collar. xx, Alice .)

Kaelyn Choo said...

Love your dress especially the lace collar.. Photos are amazingly gorgeous!

BaronessVonVintage said...

wow, what an unreal place! Sounds sort of eery that there were still lunch pails and unchanged calendars. GORGEOUS shoes and adore the collar on that dress!!

Loca por tu Ropa said...

Lovely dress and shoes...
Kisses from Madrid!

MarĂ­a

the girl in the bowler hat said...

The collar on your dress is simply gorgeous! And the place where you've taken the photographs seems very interesting.

xxxx

Casey Maura said...

Oh wow--what a neat place to visit and spend time exploring!! It sounds amazing from your descriptions and pictures!

♥ Casey | blog

Rosaspina Vintage said...

Your time capsule stories are always so charming. When you said all the calenders were turned to January 1957 I had shivers!!
This place is amazing, incredible, I'm so happy you're going to post more pictures from it!
Of course your outfit is adorable, that lace collar is so pretty.

Gigi said...

I can't believe everything was left as is! I wonder why the mill was shut down.

Kayla said...

Wow! What an oppurtunity! I would love to visit a place like that. It's like stepping back into 1957, and I love that bit about the calenders. What a magnificent piece of history frozen there for us. What an amazing experience!

Sarah said...

love your dress that collar is devine, I also had shivers when I read about the date part. I so wish there were place like this where I live. It looks wonderful.

Joie de Viv said...

What a fantastic photo op spot! You look fab as always! Love the beret (I can never figure out how to wear one of those).

xx Vivian @ http://diamondsandtulle.blogspot.com

Dakota said...

These are beautiful! I love the time capsule effect, with the lunch pails and calendars-- a little creepy, but so interesting. The lighting and atmosphere are just unreal, it's so perfect.

Sidewalk Chic said...

You always have the best luck finding these abandoned spots. This place is simply beautiful, and I love your outfit too.


JoAnn
Sidewalk Chalk

Julie said...

Gorgeous!!! Love your tattoo

Maria Casteel said...

this outfit is one of my very favorites of yours! those shoes and that dress are just perfect on you.

Rebecca said...

Oh my, you just kill me with these amazing abanonded sites you visit. Can't wait to see more photos. I seriously hope one or both of you publishes a book of these photos someday.

KristiMcMurry said...

How interesting! I would never have imagined something like that would remain untouched for so long. I bet that was such a surreal experience! Love the pictures.

A Little Brighter said...

How absolutely amazing! Too bad ahout those vandals, but atleast it is still looking wonderful! That dress, I'm pretty sure, is my dream dress!
What an amazing find!

Ayesha x

viv said...

Wow! I love the third photo of you.
And thank you for bringing to my attention that Parisian flat in the post before.

Anonymous said...

This place is incredible. It makes me want to explore so badly!

▲ WOLF WHISTLE ▲

Velvet said...

Wow! Very interesting short trip. Abandoned places have a curious and magic touch that can be attractive.

Mei-li said...

those pictures are so good I love the place i'am always amazed to see all the places you found !

Lexie said...

it's so nice you get to discover places like this with someone you love!

Aurora said...

is your dress brown or a darker color, like a red/burgundy? regardless, i love the way the dark colored dress looks next to the black tights. well done, as always.

Bronzed Humanity said...

Beatiful photos love them!!!! Amazing place to take photos, your outfit is looking great also!
xx
http://hotpinkday.blogspot.com/

Jenni said...

I love your dress, especially the collar, and these pictures are fantastic! There's so much history in the northeast.

Sea Bird said...

Oh wow, these photos are so amazing! I love old buildings and it looks like you really hit the motherload with this one! I would have probably spent hours in there also. Looks like quite an experience.

Katie said...

What an amazing experience!

Meggstatus said...

This is my dream, seriously. What an amazing discovery and to experience all of that history must have been absolute incredible. Not to mention that your dress is brilliant!

Lans Pudernice said...

Amazing place, great pics and beautiful dress!

Anonymous said...

I'm swooning over these photos! amazing!! love the collar of your dress ^.^

callie said...

Oh my goodness, that is so incredible!! What an amazing thing. These pictures are just awesome.

Tieka, Selective Potential said...

This is absolutely AMAZING. The photos turned out incredible and the story behind it is just wonderful. I'd love to explore a place like this!

ashleyn said...

What beautiful photos. That place is absolutely a gem! Your dress with the simple lace is breathtaking!

Julia said...

Sounds entrancing. There was an abandoned amusement park called The Land of Oz in the mountains near my hometown, and visiting always gave me such a wonderful feeling of having stepped into a bygone world. Everything was perfect -- just empty. So strange. You look lovely in the dress.

xo

Unknown said...

I came from an area (Burlington, NC) with lots of cotton spinning mills - many of which were still intact until the late 90's. There are probably still a few. This was a great photoshoot and thank you for peering into the past for us - the shoes in the lockers really did give me shivers! My family ancestors all worked in the cotton mills at one time or the other or the hosiery mills - must've looked a lot like the silk mill.

denise
thelittlefurstudio.blogspot.com